Skyline blanks Coeur d’Alene

MOSCOW, Idaho – Skyline football coach Scott Berger was trying to put his team’s 22-0 shutout of Coeur d’Alene into perspective Friday.

Berger looked back to 2013 when the Grizzlies found themselves behind 51-0 at half before succumbing 54-14 at Coeur d’Alene.

Last year, Skyline tightened the gap, falling 26-13 at home against the Vikings after going into the fourth quarter deadlocked at 13-13.

“They’re a great football program,” Berger said. “We came up here two years ago it was 51-0 at halftime. We had to do some soul searching as far what we needed to do as a program. We saw what it was all about two years ago. We watched a lot of video on them. This plan came from two years ago getting our butts kicked.”

Friday marked the first time a CdA team has been shut out since Sept. 17, 2004, when Sandpoint blanked the Vikings 17-0 at CdA.

CdA could never get untracked offensively, faltering on drive after drive – many times because of penalties. The Viks were penalized 16 times for 126 yards.

CdA coach Shawn Amos didn’t mince words.

“It was just embarrassing,” Amos said. “That’s as much on coaches as it is on kids when you play that poorly. We obviously didn’t do a good job as coaches. We did not see that coming. That’s not what they showed all practice. It’s not how they carried themselves. Skyline took it to us.”

Skyline scored on its first possession when quarterback Bridger Taylor hit Carson Lott on an 87-yard deep fade route. The point-after try was blocked, and the 6-0 score would hold through the half.

Skyline’s defense went to work. The primary goal was to not allow quarterbacks Austin Lee and Colson Yankoff to get in a rhythm.

“We could never get into an advantageous position offensively through their play and our play,” Amos said. “Then you’re playing backed up all the time and the defense is trying to save you.”

The defense played well enough for CdA, but was affected by penalties too.

“I thought it was more than that,” Amos said when told how many penalties his team committed (16). “It felt like 400 penalties. How disappointing is that? That’s ridiculous. We didn’t do that in practice.”

CdA has much work this week. The Viks travel to Central Valley on Friday.

“Offensively, we were a train wreck. We looked like a junior tackle team,” Amos said. “Our quarterbacks weren’t as sharp as they should have been. We will learn a lot from this. We’ve got a good group of high school football players. As coaches we’ve got to figure out what we didn’t do right and how we can put these guys in a better frame of mind.”