Bulldogs a win away from second state title
There is nothing like a big time football game to get the juices flowing, whether as a player, parent, coach or fan. Friday night’s 4A state championship game pitting No. 2 Sandpoint against No. 1 Blackfoot is one such game.
The Bulldogs (9-2) are playing like a very confident bunch, riding a six game win streak and coming off consecutive decisive wins over Middleton and Hillcrest in the first two playoff games. They’ll face the Indians (10-1) Friday night in what figures to be a very even game on paper, but as it’s been said before, they don’t play games on paper.
Blackfoot won its only state championship in 2008, defeating Nampa 46-14 in the championship. Sandpoint won its only state title in 1997, when coach Satini Puailoa led Paul Nieman, Kurt Berkley, Caleb Bowman, Dave Mattingly and company to a 24-21 win over Eagle. The winner of Friday night’s tilt will be the first to win two banners.
n Trivia time
Which Bulldog punter holds the 4A state championship record for the longest punt, a booming 72 yarder? See the end of the column for the answer.
n Records are meant to be broken
Bulldogs quarterback Daniel Charvoz joins a trio of Bulldogs leaving their mark in the record books this season. When he threw for five touchdowns against Middleton, he gained a share of the record for touchdown passes in one game with former Bulldog quarterbacks Jeremy Way (2003), Erik DeMers (2004) and Joey Lovell (2006).
Ben Fisher also joined the record books when he rushed for five touchdowns against Lakeland. He became the sixth Bulldog running back to do so, joining (Dillard Sayler (1927), Jim DeMers (1927), Jeremy Theilbahr (1995 and 1996), Isao Puailoa (2003) and Kurt Stoll (2005).
Sean Hogan’s eight interceptions also set a record, tying Dave Smith (1965) for top honors. If not for playing teams with ground-based offenses straight out of the 1940’s the past two weeks, Hogan might own the record outright. He’ll get some opportunities against Blackfoot, which loves to spread the field and throw the rock.
When Charvoz completed 12 of 13 passes against Lakeland, his 92 percent one-game completion percentage broke the Bulldogs record of 86 percent, shared by former quarterbacks Roger Olson (1951) and Jay Vandenberg (1988).
Speaking of Vandenberg, I couldn’t help but get a kick out of watching him warm up before a team of locals faced the Harlem Ambassadors recently during a highly-entertaining fundraising basketball game for Wishing Star. After watching him swish a 27 footer, I just thought it was a lucky shot. Then he hit another, and another, and after his fourth consecutive deep three pointer — even by NBA standards — I began to realize luck had nothing to do with it.
n Turf Troll beware
To prepare for playing on turf for the first time this season at the Kibbie Dome, the Bulldogs spent Wednesday afternoon practicing indoors at the Spokane Shock practice facility. Mitchell opted to practice in Spokane and bus to Moscow on game day, rather than leave on Thursday to get a practice in the Kibbie Dome. He felt his team adjusted well to the faster synthetic surface, which should suit the Bulldogs just fine after the muddy tractor pulls of the past two weeks.
Imitating Blackfoot quarterback Anthony Clark on Wednesday was former NFL quarterback and current Sandpoint assistant Jake Plummer. As scout team quarterbacks go, head coach Mike Mitchell said he could have done worse.
“We had Jake throw skelly, and we got a good look today,” said a laughing Mitchell, adding that Clark is a very dangerous thrower and runner. “But not any better than the prep QB we saw today.”
n Ode to Jimmy the Greek
Sorry to drudge up bad memories for all of the Vandal faithful, but a few Bee readers were close in their predictions for the Boise State vs. Idaho game last Saturday, won 63-25 by the Broncos.
Former BSU player Dave DeMers predicted a 55-21 Broncos win, Tye Barlow called it 51-13 and Marc Young just missed at 66-13. My prediction was 62-20, which shows even the blindest of squirrels finds a nut on occasion. My Boise roots had nothing to do with the prediction, just the startling realization that BSU is now among the five best teams in the entire country.
For the benefit of all WAC teams, let’s hope the Broncos don’t slip up against Nevada and eventually earn that coveted BCS berth, along with financial windfall the entire conference reaps if they do.
Trivia Answer: Brent Scott in 2003
Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at “eplummer@cdapress.com,” or by phone at (208) 263-9534, ext. 226.