Cda Teams Look For First Wins Lake City Host To Cheney; Vikings Travel To East Valley

Coeur d’Alene’s two football teams, winless in their season openers, take on the Frontier League in hopes of notching their first victories Friday.

Lake City, which has lost 10 straight since the school opened, came as close as ever to capturing its first win last week in a 20-17 loss to St. Maries.

The task doesn’t get any easier this week, though, when the Timberwolves have their home opener against Cheney, a traditional Frontier power.

But Lake City isn’t the only team in town in quest of a victory.

Coeur d’Alene fell 15-14 to Boise last week, and the Vikings make the short trip Friday to another respectable Frontier team, East Valley.

Cheney and East Valley have been tabbed to finish one-two in their league.

Friday’s games, like most in the Panhandle, kick off at 7:30 p.m.

Elsewhere, Post Falls (1-0) goes to Bonners Ferry (0-1), Sandpoint (1-0) visits Lakeland (0-1), Lewiston (1-0) travels to West Valley, St. Maries (2-0) goes to Freeman, Wash., Pullman makes the short journey to Moscow (0-1), Thompson Falls, Mont., is at Wallace (1-0-1), Priest River (2-0) is at Newport, Wash., and Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls, Wash., is at Kellogg (0-1-1).

In North Star League action, Mullan (1-0) visits Lakeside (2-0) and Clark Fork (0-2) is at Kootenai (0-2).

Cheney at LC

T-Wolf coach Van Troxel has much respect for the program coach Tom Oswald has built during 18 years at Cheney.

“They have a very solid program; it’ll be a real challenge for us this week,” Troxel said. “They do a lot of good fundamental things. They’re not necessarily fancy about them, they just execute.”

A little better execution in their opener and the T-Wolves could have been chasing a second victory this week.

“As poorly as we played (against St. Maries) we still had chances to win so there were some positives,” Troxel said. “(Last week) was the first time these guys had been in a ballgame in the fourth quarter.”

The schedule, Troxel said, only gets more difficult.

“We hope this week this being our second game and it being Cheney’s first that it would benefit us,” he said.

It’s a large burden, largely because Cheney, the defending Frontier champion, returns seven down linemen, four of whom were all-leaguers.

CdA at East Valley

“We felt like we were the better football team (last week),” CdA first-year coach Bill Anderson said. “I don’t know if we let one slip away, but we made a few mistakes. Hopefully we’ve ironed them out this week.”

CdA will be out Friday to avoid being the first Vik team since 1990 to open the season with consecutive losses.

The big test will be how the Viks defend EV standout running back Jesse Ewell, who gave opponents fits last season.

, DataTimes