IDAHO SPRING FOOTBALL GAME: A North Idaho touch

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

MOSCOW — For the first time in a while, Idaho's spring football game had a bit of North Idaho flavor on Friday night.

Trent Elstad, the former Coeur d'Alene High standout, ran 1 yard for the game's first touchdown in the first half.

Then Tommy Hauser, from Post Falls High, caught a 21-yard pass from Gevani McCoy to the 2-yard line, setting up McCoy's game-winning 2-yard TD pass to Jordan Dwyer on the game's final play as the Offense beat the Defense 20-17 at the Kibbie Dome to conclude spring football practice.

"Tommy's my guy, man," said McCoy, the Jerry Rice Award winner last year as the top freshman in FCS. "He just works so hard, and he'll definitely be a big part of our team, and I hope he earns a scholarship soon."

Hauser played with the No. 1 offense, Elstad with the No. 2 offense. The 1s and 2s alternated drives.

Hauser caught three passes for 47 yards. Elstad, who originally signed with NAIA Carroll in Helena, Mont., ran four times for 16 yards, and caught one pass for 11 yards.

"Hauser's done a really good job," second-year Idaho coach Jason Eck said. "He's a guy we can count on. He's a second-string guy, but he's a guy you can count on when he goes with the first string to do what exactly what he's supposed to do, and execute. I thought that was a big play he had down the stretch. We weren't going live with the No. 1 offense, so who knows, if we were going live, that might have been a touchdown, that play he had at the end there. So I think he's had a really nice spring.

"Elstad's had a few injuries he's been battling," Eck said. "He's done a solid job. He's probably not a prime candidate for a ton of playing time right now; I think Hauser's set up to play a little bit more. But I hope he keeps working, and continues to get better."

The game pitted offense vs. defense, with the defense staked to a 17-0 lead at the start, and able to earn additional points. The offense had the ball for 11 drives — six quarterbacked by McCoy, five by freshman Jack Layne, who started one game last year.

For the most part, it was the No. 1 offense vs. the No. 1 defense, and the No. 2s vs. the No. 2s.

Ricardo Chavez kicked a field goal at the end of the first drive. Elstad scored on the fourth drive, after a pass from Layne to Trais Higgins down to the 1-yard line.

Chavez kicked a 37-yarder at the end of the fifth drive. Cameron Pope missed a field goal at the end of the sixth drive.

The offense did not score on the next four drives.

Near the end of the scrimmage, Eck gave the No. 1 offense the ball at the 25-yard line with 1 minute on the clock. After a slow start, McCoy hit Dwyer twice, the second one taking the offense down to the 23.

On the final play of the game, McCoy hit Dwyer on a fade to the right corner of the end zone, against tight coverage by Austin Ogletree.

"I think the offense did OK," said McCoy, who was 21 of 30 for 251 yards. "I don't think the offense did as good as we should have."

"I think it was a good showing, especially with a couple of guys hitting the portal," junior cornerback Marcus Harris said. "I think we were able to come together as a defense."

Star wideout Hayden Hatten caught nine passes for 98 yards. Layne was 10 of 19 for 134 yards.

"Glad we got out of spring relatively healthy, which was probably our No. 1 priority tonight," Eck said. "The No. 1 defense played well; they had a lot of stops. We eliminated some guys, rep-wise, down the stretch, so the No. 1s had a nice drive at the end, but it was really against the No. 2 defense."

RUSHING — Woods 15-38, Elstad 4-16, Romano 9-8, Layne 1-18, McCoy 3-(minus 12), Kincheloe 1-0.

PASSING — McCoy 21-30-0-251, Layne 10-19-0-134.

RECEIVING — Jackson 3-46, Romano 3-36, Woods 1-2, Hauser 3-47, Hatten 9-98, Elstad 1-11, Grable 2-36, Bogan 2-12, Dwyer 3-53, Cox 1-17, Higgins 1-22, Schuster 1-5.

SACKS — Krotzer 1, Shannon 1.