Lake City uncorks its offense to defeat Post Falls
Lake City had the best of both worlds Friday night.
The Timberwolves rushed for 305 yards, passed for 246 and their defense forced three turnovers in a 45-24 Inland Empire League football victory over visiting Post Falls.
LC won its second straight and improved to 2-1-1 overall. The Trojans dropped to 1-3.
“For us, it’s really a great thing because it’s been a while since we’ve won a couple in a row,” Timberwolves coach Van Troxel said. “When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you have to get some momentum and get some belief in winning. Winning is contagious.”
Quarterback Bruce Shipley ran for two touchdowns and tossed two TD passes to Mitch Bevacqua as LC rolled up 551 total yards.
“Our quarterback is getting better at reading it and we’re able to throw the ball,” Troxel said. “Our running game is consistent and then Jerry (Louie-McGee) and Mitch are explosive. They make the big plays and everybody else does the little things.”
Post Falls had a several opportunities early but failed to take advantage. The Trojans’ defense stopped LC’s first possession and then blocked a punt, giving Post Falls possession at the T-Wolves’ 18-yard line. On second down, Joey Pfennigs’ pass was deflected and intercepted by Wyatt Nelson.
The Trojans, who finished with 239 rushing yards and 363 total yards, had scoring chances on their next two possessions, but settled for a 23-yard field goal by Tim Mueller and Pfennigs was intercepted again, this time by Tucker Louie-McGee inside the LC 20-yard line.
“We just didn’t capitalize early on the blocked punt,” PF coach Jeff Hinz said. “And we got down in the red zone (again) and jumped off-sides and didn’t capitalize. A couple big plays by them in the first half kind of set the distance and it was too hard for us to catch up.”
Those big plays included a 73-yard reception by Jerry Louie-McGee and a 65-yard TD catch by Bevacqua, one play after Pfennigs’ second interception.
Another Shipley-to-Bevacqua touchdown just before half gave LC a 21-3 lead.
“We had a hard time stopping them,” Hinz said. “We ran the ball pretty successfully in second half but when you’re down two scores it’s hard to catch up. We had three turnovers. We’ve got to eliminate those and try to make it a better ballgame.”
Post Falls’ Mason Lickfold ran for 93 yards and sophomore Seth McLeod added 80 yards. Pfennigs finished 9 of 16 for 124 yards, 114 of those coming in the second half. Ryan Morris had receptions of 38 and 29 yards, both setting up touchdown drives.
Louie-McGee had 219 total yards, 132 rushing and 87 receiving. His brother, Tucker, had an interception and a forced fumble.