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Sandpoint football rattled by No. 1 team in 5A

by DYLAN GREENE
Sports Editor | September 4, 2020 11:37 PM

COEUR d'ALENE — The Vikings showed Sandpoint football why they are the No. 1 team in the state Friday night.

Coeur d'Alene jumped out to a 41-0 lead at the half and cruised to a 55-0 win over the Bulldogs.

Mistakes Sandpoint made in its season-opening loss to Post Falls resurfaced against the Vikings and kept the team from finding any rhythm.

"I give Coeur d'Alene credit," Sandpoint head coach Ryan Knowles said. "They execute well, they're a tough offense to stop. Defensively, they're aggressive and we couldn't match them tonight. We didn't put up much resistance."

Junior Auggie Lehman and sophomore Parker Pettit split time at quarterback throughout the game. Both players had their moments, but it just wasn't the Bulldogs night on offense.

Sandpoint had 149 total yards on offense. Lehman passed for 53 yards and Pettit ran for the same amount on 11 carries. Junior Gerrit Cox, last week's starter at quarterback, rushed for just 22 yards on seven carries.

The four new starters on the offensive line are still finding their way and it hasn't helped that they've faced two elite 5A defenses right off the bat.

"The offense is going to be just fine," Knowles said. "We've had two pretty stout defenses and trying to establish some young players against these last two defenses has been tough. It's hard to get a foothold, but we're learning."

Coeur d'Alene racked up 407 total yards on offense. Vikings senior quarterback Jack Prka passed for 235 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another.

Most of Coeur d'Alene's yards through the air came on screen plays and swings passes to their star running backs Gunner Giulio and Trent Elstad.

Knowles said the Bulldogs know how to defend those plays, they just didn't Friday night.

"We have practiced those things over and over," he said. "Our offense runs them all the time in practice, it's stuff that we know but I didn't see the same reactions tonight that I did in practice.

We weren't ready for that speed and it showed. We were very poor at getting off blocks on the perimeter, we were poor at tackling on the perimeter and it turns a potential 5-yard play into a 15-yard play, and they're chewing up the field on us over and over again."

In the first half, Sandpoint only had three first downs, turned the ball over three times and failed to cross midfield. It took five plays for the Vikings to score on their opening possession of the game.

On the Bulldogs first drive, they went three and out and on fourth down their punt was blocked and recovered for a touchdown. From there, it was all Coeur d'Alene.

Sandpoint received the ball to start the second half and was finally able to get something going on offense after a roughing the kicker penalty by Coeur d'Alene kept the drive alive for the Bulldogs. Lehman and the Bulldogs chipped away yard-by-yard and converted a pair of fourth downs to get all the way down to the Coeur d'Alene 14-yard-line. But the drive stalled there and the Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs.

Knowles said he saw some bright spots in the second half.

"There's a lot to build off in all the phases," he said. "Like I told the guys, 'Why don't we execute like this from the start?'"

Sandpoint (0-2) will look to pickup its first win of the season when they host Lake City (1-1) 7 p.m. next Friday at War Memorial Field.

Sandpoint 0 0 0 0 — 0

Coeur d’Alene 21 20 7 7 — 55

First quarter

Cd’A — Luke McLaughlin 6 pass from Jack Prka (Eli Jolly kick), 9:36

Cd’A — Mason Cummings 2 blocked punt return (PAT failed), 7:32

Cd’A — Gunner Giulio 13 pass from Prka (Ransom Robertson pass from Cummings), 3:19

Second quarter

Cd’A — Prka 1 run (Jolly kick), 8:45

Cd’A — Guilio 23 pass from Prka (Jolly kick), 4:03

Cd’A — Trent Elstad 5 run (kick blocked), 48.1

Third quarter

Cd’A — Elstad 1 run (Jolly kick), 2:41

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Caleb Short 8 pass from Brayden Bengtson (Jolly kick), 4:55 (est.)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Spt, Cox 7-22, Lehman 4-(minus 5), Larson 1-(minus 2), Pettit 11-53, Christoferson 3-19. Cd’A, Elstad 8-49, Prka 4-6, Guilio 3-49, Elliott 1-13, Mallory 2-1, Bengtson 2-0.

PASSING — Spt, Lehman 9-18-1-53, Pettit 3-6-1-9. Cd’A, Prka 19-26-0-235, Bengtson 5-5-0-54.

RECEIVING — Spt, Larson 5-26, Kappen 2-6, Newhart 3-15, Thielbahr 2-15. Cd’A, Garitone 2-28, McLaughlin 1-6, Guilio 5-81, Karns 2-18, Smith 1-4, Cope 1-13, Cummings 2-15, Mallory 3-37, Elstad 2-52, Short 2-15, Elliott 1-6, Pottenger 1-5.

photo

Junior running back Gerrit Cox prepares to stiff arm a Coeur d'Alene defender during Friday's game.