PREP FOOTBALL: A turning opener for Vikings

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

MISSOULA, Mont. — To beat a good team, you have to avoid the costly mistakes.

And Coeur d’Alene did just that for the first half of Friday’s season opener against Rigby at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Then, the Vikings couldn’t avoid it anymore.

Coeur d’Alene turned the ball over four times, three in the second half of a 24-0 loss to the Trojans in the programs' first meeting since the 2019 state 5A championship game won by Rigby 57-56 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

With Rigby leading 10-0, Coeur d’Alene junior safety Nolan Christ intercepted a pass on the 25-yard line to stop a Rigby drive. Coeur d’Alene drove the length of the field, but turned the ball over on an interception with 15 seconds remaining in the half. With the game still within reach, Coeur d’Alene lost the ball on fumbles on three straight possessions in a six-minute span to close the third quarter.

“You’ve got to play really good football to beat a team like that,” Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “To have that many turnovers, and we’re just out of luck. We’ve just got to get a lot better.”

Coeur d’Alene forced two interceptions of Rigby junior quarterback Luke Flowers.

“It was a decent game until those turnovers in that span in the third,” Amos said. “It was a killer and you can’t do that against a good team, and obviously they’re a good team. And we can’t do that next week (at Rocky Mountain of Meridian), so we’ve got to learn a lot from that.”

Brady Packer caught a 70-yard touchdown pass from Flowers in the second quarter. The Trojans put it away on a 30-yard connection from Flowers to Kade Steffler with 7:16 remaining in the third.

“The only thing our kids have learned over the years is how to prepare,” Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez said. “It’s different because we’re faster than we’ve been in previous years. I told them I wanted to see guys flying around and having fun, and swarming to the football. We had a few miscues, but overall I’m very happy with our performance.”

“I thought we had flashes of doing good things,” Amos said. “We were pretty inconsistent obviously. But they didn’t panic and kept battling. It’s tough when you’re fairly used to winning, and you get it handed to you like that, we have to be able to handle adversity and stay together as a team.”

Coeur d’Alene had 11 different players catch a pass from junior quarterback Jamison Kizziar, who was making his first varsity start.

“We played a ton of kids and we’re going to get some great evaluation from this,” Amos said. “We’ll figure out who our guys are and start filtering from that.”

The temperature at kickoff on Friday was 96 degrees, down from the 100s during the JV and freshman games played between the two teams earlier in the day.

“I think if the defense got worn down, it was on us,” Amos said. “We’ve got to be able to sustain a few more drives and keep them off the field. Those quick turnovers, it made it hard on them. But we’ll watch the film and find the things that led to all of that.”

“What a great opportunity for our kids,” Gonzalez said of the game in Missoula. “It was a good day and we’ll be back next year as the home team. We want to play these types of teams. Shawn does a great job and we’ve had some battles. Those are the kinds of teams we need to play early to prepare us for the playoffs and the end of our season.”

Rigby 10 0 14 0 — 24

Coeur d’Alene 0 0 0 0 — 0

First quarter

Rigby — FG Ben Witherspoon 32, 6:16

Rigby — Brady Packer 70 pass from Luke Flowers (Witherspoon kick), 3:13

Third quarter

Rigby — Kade Steffler 30 pass from Flowers (Witherspoon kick), 7:16

Rigby — Mason Burgess 12 fumble return (Witherspoon kick), 1:23

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Rigby, Mikkola 14-38, Flowers 3-16, Klinger 10-37, Packer 2-10. Cd’A, Wheeler 7-38, Speelman 6-24, Kizziar 5-16, Hagel 1-0, Maciosek 1-11.

PASSING — Rigby, Flowers, 16-24-2-207. Cd’A, Kizziar, 13-23-1-86.

RECEIVING — Rigby, Falevai 1-3, Steffler 3-30, Klinger 1-4, Packer 5-120, Archibald 1-0, Larsen 4-28, Peck 2-30. Cd’A, Brown 2-24, Erickson 1-8, Robertson 2-14, Clute 1-12, Speelman 1-(10), Short 1-10, Whitby 1-12, Ackley 1-2, Petree 1-20, Hagel 1-0.