Lake City run over by Sandpoint

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — Lake City took the opening kickoff and put together an impressive drive, all on the ground, well into Sandpoint territory.

But the Timberwolves were stopped for a 1-yard loss on fourth and 1 from the Bulldogs’ 29.

And other than a few flickers of hope after that, it was pretty much Sandpoint’s night the rest of the way, as the Bulldogs ran over Lake City 51-13 on Friday night in the T-Wolves’ homecoming game.

"There’s three plays in that first half, if they go differently, it’s a much different game,” Lake City coach Brian Fulp said. “But they did not go our way.”

Zach Johnson scored both touchdowns for Lake City (2-4), including a high-stepping 22-yard run midway through the second quarter that cut Sandpoint’s (2-3) lead to 10-6.

Senior running back Jake Whitehead was impressive early, and finished with 74 yards on 14 carries.

“We had some untimely turnovers,” Fulp said. “They (the Bulldogs) played really well offensively.

They executed well, and we couldn’t really stop them. That’s kind of the story of the game.”

After opening their season with a couple of error-plagued efforts — albeit against some pretty good opponents — the Bulldogs have cleaned up their act of late.

Sandpoint scored its first six possessions, and all but one on the night, and looked nearly flawless in mowing over the Timberwolves for the Bulldogs’ first win at Lake City since 2002.

“We talk about it a lot — just the discipline factor,” Sandpoint coach Ryan Knowles said. “It’s everything. It’s how we eat our pregame meal. It’s how we take care of the locker room … we talk about that stuff constantly. I think earlier this year we were so excited to get out on the field that we forgot about the discipline thing. Trying to get them to understand — you don’t get anywhere without discipline. Much better tonight. We still have things to clean up, but winning that big is a huge statement.”

Sandpoint ran the ball 53 times for 291 yards, and Lake City couldn’t do much to slow the Bulldogs down.

Wide receiver/running back/do-it-all senior Max Frank rushed for 101 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries for Sandpoint, and caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Parker Pettit. Pettit added 80 yards on 14 carries, and Kody Brewster ran for 72 yards on 15 carries.

“It’s been four straight-up wars on our schedule — absolute battles,” Knowles said. “I feel like we have a good team, but when you’re sitting at 1-3, how do you justify it? We work hard; we build for the whole season — not the front end of the season but the back end … proud of them; they came out and made a decision to take care of all three phases tonight.”

And the only time Sandpoint didn’t score, the Bulldogs were knocking at the door, with third and 2 at the Lake City 4, when the snap from center was high, and Lake City’s Preston Demarre recovered at the 17.

But Weston Benefield made a juggling interception four plays later and returned it to the 15, and Frank ran it in from the 1 five plays later to make it 44-6.

Sandpoint outgained Lake City 397-257. Justin Hill had six catches for 65 yards for the T-Wolves.

Lake City plays at Coeur d’Alene next Saturday in the 5A Inland Empire League opener for both teams.

Sandpoint 3 20 14 14 — 51

Lake City 0 6 0 7 — 13

First quarter

Spt — FG 32 Luke Patek, :15

Second quarter

Spt — Max Frank 5 run (Patek kick), 9:29

LC — Zach Johnson 22 run (kick blocked), 5:53

Spt — Parker Pettit 17 run (kick failed), 2:55

Spt — Frank 17 pass from P. Pettit (Patek kick), :30

Third quarter

Spt — Max Frank 17 run (Patek kick), 7:34

Spt — P. Pettit 1 run (Patek kick), 2:32

Fourth quarter

Spt — Frank 1 run (Patek kick), 5:18

Spt — Kody Brewster 1 run (Patek kick), 4:03

LC — Johnson 55 pass from Jackson Pettit (Connor Jump kick), 1:58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Spt, Brewster 15-72, Hughes 7-30, Frank 14-101, P. Pettit 14-80, Balison 2-2, Garcia 1-6. LC, Whitehead 14-74, J. Pettit 3-(minus 20), Johnson 1-22, Cogley 1-30.

PASSING — Spt, P. Pettit 10-15-0-106. LC, J. Pettit 14-25-2-151.

RECEIVING — Spt, Hindberg 2-10, Frank 3-30, VanDenBerg 3-31, Brewster 1-39, Garcia 1-(minus 4). LC, Cogley 1-11, Hill 6-65, McMeekan 1-6, Whitehead 3-8, Johnson 3-51.