Trojans Tumble Kicker’s First Field Goal Of Season Sends Lewiston To State Title Game

As the clock expired, Lewiston High School placekicker Jason Van Malsen started to run out onto the Kibbie Dome turf to celebrate the Bengals’ 30-27 victory over Post Falls in a State A-1 Division II semifinal football game.

But Van Malsen stopped, retreating to the bench to grab his point-after tee. He was just a little distracted as he had just kicked his first field goal of the season, a 20-yarder, with 11 seconds remaining Saturday afternoon to send the Bengals to the state championship game in Pocatello next week.

Two minutes earlier, Post Falls scored a tying touchdown, and it appeared the game was headed for overtime.

Lewiston, though, used two big pass plays to drive to the Post Falls 2-yard line.

When Van Malsen went onto the field after a Bengal timeout to attempt the field goal, Post Falls called time.

One of the top individual efforts of the game, however, occurred just before Van Malsen started his approach. Holder Ryan Kinzer puled down a high snap and placed it on the tee, and Van Malsen’s foot did the rest.

“It was just like a PAT,” Van Malsen said. “(The timeout by Post Falls) just gave me a chance to cool off.”

Lewiston (9-2), which avenged a 41-20 loss earlier in the regular season to Post Falls, will meet No. 1-ranked and defending champion Madison (10-1) in the championship final next Saturday afternoon at Holt Arena in Pocatello.

For a second straight year Post Falls finished 9-2 and watched its season end in the semifinals.

“We’ve believed we were going to win eight weeks ago or whenever it was we lost to them,” Lewiston coach Nick Menegas said. “We set our goal to get back to this game and we started preparing for this game week five. In the first half they executed our game plan to perfection.”

Lewiston took advantage of two possessions that started in Post Falls territory in the first quarter for touchdowns, and the Bengals’ defense stalled Trojans running back Josh Mort.

And when Lewiston quarterback Jeremy Frei hit wide-open receiver Jim Farris for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 4:48 left before halftime, the Bengals led 21-0.

But Post Falls started its comeback. A well-thrown 27-yard pass by Travis O’Briant to Brett Hollenbeck, that was beyond the fingertips of Bengals defensive back Brad Rice, went for a TD with 2:21 before halftime and helped Post Falls get untracked.

It carried over into the second half, as the Trojans twice scored tying TDs.

“Post Falls had a tremendous season, they’re a great football team,” said Menegas, a former Post Falls head coach. “This was a six-week game plan, let me tell you. We told our kids since we lost to them that the road to Pocatello goes through Post Falls.”

Both coaches proved prophetic, too, as they predicted a down-to-the-wire finish Saturday. For Post Falls the season ended one game too soon.

“It’s really hard for these kids to take,” Post Falls coach Jerry Lee said. “They really had much higher goals than this, that’s for sure.”

Lee was proud that his team regrouped at halftime and did everything but win in the final two quarters.

“I was really proud of our kids, it was a gallant effort,” Lee said. “We were in position to win. The first quarter was like Burley last year (a 28-25 Trojans loss in the semifinals). It was sort of weird, we were sort of out of synch. But give a lot of credit to Lewiston. They’re a great team. Offensively they were tough to stop.”

The Bengals limited Post Falls to 3 yards in the first quarter. They were focused intently on stopping Mort, who gained 286 yards against them in the first game.

Mort had just 44 yards on 11 attempts in the first half, but he and the Trojans got untracked thereafter. He finished with 185 on 27 carries, including a 55-yard TD scamper late in the third quarter that cut Lewiston’s lead to 21-14.

After the score, Post Falls held Lewiston on its next possession.

On the third play of the Trojans’ next offensive series and the first play of the fourth quarter, O’Briant lobbed a well-timed pass into the arms of Hollenbeck for a 23-yard TD as Post Falls tied the score for the first time at 21-all.

Lewiston regained the lead on the ensuing possession when Frei dashed 11 yards on a bootleg. Van Malsen missed the extra-point try from 35 yards after Frei was called for spiking the ball. The Bengals led 27-21.

Post Falls responded, driving 78 yards and scoring on a 1-yard plunge by Mort. The PAT attempt failed.

On what would prove to be the game-winning drive, Frei caught Post Falls in broken coverage on the first play. He connected with Rice for 42 yards on a play that could have resulted in a TD had the receiver’s momentum not pulled him out of bounds.

“We were playing field goal all the way,” Menegas said of the final possession.

Frei threw for 256 yards, completing 18 of 30 passes and three TDs. He also ran for another 32 yards.

Lewiston 30, Post Falls 27

Lewiston 14 7 0 9 - 30

Post Falls 0 7 7 14 - 27

L-Farris 7 pass from Frei (Van Malsen kick)

L-Kennedy 15 pass from Frei (Van Malsen kick)

L-Farris 11 pass from Frei (Van Malsen kick)

P-Hollenbeck 27 pass from O’Briant (Lee kick)

P-Mort 55 run (Lee kick)

P-Hollenbeck 23 pass from O’Briant (Lee kick)

L-Frei 11 run (kick failed)

P-Mort 1 run (kick failed)

L-Van Malsen 20 FG

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo