PREP BOYS SOCCER: Gilmor catches break, but no breather

POST FALLS — Trailing, and with the season in the balance on Saturday, Post Falls junior Lance Gilmor looked to coach Gabe Lawson with a simple request.

“He’d asked me for a sub with 12 minutes to go,” Lawson said. “He wanted a breather. I told him if it’s for a breather, I can’t and am not taking you off the field. And we told him he had to find his next level."

As it turned out, Gilmor did at the right time, connecting off a corner kick from Caleb Calkins in the 78th minute to give the Trojans the lead for good in a 2-1 win over the Coeur d'Alene Vikings in a loser-out, 5A Region 1 semifinal match at Post Falls High.

"He got us dangerous a couple of times at the end," Lawson said. "Kudos to him for figuring out how to battle through that at the end of the game.”

Post Falls will play at Lake City in the regional championship game on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Lake City beat Lewiston 5-3 in the other regional semifinal.

Lake City, Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene tied for the 5A Inland Empire League title with 3-1-2 records. Through a goal-differential tiebreaker, Lake City was the top seed to regionals, Post Falls No. 2, Coeur d'Alene No. 3.

Coeur d'Alene sophomore Zak Wenglikowski scored in the 27th minute to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead. It was a lead they held until the 75th minute when Post Falls senior Aidan Junttila scored on a corner kick from Calkins.

“There’s 12 seniors on this team, so the halftime talk was you’ve got to keep playing, or 40 minutes to never play again,” Lawson said. “And they took it to heart and they dominated the second half. It was evident that they wanted the goal, and they knew it was going to come.”

Post Falls (7-2-2) finished tied with Coeur d'Alene for the league title in 2019, but then was upset in the first match at regionals by Lake City.

“We felt last year, when it came down to the coin flip and the match here, the boys were mentally deflated,” Lawson said. “And we didn’t want to have a repeat of what happened here last year. And since most of these players remember very well what we went through last year, we just weren’t ready for it to be over.”

Coeur d'Alene, which won the 2019 state 5A consolation title, finishes 7-2-2.

“Today, we beat ourselves truly,” Coeur d’Alene coach Braden Ridgewell said. “We missed a couple of simple things, and our shots, if you’re 1 or 2 degrees off, it makes a difference. That’s soccer though. On one end, it’s beautiful and the other it’s heartbreaking. Today wasn’t our day.”

First half — 1, Cd’A, Zak Wenglikowski (unassisted), 27:00. Second half — 2, PF, Aiden Junttila (Caleb Calkins), 75:00. 3, PF, Lance Gilmor (Calkins), 78:00.

Shots on goal — Cd’A 7, PF 12.

Saves — Cd’A, Cooper Proctor 4; PF, Kael McGowan 1.

Lake City 5

Lewiston 3

COEUR d'ALENE — Bryce Allred scored an unassisted goal in the 65th minute to give the top-seeded Timberwolves the lead for good in a win over the Bengals in a loser-out, 5A Region 1 semifinal match at the Irma Anderl Soccer Complex.

Lake City took a 3-1 lead at halftime, but Lewiston answered with two goals in the first 12 minutes of the second half to tie the match at 3-3.

Lake City (8-1-3) hosts Post Falls in the regional championship game on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

Lewiston finishes 1-8.

First half — 1, LC, Noah Janzen (Kohrt Weber), 23:00. 2, Lew, Peja Steele (unassisted), 25:00. 3, LC, Bryce Allred (unassisted), 29:00. 4, LC, Weber (B. Allred), 39:00. Second half — 5, Lew, Kyson Bradon (unassisted), 41:00. 6, Lew, Biruk Miller (unassisted), 52:00. 7, LC, B. Allred (unassisted), 65:00. 8, LC, N. Janzen (B. Allred), 68:00.

Shots on goal — Lew 7, LC 10.

Saves — Lew, Nikko Vega 7; LC, Tyler Allred 4.

Orofino at Timberlake, noon;

Grangeville at St. Maries, 2.