THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The second time around in 5A IEL football

"Now the games count," Coeur d'Alene football coach Shawn Amos said last Friday night, after his Vikings thrashed Post Falls 48-7 in a nonleague game between 5A Inland Empire League rivals at Viking Field.

Because Washington pushed its high school football season to next spring due to COVID-19, North Idaho teams — particularly Coeur d'Alene, were left with gaping holes in their nonleague schedules. The Vikings had four games slated vs. Washington schools, and a fifth vs. a team from Alaska.

So the IEL, which consists of 4A and 5A schools, decided to play each other twice when it worked out, with the first game not counting in the league standings.

It was either that, or not play at all. And after losing last year's spring sports season to the coronavirus, that was not an option.

ANYWAY, in the games that didn't count/sorta counted/did count because all games count, Coeur d'Alene went 2-0 against the other 5A IEL teams, Post Falls 2-1, Lewiston 1-1 and Lake City 0-3.

Coeur d'Alene (4-0) did not hook up with Lewiston in nonleague play, but the Vikings will head south on Friday to face the Bengals (3-3) in the league opener.

In the other league opener, Post Falls (3-2) visits Lake City (2-4).

Post Falls beat Lewiston (27-26) and Lake City (34-13) in nonleague play, before getting thumped by Coeur d'Alene.

"Yes, we’ve played Lewiston once, and we’ve played Lake City once," Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. "But it’s tough to beat a team twice, and so we’ve got to play a lot better."

And the Trojans have to play better than they did against Coeur d'Alene, which scored the game's last 41 points last week.

"We’ve got to learn from this, we’ve got to get better, and certainly we’ve got to play better this Friday night, because we want to make a run in this league," Bennett said.

Coeur d'Alene has outscored its four opponents 191-27. After the first three games, Amos said basically the same thing — good, but we can do better. He called last week's win over Post Falls “the most complete game we’ve played this year."

If that's the case, good thing for the rest of the league that the second-place team also qualifies for the playoffs, and the third-place team could be considered for one of two at-large berths in the 12-team playoff.

Because at this rate, we have a pretty good idea who the No. 1 team out of the 5A IEL is going to be.

"If we keep going, we have a chance to be a pretty good football team down the road, I think," Amos said.

OTHER STUFF: In volleyball, if Coeur d'Alene (8-2, 3-1 5A IEL) and Post Falls 13-2, 4-1) finish tied for first in league, Coeur d'Alene would be the top seed to regionals because of a tiebreaker. But the Vikings have some work to do, particularly tonight when they play at Lake City (5-3, 2-3), a team they swept at home three weeks ago. Coeur d'Alene finishes league play next Tuesday at Lewiston, which is winless in league. Post Falls is home vs. Lewiston tonight to wrap up league and regular season play. Regionals start Oct. 17, with the higher seed hosting. ... Seems like we just started the fall sports season, and the first state-qualifying event is upon us. The 5A Region 1 boys and girls soccer tournaments start Saturday. On the boys side, it's No. 4 Lewiston at No. 1 Lake City, and No. 3 Coeur d'Alene at No. 2 Post Falls. Lake City, Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene tied for the league title with 3-1-2 records, and Lake City earned the top seed (by one goal) in a goal-differential tiebreaker between the three teams. On the girls side, it's No. 4 Post Falls at No. 1 Coeur d'Alene, and No. 3 Lewiston at No. 2 Lake City. Coeur d'Alene won the league for the first time since 2009, which was also the last year the Vikings won the regional tourney.

LIAM PADDACK, a lanky left-handed pitcher for Coeur d'Alene High and the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen American Legion baseball team, recently was invited to pitch in Medford, Ore., at the 2020 Northwest Championship, a showcase tournament which attracted 10 teams from Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Following his performance there Paddack, a senior, verbally committed to play at Community Colleges of Spokane beginning fall 2021. A total of eight colleges expressed interest in Paddack.

Following the event in Medford, Baseball Northwest selected a team to represent the Northwest at the Arizona Fall Classic. Paddack will be pitching this weekend at the Mariners/Padres spring training facility in Peoria, Ariz., in front of Division I college coaches and pro scouts from all over the country.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.