By JORDAN RODRIGUEZ
Special to the Spokesman Review
MERIDIAN—For the better part of five seasons, the Coeur d’Alene football team has dominated November with its explosive offense and timely, playmaking defense.
Friday at Brighton Stadium, the Vikings fell victim to those same qualities against a Rocky Mountain squad firing on all cylinders. Emerging star quarterback Christian Blaser rushed for 228 yards and two touchdowns, leading a 458-yard effort on the ground as the Grizzlies rolled to a 43-21 victory over the defending 5A state champions.
Rocky Mountain (8-2) advances to play Highland in a state semifinal next week, while CDA (7-4) fails to reach the state championship game for the first time since 2009.
“You’ve got to give them credit—they definitely controlled the game from start to finish,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “I was proud of our guys and the way we kept slugging away, but Rocky’s a very good football team, and they dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”
Coeur d’Alene actually drew first blood Friday, forcing a punt and quickly driving to the end zone. Junior quarterback Austin Lee completed a 44-yard bomb to Ryan Walde and then capped the drive himself with a 2-yard TD run to make it 7-0.
But the lead was short-lived. On the next play from scrimmage, Blaser nearly fumbled the read fake before regaining the handle, making one cut and outracing the entire Coeur d’Alene defense to the goal line for an 80-yard score.
“We knew we could do it—we just needed something to give us a kick-start,” Blaser said.
Rocky Mountain dominated the remainder of the half, capping three separate scoring drives with 1-yard TD runs by junior tailback Jake Roper (165 yards) to take a 28-7 lead into the locker room. The Grizzlies were relentless on defense, forcing six first-half punts and sacking Lee five times overall.
“Our defense stepped up big-time,” Roper said. “Coeur d’Alene is a tough team—definitely the toughest front seven I’ve ever played against—so it felt great to get the win.”
Coeur d’Alene showed some fight in the second half, scoring on its first drive to trim the deficit to 28-14 on a 15-yard pass from Lee to Boise State recruit Drew Berger.
Rocky missed a field goal on its next drive and appeared to be losing momentum, but senior linebacker Brandon Ferguson picked off Lee to thwart a promising Vikings’ drive.
Moments later, Blaser scored make it 35-14. Lee answered one more time with a 3-yard TD pass to Brian Skinner, but Blaser’s 44-yard, play-action touchdown bomb to Ryan Gillespy put the game out of reach with 5 minutes remaining.
Lee finished with 216 yards passing, but it wasn’t enough to overcome two turnovers and Rocky Mountain’s 458-64 rushing advantage.
“We knew they were good on both sides of the ball, especially up front,” Amos said. “We just couldn’t keep them off the field enough to give ourselves opportunities.”
