Vikings do just enough ... Coeur d'Alene fends off Lake City's upset bid, continues recent dominance of city rivalry

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

COEUR d’ALENE — Kudos to Lake City for making a rivalry dominated by Coeur d’Alene in recent years competitive on this night. 

But credit, also, to Coeur d’Alene, for making the plays to win.  

As the Vikings usually do. 

“It was a heckuva good football game, man,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos, after his Vikings held off the upset-minded Timberwolves 17-7 in the 6A Inland Empire League opener Friday night before a packed house for homecoming at Viking Field. “They’ve made great strides. They’re a good football team, so you’ve got to come ready to play. We just did enough to win the football game. All we care about is 1-0 in league, and move on to next week.”

Lake City (4-3) was looking to beat its city rival for the first time since 2014, and only the second time since 2009. But the Vikings (5-3), ranked fifth in this week’s state media poll, turned two interceptions into 10 points, including the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter. 

“We played tough; they played tougher,” said second-year Lake City coach Byron Hout, who was a junior on the T-Wolves' last state title team in 2006. “That’s why this is a good rivalry, and we’ll look at the film and come back and get better.”  

Lake City's game plan was to shorten the game with time-consuming drives, mostly on the ground, and limit the possessions for Coeur d’Alene’s explosive offense. The Timberwolves had two interceptions and held the Vikings to 257 total yards. 

“We had to start running away from No. 30 (Garrett Leonard),” said Amos, whose team had 95 of its 116 rushing yards in the second half. “And they were real tough up front.” 

But Coeur d’Alene held Lake City, which had two 100-yard rushers the previous week, to 74 rushing yards for the game. The T-Wolves had 46 yards passing, all in the second half. 

“They made some great plays in their secondary,” Hout said of Coeur d’Alene. “They did a good job of not allowing us to run the ball as effectively as we wanted to. We played a good game; they’re just a really good football team.” 

A sack by Leonard halted Coeur d’Alene’s first drive. But Coeur d’Alene’s Kai Wheeler intercepted a deep ball on Lake City’s second play, and the Vikings turned that into Jayson Cady’s 20-yard field goal. 

After a T-Wolf punt, Wheeler barreled down the sideline on a screen pass for 38 yards, setting up Christian Young’s 3-yard run late in the first quarter. 

Lake City drove to the Coeur d’Alene 29 on the first drive of the third quarter, but lost a fumble and Viking junior Ian Dahlin recovered. 

But Paxton Grant of Lake City deflected a pass four plays later, and Braden Meredith intercepted and returned it to the Coeur d’Alene 31. 

Seven plays later, Gabe Wullenwaber powered in from a yard out to cut it to 10-7 with 11:11 remaining. 

Lake City then forced a punt, and got the back on its 32 with 8:41 left. 

But two plays later, a deep pass was intercepted by Coeur d’Alene’s Evan Williams in Viking territory. 

Williams, a receiver on offense, sped 25 yards on a reverse, and Anthony Thompson finished off the drive with a 6-yard run with 5:07 left. 

Coeur d’Alene forced a three-and-out, then marched down the field and ran the clock out. 

“Really proud of our guys; they played their hearts out,” Hout said. “We’re going to continue to get better. It’s about our process, right? When you’re going up against a good team, you don’t have a lot of room for mistakes. We were going to have to play a mistake-free game to win.” 

Thompson finished with 73 yards on 17 carries, including 60 yards on eight carries on the Vikings’ final two drives. 

“That second half, they were starting to get tired, and we just kept on amping up,” said Thompson, who missed last year’s Lake City game with a broken shoulder. “Especially that finish, dude. It was a great feeling ... my mentality is to keep running the rock, dude.” 

Coeur d’Alene travels to Post Falls next Friday with a chance to wrap up the league title. 

Lake City visits Lewiston next Friday in a nonleague game, the Bengals’ first game at their new on-campus stadium. 

Lake City    0    0    0    7    —    7 

Coeur d’Alene    10    0    0    7    —    17 

First quarter 

Cd’A — FG Jayson Cady 20, 4:36 

Cd’A — Christian Young 3 run (Cady kick), 1:28 

Fourth quarter 

LC — Gabe Wullenwaber 1 run (Jacob Bell kick), 11:11, 4th 

Cd’A — Anthony Thompson 6 run (Cady kick), 5:07 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING — LC, Wullenwaber 19-35, Cherry 9-34, Van Leuven 5-5. Cd’A , Thompson 17-73, Young 4-25, Williams 1-25, Symons 5-(minus 4), Stern 2-(minus 3). 

PASSING — LC, Cherry, 7-12-2-46. Cd’A, Symons 11-18-2-125, Stern 3-4-0-16. 

RECEIVING — LC, Hill 3-12, Oxenrider 1-7, Beamesderfer 1-18, Johnson 1-8, Van Leuven 1-1. Cd’A, Williams 4-40, Wheeler 3-62, Cady 2-20, Shoup 2-9, Thompson 2-9, Young 1-1. 

    MARK NELKE/Press Senior Gabe Wullenwaber of Lake City runs off-tackle against Coeur d'Alene on Friday night at Coeur d'Alene High.