Rocky Mountain Rumble: Vikings contain the run, roll past Shadow Ridge
POCATELLO — On Shadow Ridge’s first play from scrimmage, quarterback Ula Cox kept the ball, cut upfield and dashed 80 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 7 against Coeur d’Alene.
But the Viking defense clamped down on the Mustangs’ wing-T offense after that, keeping them from threatening to score the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, Coeur d’Alene’s offense pretty much hummed throughout in a 31-7 victory over the Mustangs of Las Vegas on Friday at the Rocky Mountain Rumble at the ICCU Dome.
“No adjustments,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “We actually just had a couple linebackers that were too aggressive and overran the play. It was just doing your job, and not taking the eye candy (after that.”
Caden Symons passed for 228 yards and four touchdowns for Coeur d’Alene (2-0). Kai Wheeler caught two of them, both in the first half, and Jayson Cady and Tucker Booth also had TD catches.
Also, Symons was adept at sidestepping Shadow Ridge (1-1) rushers to extend plays, and drew the Mustangs offsides several times with hard counts.
“They loaded the box, and with the receivers we have, we have some guys that can make plays out there,” Amos said.
Evan Williams had two big kickoff returns to set up Coeur d’Alene’s first two scores.
He returned the opening kickoff 46 yards to the Shadow Ridge 49, and Symons diced up the Mustangs defense with four completions in five attempts, the last a 22-yard slant-and-run to Wheeler, who broke a pair of tackles before scoring.
After Cox answered on the next play from scrimmage, Williams returned the next kickoff 60 yards to the Shadow Ridge 33. Four plays later, Symons connected with Wheeler on a fade route for a 7-yard score, and the Vikings led 14-7 just 3 minutes, 30 seconds into the game.
After that, Coeur d’Alene’s defense kept Shadow Ridge from many big plays, led by Ben Murray, Alex Brown, Parker Neff, Kolbe Coey, Cady, Wheeler and others.
Shadow Ridge, which rushed for 426 yards (and passed just once) last week, finished with 232 on the ground against the Vikings, with very few chunk plays after Cox’s opening run.
Shadow Ridge’s last eight drives after that first TD — turnover on downs, punt, punt, halftime, turnover on downs, lost fumble (recovered by Booth), turnover on downs, interception (by Dylan Sutich), punt.
Midway through the second quarter, Symons connected with Cady on a slant from the right. When the defender fell down, Cady raced untouched into the end zone for a 43-yard score and a 21-7 halftime lead.
Late in the third quarter, Booth recovered a fumble at the Shadow Ridge 26. He then caught back-to-back passes from Symons, the second a 14-yarder to make it 28-7.
Cox finished with 117 yards on 20 carries, but just 37 yards on his last 19 carries. Shadow Ridge had only two other runs of more than 10 yards.
Coeur d’Alene travels to Lewiston next Friday.
Shadow Ridge 7 0 0 0 — 7
Coeur d’Alene 14 7 7 3 — 31
First quarter
Cd’A — Kai Wheeler 22 pass from Caden Symons (Jayson Cady kick), 10:21
SR — Ula Cox 80 run (Devin Curtis kick), 10:08
Cd’A — Wheeler 7 pass from Symons (Cady), 8:30
Second quarter
Cd’A — Cady 43 pass from Symons (Cady kick), 5:10
Third quarter
Cd’A — Tucker Booth 14 pass from Symons (Cady kick), 1:28
Fourth quarter
Cd’A — FG Anthony Browning 24, 3:19
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — SR, Cox 20-117, Velasquez 8-28, Ruiz 6-44, Carmel 1-8, Young 6-17, Craven 5-14, Ledingham 1-4. Cd’A, Browning 3-18, Young 8-26, Symons 1-4, Stern 2-(minus 10).
PASSING — SR, Cox 2-7-1-24, Crnkovic 2-2-0-2. Cd’A, Symons 18-30-0-228.
RECEIVING — Darr 2-24, Ledingham 2-2. Cd’A, Young 4-27, Williams 4-66, Wheeler 5-61, Coey 1-(minus 2), Cady 1-43, Booth 2-26, Sutich 1-7.