Coeur d'Alene wards off Lake City in turnover-filled, defensive struggle

By MARK NELKE

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — In a game which featured eight turnovers, a safety and zero offensive touchdowns, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings — thanks to Junus McGraw — managed to emerge with a 14-2 victory over the visiting Lake City Timberwolves in the 5A Inland Empire League football opener for both teams Saturday afternoon at Viking Field.

Shawn Amos, in his 26th year as Coeur d’Alene coach, and 28th year overall as a head coach, was asked afterward if he could remember ever winning a game before without his team scoring an offensive touchdown.

“I don’t know, but it’s not that much fun,” Amos said. “The only good thing is, it’s still a win. We’ll take it,1-0 in league, on to the next week. Lake City did a helluva job. We did not.”

McGraw returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown for Coeur d’Alene (4-3). Later in the first quarter, Viking quarterback Jamison Kizziar threw the ball away in the end zone while he was being tackled by Wayne Queen of Lake City (2-5), and was called for intentional grounding.

The unlikely score of 6-2 stood until early in the fourth quarter, when McGraw intercepted a pass thrown by Lake City quarterback Jackson Pettit under pressure and returned it 23 yards for a score.

“Obviously our defense did great,” Amos said. “We were a disaster otherwise. Thank goodness for Junus McGraw … he made a couple big-time plays. There’s a lot to be disappointed with, but in the end, the seniors won their last for-sure home game, and so we’ll just take the win and go back to work — we have a lot of work.”

McGraw said the hardest part of the kickoff return was trying to catch the ball with the sun in his eyes — usually not an issue as most high school games are played at night.

“But once I caught it, I saw such a big hole, but that’s because my blockers are great,” he said. “I hit the hole full speed, and all I had to do was beat their kicker.”

On the interception …

“They kept trying me,” McGraw said. “Their whole sideline was calling ‘mismatch’ and I just wanted to show them that I could change the game, that I’m better than what they think.”

Lake City committed five turnovers, including four interceptions, with Colton Farrar, Branson Whitby and Aaron Ivankovich also getting picks.

Coeur d’Alene had three turnovers. Garrett Leonard of Lake City intercepted two passes, returning the second all the way to the Viking 2-yard line. But with a chance to cut into the Vikings’ 14-2 lead, the Timberwolves couldn’t punch it in, getting stopped at the 1 on fourth down.

With the game hanging in the balance at 6-2 for more than two quarters, Lake City’s next eight drives went like this — interception, lost fumble, turnover on downs, punt, halftime, interception, punt, interception.

“We played our hearts out,” Lake City coach Brian Fulp said. “Our defense played an amazing game, gave up zero points … so our defense was incredible. Actually scored two points; they scored more than our offense. Offensively, we just made too many mistakes, too many mistakes to win that game. The opportunities were there, we just didn’t quite get it done.”

Offense was hard to come by in this game. Coeur d’Alene totaled 217 yards, Lake City 175. Kruz Wheeler ran for 77 yards for Coeur d’Alene, 58 on the final drive to run out the clock after the Vikings stopped the T-Wolves at the 1.

Justin Hill had five catches for 68 yards for Lake City, which suffered in the second half when two-way stud Zach Johnson hobbled off and missed a chunk of plays.

Next Friday, Lake City travels to Lewiston (5-2, 0-1 5A IEL), and Coeur d’Alene visits Post Falls (5-2, 1-0), which beat Lewiston 42-35 on Friday night.

“I’m disappointed because I think we’ve regressed the last couple of weeks, which is disappointing, and as coaches, we have to address why that is,” Amos said. “Our defense played great, but it’s a team game, and we’re not going to win too many games playing like that.”

Lake City 2 0 0 0 — 2

Coeur d’Alene 6 0 0 8 — 14

First quarter

Cd’A — Junus McGraw 90 kickoff return (run failed), 11:47

LC — Safety, 5:28

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — McGraw 23 interception return (Wheeler run), 9:26

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — LC, Johnson 11-48, Whitehead 6-5, Pettit 2-(minus 6), Ross 11-4, Cogley 1-(minus 2). Cd’A, Wheeler 15-77, Maciosek 5-7, Kizziar 7-(minus 1), Speelman 4-32.

PASSING — LC, Pettit 16-29-4-126. Cd’A, Kizziar 11-24-2-102.

RECEIVING — LC, Johnson 3-8, Hill 5-68, Ruggiero 2-16, Morris 1-10, Ross 3-18, Cogley 2-6. Cd’A, Brown 2-16, Robertson 2-23, Farrar 2-31, Short 3-7, Erickson 2-25.