Ev’s About-Face Dumps Post Falls
To the casual observer, it appeared the East Valley High football team huddled near midfield for a celebratory sing-a-long Friday after its rousing 27-20 come back win over visiting Post Falls.
To those close enough to hear, though, it was more than a postgame cheer. Collectively, the Knights could be heard flushing the taste of a humiliating seasonopening loss out of their mouths.
On the same field a week earlier, Lewiston assaulted East Valley 41-3, and the majority of the damage was done through the air.
In the span of four days, the Knights patched some holes in their pass coverage and discovered their offense - even if it is one-dimensional.
“You don’t know how nice it is (to flush the sour flavor of the loss away),” said EV coach Jim Clements, who was in the middle of the huddle. “That was terrible last week. Our kids made a complete turnaround.”
The about-face needed some momentum. Junior defensive back Andrew Gillespie provided it with what Clements called the “turning point” of the game late in the third quarter.
Gillespie recovered a fumble at Post Falls’ 36-yard line.
And the comeback began immediately. The Knights’ speedy running back Adrian Likely took a quick pitch and squirted 36 yards untouched up the sideline as EV trimmed the Trojans’ lead to 20-14 with 4:08 remaining in the third period.
The Knights forced Post Falls to punt on the next series.
Clements inserted burly running back Rob Jones for his first action, and he carried the Knights to the game-tying drive. Jones rushed five times for 21 yards before Rusty Ruchert went the final 10 yards for the score. Post Falls’ linebacker Dustin Raschke came up with a huge effort when he blocked the attempted point-after that would have given the Knights the lead with 9:46 left.
The Knights’ defense stiffened again, forcing a change of possession.
In a game of big plays, the final one belonged to EV. Ruchert rambled 77 yards, dodging and breaking away from Trojans defensive back Cameron Christiansen and Chad Quesnell for the winning TD. EV led 27-20 with 7:45 remaining.
Post Falls would turn the ball over on interceptions on its final three series.
Christiansen, a two-way starter for the Trojans at wide receiver and defensive back, accounted for Post Falls’ three TDs.
After EV went ahead 7-0 late in the second period, Christiansen took the ensuing kickoff and sprinted 97 yards. An attempted two-point conversion failed.
Post Falls opens Inland Empire League play next week at Lewiston.
East Valley 27, Post Falls 20
Post Falls 0 12 8 0 - 20
East Valley 0 7 7 13 - 27
E-Crockett 9 run (Sitton kick)
P-Christiansen 97 kickoff return (pass failed)
P-Christiansen 27 pass from Fehling (run failed)
P-Christiansen 9 pass from Fehling (Chamberlain pass from Fehling)
E-Likely 36 run (Sitton kick)
E-Ruchert 10 run (kick failed)
E-Ruchert 77 run (Sitton kick)
Priest River 7, St. Maries 6
In one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, the Priest River Spartans knocked off visiting St. Maries in an Intermountain League opener for both teams.
Priest River (4-0) scored the winning touchdown with 5:36 remaining when running Allen Rogers dashed 15 yards. The point after provided what would prove to be the winning margin.
St. Maries (3-1) forced Priest River to punt out of its own end zone with 53 seconds left. That gave the Lumberjacks the ball at the Spartans’ 40-yard line.
But the Spartans wouldn’t budge, forcing St. Maries to turn the ball over on downs with 17 seconds left.
Rogers had 93 yards on 19 carries.
Priest River 7, St. Maries 6
St. Maries 0 0 6 0 - 6
Priest River 0 0 0 7 - 7
S-Driggs 25 pass from Willard (run failed)
P-Rogers 15 run (Osleen )
Borah 41, Sandpoint 28
The visiting Bulldogs (2-1) had their share of big plays, but not enough to stop the Lions in a non-league game at Bronco Stadium.
Sandpoint’s Kurt Berkley rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns and Caleb Bowman had 15 receptions for 109 yards. Bowman added a 63-yard scoring run.
