Red hot Viks ... Coeur d'Alene romps past Lakeland

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Coeur d’Alene senior Shea Robertson knew his time in the game was running short.

So, what else is someone to do?

Robertson, who recovered a fumble on Lakeland’s third play from scrimmage, caught a 60-yard slant from junior backup quarterback Isaac Rook for a touchdown midway through the third quarter as the Vikings rolled past the visiting Lakeland Hawks 54-0 at Viking Field on Friday.

“The coach told me that it was my last drive of offense, so I said OK,” Robertson said. “I always know if we run that route, there’s a good chance I’m going to get the ball. So when I did, I just busted through and got to the end zone.”

Coeur d’Alene (3-1) forced four turnovers, three on fumbles in the first half en route to a 40-0 halftime lead.

“Collectively, we did a good job tonight as a group,” said Robertson, who has committed to Eastern Washington as a linebacker. “Everyone was making plays tonight. We had a little bit of a fire in us. We had that bye week and wanted to come in and not have a letdown and give the JV kids a chance to play.”

Coeur d’Alene limited Lakeland to 20 yards passing and 112 yards rushing.

“I was pretty proud of our kids, they performed really well,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “Lakeland, they played tough. They’ve had a lot of key injuries, but they came to play. It’s tough to play having that many injuries. But our kids did what they needed to do.”

Lakeland (3-2) fumbled on its opening play of the game, then again on its second play from scrimmage on its next possession.

“It was the total opposite of what we talked about all week,” Lakeland coach Mike Schroeder said. “As coaches, we thought we had the kids ready to play. And as coaches, we did not have the new kids ready to play that were backups and decent replacements from previous games. And it showed. And we failed to be prepared in the what-if section of what happens in football. You need to have an ancillary plan and backup plan, and we failed to do that.”

Sophomore Peyton Hillman, the team’s third-string quarterback, started for Lakeland after backup quarterback Jace Taylor was injured in the second half of last week’s 21-10 loss to East Valley in Rathdrum. Lakeland was also without starting tailback Lovie Weil with an ankle injury.

“This week felt like the first week of double days with so many guys in new positions,” Schroeder said. “Having a third quarterback in three weeks. I think we bought some time and got things clicking, then we reverted back to that first week of hell week install. We’re going to have to play attention to detail in practice this week.”

“Those two early turnovers in our zone, it helped us start with a lot of momentum,” Amos said. “The good thing is we kept going. All through the game, we just played hard tonight. A lot of those kids showed up and played hard.”

Senior Owen Harris had a 21-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to make it 21-0, then scored again on a 25-yard pass from sophomore Caden Symons in the second quarter to put Coeur d’Alene up 34-0 with 4:39 remaining in the first half.

“He’s a really good football player,” Amos said of Harris. “When he gets on the field, he makes some great things happen, and he’s a great kid as well.”

Symons, in his second start, threw for 132 yards and two touchdowns for Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene travels to Woodinville, Wash., on Thursday.

“It’s a short week, so we’d better get to work,” Amos said.

Next Friday, Lakeland travels to Post Falls.

Lakeland 0 0 0 0 — 0

Coeur d’Alene 21 19 14 0 — 54

First quarter

Cd’A — Kolbe Coey 10 pass from Caden Symons (Jayson Cady kick), 9:07

Cd’A — Carsen Speelman 10 run (Cady kick), 7:28

Cd’A — Owen Harris 21 run (Cady kick), 6:19

Second quarter

Cd’A — Kai Wheeler 13 pass from Symons (kick failed), 11:56

Cd’A — Harris 25 pass from Symons (Cady kick), 4:39

Cd’A — Brett Myers 22 pass from Symons (kick failed), 2:18

Third quarter

Cd’A — Shea Robertson 60 pass from Isaac Rook (Cady kick), 7:06

Cd’A — Coey 68 pass from Rook (Cady kick), 2:51

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — LL, Scott 1-0, Hobbs 21-65, Steward 2-0, Hillman 3-0, Sardinha 5-30, Saxe 3-7, Lund 2-7. Cd’A, Speelman 6-31, Harris 4-37, Symons 3-8, Wheeler 1-13, Myers 3-18, Rook 2-8, Paulin 4-12.

PASSING — LL, Hillman, 2-11-1-20, Reilly, 0-1-0-0. Cd’A, Symons, 10-17-1-132, Rook, 3-6-0-96.

RECEIVING — LL, Yager 1-13, Pluid 1-7. Cd’A, Coey 3-81, Speelman 2-18, Petree 1-8, Wheeler 2-32, Harris 2-39, Myers 2-28, Christ 1-5, Robertson 1-60, Williams 2-31.