Bulldogs win tiebreaker to advance to state playoffs
COEUR d'ALENE - The Sandpoint Bulldogs might have come out a little overconfident on their last trip to Kootenai County on Friday night, necessitating another trip south Monday night.
They didn't make that mistake twice.
Sandpoint beat Lakeland 6-0 and Moscow 7-0 to win a Kansas tiebreaker at Coeur d'Alene High to earn the lone berth to the state 4A playoffs from the North.
"It scares you, how quick it happens," Sandpoint coach Mike Mitchell said of the format for the tiebreaker, in which each team got one possession from the other's 25-yard line. "It looked like we were in trouble (against Lakeland), but the defense made a great play. I thought our kids really came to play tonight, which we didn't do the other night, so I'm real happy about that."
Lakeland (2-7) forced the tiebreaker by upsetting Sandpoint 38-28 last Friday in Rathdrum. Sandpoint beat Moscow 22-21 the week before, and Moscow beat Lakeland 41-21 the week before that, giving all three teams 1-1 records in 4A North play.
"I'm glad we overcame it (the loss to Lakeland)," Mitchell said. "We just talked to our kids last week that they had a lot of adversity in that game, when you have 16 penalties like we did, we were lucky to get another chance. We just kinda sold, 'Let's not let this one slip away.' I thought we played quick, crisp and with a lot of emotion. We haven't played that way the last couple of weeks."
Sandpoint (4-5) will play host to Mountain Home (8-1), the second-place team from the 4A Southern Idaho Conference, on Friday at 7 p.m. at Barlow Stadium in a first-round playoff game.
In the first game, Lakeland's Kyle McCrite ran 15 yards around left end to the Bulldog 5, but the Sandpoint defense stiffened. On fourth and 1, Lakeland quarterback Kyle English turned the wrong way and had to keep the ball. He tried to circle the right end but was tackled at the 2.
On Sandpoint's first play, Jake Semones threw to the right to Ben Fisher, who ran it down to the Lakeland 4. On second and goal from the 1, Jacob Knaggs plunged into the end zone to end the game.
Moscow, which earned the No. 1 seed for the tiebreaker on the Ozzie point system, elected to go on defense vs. Sandpoint. The Bears held Fisher to 1 yard on first down, but Fisher dashed around right end for 14 yards for a first down at the 10.
On the next play, Semones rolled left and hit Ricky Lang out of the backfield. As he approached the goal line he was upended by Moscow's Dain Adams. Lang flipped, heels over head, but came down just over the goal line with the ball intact for a touchdown.
John Brusaw added the extra point.
Moscow's Mychael Washington was stopped for no gain on first down. On second down Jayson Washington found a hole on the left side, but was stripped of the ball by Sandpoint linebacker A.J. Smith. Jonas Cafferty recovered at the Bulldog 9, and Sandpoint was in the playoffs.
"We know that he was pretty fumble-prone, so I just grabbed the ball, grabbed him, wrapped up and happened to strip the ball out," Smith said.
"We might have came in a little big-headed (at Lakeland), but we had something going last time we were here on this field against Coeur d'Alene. … We're not quite the same as we were at the beginning (of the season), but we're getting back, as we displayed tonight."
"They (Lakeland) muscled us last week, and ran the ball hard, and we just got our pad level down and kinda pinched things inside and tried to force things outside and our guys came up and were able to make tackles on the outside," Sandpoint defensive coordinator Doug Semones said. "We tried to take the ball away from No. 5 (Washington). He's a helluva back, but he's put it on the floor a few times, so we tried to cause a turnover."
The result - Sandpoint is back in the postseason after missing the playoffs last year for the first time since 2000.
"If we play like we did tonight, we'll have a chance to beat anybody," Mitchell said. "We've got speed, and we've got a good quarterback that can play, and tonight we played defense like we did earlier in the year. We love this field.
Moscow (6-2) likely figured its season was over a week ago when the Bears lost at Sandpoint, but got a new life.
"It's tough all the way around," Moscow coach John Sheaff said. "We fumbled the ball and they recovered it, and that was it. It was a great thing for our team to come out and experience this. We got a second chance (when Lakeland beat Sandpoint last week), which was a great opportunity for us. And even to be in this situation was a great opportunity, a great experience to be here."