But the Lions (3-0), avenging a loss in Sandpoint last season, answered with four long scoring runs. Jared Jostes scooted 77 yards in the fourth quarter to account for the clinching score.
Borah 41, Sandpoint 28
Sandpoint 7 0 14 7 - 28
Borah 14 7 14 6 - 41
B-Wiscombe 95 run (kick failed)
B-Bernet 7 run (pass good from Jostes)
S-Berkley 3 run (Lindgren kick)
B-Denny 3 run (Jones kick)
S-Bowman 63 run (Lindgren kick)
B-Denny 49 run (Jones kick)
S-Berkley 15 run (Lindgren kick)
B-Shaw 37 run (Jones kick)
S-Nieman 3 run (Lindgren kick)
B-Jostes 77 run (kick failed)
Lewiston 14, Cheney 14
The Blackhawks’ Romanus Chowderowski hauled in a 2-yard pass from quarterback Pat Stiffler with 32 seconds left to forge a tie in a non-league game at Cheney.
The tie interrupted Lewiston’s 14-game winning streak which dates back to last season.
Lewiston 14 0 0 0 - 14
Cheney 0 6 0 8 - 14
L-McCrery 7 run (Hewitt kick)
L-McCrery 45 pass from Pierce (Hewitt kick)
C-Parker 9 pass from Stiffler (kick failed)
C-Chowderowski 2 pass from Stiffler (Chowderowski pass from Stiffler)
Kootenai 26, Clark Fork 22
In another upset, the Warriors knocked off the visiting Wampus Cats in a North Star League eight-man game.
Justin Schorzman’s 1-yard run lifted Kootenai (2-2 in league and overall). Clark Fork slipped to 2-2 and 2-1.
Clark Fork 2 14 6 0 - 22
Kootenai 8 12 6 0 - 26
K-Johns 7 run (Ott run)
C-Klontz 0 safety ( )
C-Stevens 60 pass from Stutzke (Klontz run)
K-Renhofer 14 pass from Schorzman (run failed)
C-Stevens 25 pass from Stutzke (run failed)
K-Renhofer 12 pass from Schorzman (pass failed)
C-Stevens 52 pass from Stutzke (run failed)
K-Schorzman 1 run (run failed)
Falls Christian 44, Lind 16
Quarterback Jared Bligh had three touchdown passes, two to Aaron Mitson, as the Eagles rolled to a non-league road victory.
Mitson returned the favor with a 45-yard TD pass to Bligh. Ben Danforth contributed a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Eagles (2-2 overall).
Falls Christian 44, Lind 16
Falls Christian 8 14 14 8 - 44
Lind 0 8 8 0 - 16
F-Danforth 1 run (Danforth run)
F-Mitson 5 pass from Bligh (run failed)
L-Huitron 9 pass from Parkins (Labes pass from Parkins)
F-Danforth 6 run (Mitson run)
F-Mitson 15 pass from Bligh (run failed)
L-Alcocer 52 pass from Parkins (Labes pass from Parkins)
F-Bligh 45 pass from Mitson (Bligh run)
F-Wild 12 pass from Bligh (Danforth run)
Bonners Ferry 42, Newport 26
Beau Winey gained 118 yards on 20 carries to guide the Badgers (1-2) over the visiting Grizzlies (0-2).
Newport’s Kyle Kiehn gained 63 yards on 13 carries.
Newport 6 6 6 8 - 26
Bonners Ferry 7 0 14 21 - 42
N-Kiehn 8 run ( )
B-Rice 1 run (Clark kick)
N-Melendez 11 pass from Marsh (run failed)
B-Winey 15 run (Anderson pass from Rice)
B-Taylor 15 run
N-Kiehn 29 run
B-Anderson 30 pass from Rice (Bateman pass from Winey)
B-Winey 65 punt rt (Clark kick)
B-Madden 2 run
N-Kenobbie 40 pass from Marsh (Kiehn run)
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo