Vikings take control ... Coeur d'Alene whips Post Falls, moves closer to 5A IEL title

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — Post Falls came into the game with gobs of points scored and rushing yards gained — as well as the trophy from last year’s league championship.

Coeur d’Alene basically looked at all that and essentially said, not this year, Trojans.

Coeur d’Alene shut down the Post Falls offense for much of the night, and the Vikings rode a 21-point second quarter to a 34-21 victory in what was a beatdown for much of the night, and gave the Vikings control of the 5A Inland Empire League football race.

“Super proud of these kids,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “From the end of last season to now, they’ve focused on getting back into the playoffs, and reestablishing themselves, and they played their butts off tonight in every aspect — offense, defense, special teams all did good things. That was a great team effort by a lot of people.”

Coeur d’Alene (6-2, 2-0 5A IEL) can wrap up the league title, the top seed to state from the North and a first-round bye in the playoffs with a victory over visiting Lewiston (4-4, 1-1) next Friday.

Post Falls (5-3, 1-1) plays host to Lake City (2-6, 0-2 next Thursday), where a win and a Coeur d’Alene win the following night would also put the Trojans in the playoffs.

Sophomore Caden Symons threw three touchdown passes as Coeur d’Alene built a 28-0 lead and kept Post Falls off the scoreboard until midway through the fourth quarter. The Vikings intercepted three passes, including a 30-yard pick-6 by Kolbe Coey with 3:05 left to ice it.

Coeur d’Alene held star Post Falls running back Tevin Burns to 51 yards on 27 carries. All told, the Trojans ran for 118 yards on 39 tries.

“They have one of the best offenses in the state,” Coeur d’Alene defensive lineman Camden DeGraw said, “and we just tried to show them our defense can shut down anybody. And our offense can produce too. They run a very fast tempo, so it was just a matter of keeping up with them … just stopping them and stopping them and stopping them. Everybody just did their job, and did it well, and it resulted in a shutout, until … ”

“They’ve got a good defensive front,” Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said of Coeur d’Alene. “They’ve got a couple guys that are pretty good, and they have a lot of movement. We weren’t getting really solid blocks on them, because of their athleticism … they’ve got a couple guys that are hard to block.”

Early on, it was a defensive battle. Post Falls moved the ball a bit, but couldn’t score. The Trojans outgained Coeur d’Alene 76 yards to 3 in the first quarter.

But the Vikings were winning the field position battle, and eventually broke the game open in the second quarter.

On fourth down and 11, Symons rolled right and hit Jamison Kizziar on the run for a 26-yard touchdown with 5:36 left in the half.

On the Vikings’ next drive, Tucker Booth zipped by the cornerback down the left sideline, and hauled in a 36-yard scoring toss from Symons.

Post Falls went three and out, and the Vikings took over on its 48 with :48 seconds left in the half. Carsen Speelman broke a couple of 18-yard runs, setting up Joe Hagel’s 5-yard run on a reverse for a 21-0 halftime lead.

“I thought our defense played well early,” Bennett said. “There were a couple times early in the first half I thought we could get some points on the board, and we didn’t, and they did. And then we gave them the ball back right before the half. 14-0 looks a little different than 21-0.”

Kai Wheeler had six catches for 59 yards for Coeur d’Alene, including a 9-yard TD grab late in the third quarter.

“Post Falls is a good football team; we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Amos said. “We kept counter punching, and counter punching, and they stayed the course. I think (in the second quarter) they just kept believing and didn’t panic. They just kept doing what we’ve been working on all week, and we were fortunate enough to make enough plays to make it happen.”

Alex Shields had nine receptions for 129 yards for Post Falls. Asher Bowie caught seven balls for 50 yards, including a leaping TD catch in the back of the end zone.

“This was definitely a big thing, because that game against Post Falls last year (a 21-6 loss) … it really sucked,” DeGraw said. “And coming from Post Falls, it means even more.”

Post Falls 0 0 0 21 — 21

Coeur d’Alene 0 21 7 6 — 34

Second quarter

Cd’A — Jamison Kizziar 26 pass from Caden Symons (Jayson Cady kick), 5:36

Cd’A — Tucker Booth 36 pass from Symons (Cady kick), 2:30

Cd’A — Joe Hagel 5 run (Cady kick), :13

Third quarter

Cd’A — Kai Wheeler 9 pass from Symons (Cady kick), 3:26

Fourth quarter

PF — Tevin Burns 1 run (Seth Martin kick), 6:26

PF — Asher Bowie 6 pass from Isaac McKeown (Martin kick), 5:15

Cd’A — Kolbe Coey 30 interception return (kick blocked), 3:05

PF — Cooper Craig 2 pass from McKeown (Martin kick), :27

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — PF, Burns 27-51, Clark 1-36, Burton 4-15, McKeown 4-11, Ostlund 3-5. Cd’A, Speelman 13-71, Harris 10-58, Hagel 1-5, Roop 3-(minus 7), Symons 2-(minus 16).

PASSING — PF, McKeown 21-42-3-208. Cd’A, Symons 16-28-0-155.

RECEIVING — PF, Shields 9-129, Bowie 7-50, Ostlund 3-28, Rutherford 1-2, Craig 1-2. Cd’A, Wheeler 6-59, Booth 3-40, Kizziar 2-37, Robertson 1-0, Williams 1-5, Speelman 1-0, Hagel 1-8, Petree 1-6.