PREP ROUNDUP: Charter boys top St. Maries, to face Timberlake in district semifinals

SOCCER

3A DISTRICT 1-2

POST FALLS — Joe Nicklay is a freshman on the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy boys soccer team whose job is to come off the bench and give the Panthers’ forwards a breather.

On Monday, he did his job — and then some.

On his 15th birthday, to boot.

With Coeur d’Alene Charter leading 1-0, Nicklay scored midway through the second half, then the fourth-seeded Panthers scored again two minutes later en route to a 3-0 victory over the fifth-seeded St. Maries Lumberjacks in the loser-out first round of the 3A District 1-2 boys soccer tournament at The Fields at Real Life.

“I told him, give me five good minutes out there, let’s get a breather for our guys,” Charter coach Craig Daigle said. “Yeah, he just kept going, and extended his five minutes to 10, and 10 to a little bit more. That’s what you want to do when you get in there.

“It was pretty great.”

Coeur d’Alene Charter (7-4-4) will face top-seeded Timberlake (12-2-1) on Friday at 4 p.m. in a semifinal game.

St. Maries, which was hanging in there until that two-goal flurry in the second half, finishes 3-10-1.

“Unfortunate,” St. Maries coach Chris Renaldo said. “They worked hard. Charter’s a good team.

"We played well. We gave it our best shot, and that’s all you can ask for. They’ve learned a lot this year.”

In other boys games Monday, No. 3 Orofino beat No. 6 Priest River, and No. 2 Bonners Ferry downed No. 7 Grangeville. Orofino (7-4-2) and Bonners Ferry (14-2-1) will meet in the other semifinal Friday at 6 p.m.

Priest River finished 1-13-1, Grangeville 0-11-1.

In girls district games Monday, No. 4 Priest River beat No. 5 St. Maries on penalty kicks, and No. 3 Bonners Ferry downed No. 6 Grangeville 6-0. Priest River (3-8-1) will face top-seeded Coeur d’Alene Charter (14-0-0) in a semifinal game Friday at 4 p.m. Bonners (9-6-0) will play No. 2 Timberlake (9-5-1) on Friday at 6 in the other semi.

St. Maries finished 2-10-1, Grangeville 1-11-0.

Cd’A Charter 3, St. Maries 0: David Leahy of Charter scored in the 10th minute for Coeur d’Alene Charter.

Then the play was fairly even until midway through the second, when the Panthers took a throw-in and worked the ball from left to right across the field, and Tytan Reynolds sent a pass to the right of the goal to Nicklay, who beat St. Maries keeper Greyson Sands near post.

Two minutes later, Leahy scored again from out front.

“We talked at halftime, we were moving the ball around really well, we felt like we had a lot of good possession in the first half, we just weren’t finishing, which is kind of the story of our season,” Daigle said. “We kept with the mantra of, keep banging into the wall for the second half, and they’ll get through, and a couple lucky ones got through for us to give us some breathing room.

“That keeper (Sands, of St. Maries) is an amazing kid, made some stops that we normally see from our keeper (Miles Taylor). He was incredibly impressive; great, great player.”

Charter and Timberlake played to a 1-all tie at The Fields; Timberlake won 4-1 in Spirit Lake.

“It will be a daunting task for sure,” Daigle said. “They’re good at all levels. I’m just excited to get a full team on the field. This was the first game we’ve had a full team. We’ve had injuries, we’ve had vacations … we’ve had a lot of little nagging injuries that have had kids out of one or two games.”

First half — 1, Charter, David Leahy (Oskar Hepworth), 10:00. Second half — 2, Charter, Joe Nicklay (Tytan Reynolds), 57:00. 3, Charter, Leahy (unassisted), 59:00.

Shots on goal — SM 3, Charter 18.

Saves — SM, Greyson Sands 13; Charter, Miles Taylor 1.

4A REGION 1

BOYS

Moscow 5

Lakeland 1

MOSCOW — The Hawks tied it in the 19th minute, but the host Bears scored four second-half goals to pull away in the first round of the 4A Region 1 tournament.

Moscow (5-6-2) will play at top-seeded Sandpoint (10-0-3) on Wednesday for the regional title and the region’s lone berth to state.

Lakeland finished 2-11-0.

VOLLEYBALL

Clark Fork d.

Timberlake

SPIRIT LAKE — The host Tigers fell to the Wampus Cats 27-25, 25-12, 19-25, 25-18 in nonleague play.

Sophomore Maci Sandbank had 15 kills, 11 digs and two aces tor Timberlake (2-15). Jozee MacArthur had 27 assists, Makenna Olson 11 digs, Linley Howard two blocks.

Timberlake plays host to Bonners Ferry on Thursday.