Trojans Devour Seconds Post Falls Chomps Sandpoint In First-Round Playoff Victory
The Post Falls High School football team gathered for an early spaghetti dinner Friday afternoon and watched the movie “Rudy” before its State A-1 Division II playoff opener.
A few hours later, they dined on Bulldog for dessert. For a second straight week, Sandpoint was no match for the Trojans as Post Falls rolled 49-7.
Post Falls easily handled the Bulldogs in the teams’ regular-season finale last week, 33-7.
The second-ranked Trojans, 9-1 overall, will play either Lewiston (7-2) or Mountain Home (6-3) next Friday at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. Those two teams square off today at Mountain Home.
Sandpoint, making its first playoff appearance since 1987, finishes the year at 6-4.
Watching “Rudy” may have been overkill for the Trojans - they didn’t need any motivation Friday - and it was obvious the spaghetti was nothing more than an appetizer.
“We were real focused before the game - it wasn’t a lot of rah-rah stuff, but we were ready to play,” Post Falls coach Jerry Lee said.
Post Falls came out hungry, to be sure, and the feeding frenzy didn’t stop until early in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans turned just about every Sandpoint mistake into something positive for themselves. And there were plenty of opportunities as the Bulldogs turned the ball over seven times, four by interception.
“Turnovers, turnovers,” Sandpoint coach Satini Puailoa lamented. “We actually, I thought, at times played better than we did last week, but the results were worse.”
Last week, Trojans quarterback Travis O’Briant and wide receiver Brett Hollenbeck hooked up 11 times for 203 yards and three touchdowns.
In Friday night’s game, Hollenbeck scored the Trojans’ first touchdown on a 22-yard reverse at the 3:15 mark of the first quarter. He also had an interception. But he didn’t play in the second half after slightly hyperextending the same knee he injured early in the season against Lewiston.
Hollenbeck’s injury occurred on the last play of the first half. Post Falls led 21-7 at intermission.
And with O’Briant having an off night, junior running back Josh Mort stepped up and carried the load - especially in the second half.
Mort scored all three of his TDs in the final two quarters. It was the first TD of the second half that probably put the game away.
On first-and-10 from the Trojans 19, Mort took a toss and swept right. He darted back inside the block of a lineman and sprinted 81 yards for a score that put Post Falls ahead 28-7 with 9:54 remaining in the third period.
Mort finished with 262 yards on 22 carries, his second-highest production of the season. He had 142 on half the attempts in the second half.
He sandwiched two more TDs on runs of 35 and 2 yards around a 4-yard TD dash by fullback Josh Dolan, whose 42-yard interception return for a TD in the second quarter put the Trojans ahead 21-0.
The Bulldogs held Mort to 89 yards on 24 carries last week.
Lee said the biggest adjustment he made to free up Mort was using him more on quick-pitch sweeps.
Post Falls finished with 456 yards total offense to Sandpoint’s 258. Most of Sandpoint’s yardage came in the first half behind junior bulldozing running back Jeremy Thielbahr.
Thielbahr had 159 yards on 15 attempts in the first half (200 on 25 carries for the game). Post Falls clamped down in the second half, limiting Thielbahr to 41 yards.
“It’s a great win for our program. To come back and play that team again, it wasn’t easy to do,” Lee said.
Lee expects Hollenbeck to return next week.
Post Falls 49, Sandpoint 7
Sandpoint 0 7 7 0 - 7
Post Falls 7 14 21 7 - 49
P-Hollenbeck 22 run (Lee kick)
P-Michael 27 pass from O’Briant (Lee kick)
P-Dolan 42 interception return (Lee kick)
S-Thielbahr 29 run (Lindgren kick)
P-Mort 81 run (Lee kick)
P-Mort 35 run (Lee kick)
P-Dolan 4 run (Lee kick)
P-Mort 2 run (Lee kick)
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