Vikings' next step: Victory

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — In a game decided by big plays, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings made them and the Sandpoint Bulldogs didn’t, and as a result, the Vikings are finally in the win column and the Bulldogs are still looking for their first victory.

With a chance to take the lead early in the fourth quarter, Sandpoint couldn’t punch it in on first and goal from the 2. Coeur d’Alene then answered with a 96-yard touchdown drive to clinch a 27-15 nonleague victory Friday night at Viking Stadium.

“Every week we’ve taken a step, and that’s all we can ask, and they took a step tonight,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “Sandpoint’s a really good football team, they’re going to win a lot of football games. I was proud of the battle. We’ve still got a long ways to go; we’ve got a bye week to get back to work; we have to keep getting better.”

Sandpoint (0-2) took the opening kickoff and went on a 17-play drive that stalled at the Coeur d’Alene 11 — then the Bulldogs missed a 28-yard field goal.

Sandpoint’s next drive ended in an interception by Colton Farrar of Coeur d’Alene (1-2), returned to the Sandpoint 40. The Vikings scored nine plays later when quarterback Jamison Kizziar ran it in from a yard out for a 6-0 lead.

Sandpoint took the lead late in the half. Parker Pettit hit Hunter Garcia for 33 yards, then hit Max Frank for the final 22. Arie VanDenBerg ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-6 Bulldog lead with :39.2 seconds left in the half.

But Coeur d’Alene doesn’t run out the clock at the end of the half. Kizziar hit Caleb Short for 19 yards, Joe Kohal for 8 and Short again for 25. On second and 10 from the 13 and 6 seconds left, Kizziar connected with Maddix Maciosek in the end zone as the clock struck :00 for a 13-8 Viking lead at the half.

“I went to my offensive coordinator (Ron Nelson) and he said, ‘I think we’re just going to try to run it,’ but he liked the look and the coverage they were giving us, and so he let me sling it that first one and we got like 15,” said Kizziar, a junior who finished with 216 yards passing and three touchdowns. “And he just looked at me and nodded, and I knew we were going to go for it. Then he just called the right plays, and we scored.”

Coeur d’Alene increased its lead to 20-8 when Shea Robertson made a juggling catch of a Kizziar pass, a Sandpoint player missed the interception, and Robertson raced down the sideline to complete the 48-yard scoring play.

Sandpoint answered on Pettit’s 4-yard pass to Frank late in the third quarter.

In the fourth, a pair of 14-yard runs by Pettit put the ball at the Coeur d’Alene 2. The Vikings stuffed Sandpoint for a 2-yard loss, then held the Bulldogs to no gain. Pettit then threw two incomplete passes, pressured by Tanner Ackley, Aaron Ivankovich and Bear Brunner on his fourth-down throw.

Coeur d’Alene then marched 96 yards in 10 plays, Kizziar hitting Branson Whitby out of the backfield for 7 yards and the clinching score with 5:27 left.

The first two weeks were rough; you play teams like Rigby and Rocky, especially as young as we are, it was a learning curve for a lot of dudes,” Kizziar said. “But to get this win tonight, it means everything. I really think it’s going to spark our season … and we can take a good mindset into the playoffs this year.”

“They did a good job moving the ball; they did a good job moving the sticks when they needed to,” Sandpoint coach Ryan Knowles said of Coeur d’Alene. “I thought our defense played well, but in some critical situations we just bent a little bit. The two-minute drive right before the half was really costly.

“They (the Vikings) run a lot of tight stuff, and you get a lot of rubs and picks, guys get free, but I didn’t feel like we played the ball very well in the air defensively,” Knowles added. “And I don’t feel like we tackled very well. There were a lot of plays we came up empty-handed.”

Coeur d’Alene, which avoided its first 0-3 start since 1998, outgained Sandpoint 337-309.

“They were tough, they were physical, they stayed together,” Amos said. “Now we’ve got to execute better. I think we did better, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do in the execution phase … if we want to play at the end of November, we’ve got to get a lot better.”

Coeur d’Alene is idle next week, then plays at Lakeland on Sept. 16.

Sandpoint 0 8 7 0 — 15

Coeur d’Alene 0 13 7 7 — 27

Second quarter

Cd’A — Jameson Kizziar 1 run (kick blocked), 6:34

Spt — Max Frank 22 pass from Parker Pettit (Arie VanDenBerg run), :39

Cd’A — Maddix Maciosek 13 pass from Kizziar (Cooper Prohaska kick), :00

Third quarter

Cd’A — Shea Robertson 48 pass from Kizziar (Prohaska kick), 6:29

Spt — Frank 4 pass from Pettit (Jacob Gove kick), 2:26

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Branson Whitby 7 pass from Kizziar (Prohaska kick), 5:27

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Spt, Brewster 3-29, Pettit 12-64, Frank 5-31, Hughes 7-17, Haynes 1-6. Cd’A, Kizziar 12-42, Wheeler 7-21, Whitby 1-2, Maciosek 6-30, Short 1-26.

PASSING — Spt, Pettit 14-28-2-145. Cd’A, Kizziar 13-22-0-216.

RECEIVING — Spt, Brewster 3-29, Garcia 4-62, Frank 5-41, VanDenBerg 2-13. Cd’A, Kohal 2-14, Short 3-58, Maciosek 1-13, Whitby 3-36, Christ 1-9, Robertson 1-48, Wheeler 1-24, Erickson 1-14.