Picking right up: Cady has two of Coeur d'Alene's three interceptions in win over recent Idaho power Rigby

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

COEUR d’ALENE — For the second year in a row, Jayson Cady of Coeur d’Alene High was a bit of a thorn in the side of the Flowers family from Rigby. 

On Friday night, Cady intercepted Trojans junior quarterback Jake Flowers twice as the Vikings beat Rigby 24-14 in the season opener for both teams at sometimes rainy, sometimes windy Viking Field. 

Last year in the opener, Cady had two picks of older brother Luke Flowers, now a freshman at Montana, in a Coeur d’Alene victory at the University of Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula. 

"We were ready for it. I love playing Rigby; it’s great competition,” said Cady, a senior. “It makes it feel like a state playoff game, because I know they’re a great team, and we might see them again, later in the season.” 

It was the third straight season Coeur d’Alene and Rigby have squared off in the opener, and the sixth meeting since 2018. The Vikings were picked No. 1 by the media in this year’s preseason poll; Rigby was picked in a tie for third. 

The Vikings were runners-up at state last year, the first time the Trojans did not play for the state title since 2018. Rigby has won three state titles during that stretch, including that memorable 57-56 double-overtime win over Coeur d’Alene in 2019 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. 

"When you play Rigby, you always know you’re going to be tested, and it’s going to be a great game,” said Shawn Amos, in his 28th season as Coeur d’Alene coach. “You’re going to learn a lot about your kids. Our penalties, we’ve got to clean that up if we want to have success down the road. But Rigby’s a great program; our kids never panicked. Good or bad, they just kept going. We like playing Rigby, and Rigby likes playing us.” 

On the first drive of the game, Kolby Coey muffed the hold on a 34-yard field goal try. But he alertly picked up the ball and sprinted 17 yards around left end for a 6-0 lead.  

“Thank God we have a really good athlete for a holder,” Amos said.  

Tucker Booth dashed 13 yards on a reverse on the first play of the second quarter, and a two-point conversion hiked the Viking lead to 14-0.  

Rigby, which managed one first down on its first two drives, pulled to within 14-7 when Flowers found running back Bryson Youngstrom down the middle for 25 yards and a score. That came one play after the Trojans converted a fourth-and-2 from their 48. 

With 14 seconds left in the half, no timeouts and the ball at the Viking 3, Rigby completed a short pass out in the right flat, but the throw took the running back down short of the goal line, and the clock ran out before the Trojans could run another play. 

“Probably not a good decision by me; we probably should have thrown it in the end zone quicker,” eighth-year Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez said. “Kids make mistakes, but I guess we do too.” 

In the third quarter, an apparent Rigby interception was wiped out by a roughing-the-passer penalty, and seven plays later, Viking junior Christian Young ran 17 yards to make it 21-7. 

“We made too many errors, and you can’t do that against a good football program,” Gonzalez said. “That’s why we like playing them early, because you find out where you’re at quickly. We’re a good football team, but we made too many mistakes. And we were just playing uphill in that first half.” 

Rigby ran for 99 of its 131 total rushing yards in the second half, including Amani Morel’s 6-yard run that closed it to 21-14 with 8:35 left. 

Cady also caught three passes for 31 yards, and kicked a 30-yard field goal with 4:50 left to give the Vikings a 10-point lead. 

His second pick came on the first play after the field goal. 

Caden Symons, who took over at quarterback for Coeur d’Alene two weeks after last year’s game against Rigby, passed for 204 yards. 

“The thing that was most impressive to me was, he’s gotten a lot smarter,” Amos said. “He threw the ball away when he was supposed to throw the ball away. That’s the growth of a quarterback ... I think you can see the maturity of his football IQ is growing.” 

Midway through the third quarter, the Vikings inserted sophomore Tanner Stern for a series at QB, and the son of former Lake City star Matt Stern completed 4 of 4 passes for 61 yards. 

"We’re going to try to play him for a series a game,” Amos said. “One of my pet peeves when my son (Gunnar) was playing in college was, he was the backup but they never gave him any game experience. Well, Stern’s one snap away from being our starting quarterback, so you’ve got to get him in this kind of battle, and he’s good enough to do it. And Caden is unselfish enough, he was cheering Tanner on.” 

Kai Wheeler had four catches for 90 yards for Coeur d’Alene, including deep plays of 40 and 32 yards, and he also had an interception. 

“We definitely have high expectations,” Cady said of this season. “(The media) said we’re No. 1 in the state, so we’ve got to keep showing it, keep winning.” 

“We’ve met in the end in the past,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe it will happen again.” 

Coeur d’Alene plays Shadow Ridge of Las Vegas next Friday as part of the Rocky Mountain Rumble at the ICCU Dome in Pocatello.

Rigby    0    7    0    7    —    14 

Coeur d’Alene    6    8    7    3    —    24 

First quarter 

Cd’A — Kolby Coey 17 run (kick blocked), 6:13 

Second quarter 

Cd’A — Tucker Booth 8 run (Kai Wheeler pass from Caden Symons), 11:55 

Rig — Bryson Youngstrom 25 pass from Jake Flowers (Joel Ricks kick), 7:00 

Third quarter  

Cd’A — Christian Young 17 run (Jayson Cady kick), 8:11 

Fourth quarter 

Rig — Amani Morel 6 run (Ricks kick), 8:35 

Cd’A — FG Cady 30, 4:50 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING — Rigby, Duenes 9-23, Morel 10-75, Flowers 8-31, Waldron 1-2. Cd’A, Young 10-23, Symons 2-11, Coey 1-17, Browning 11-37, Booth 1-8, Stern 2-5. 

PASSING — Rigby, Flowers 24-24-3-184. Cd’A, Symons 18-27-0-204, Stern 4-4-0-61. 

RECEIVING — Rigby, Thomas 3-53, Duenes 6-16, Morel 1-13, Farnsworth 2-3, Waldron 1-6, Youngstrom 5-44, Freeman 3-26, Golding 3-23. Cd’A, Booth 2-16, Williams 5-46, Young 2-12, Coey 2-9, Wheeler 4-90, Cady 3-31, Murray 2-26, Shoup 1-27, Sutich 1-8. 

    MARK NELKE/Press Kolbe Coey (3) of Coeur d'Alene, after picking up a muffed snap as the holder on a field goal attempt, beats a pair of Rigby defenders to the end zone to complete a 17-yard scoring play in the first quarter Friday night at Viking Field.