Rivalry Back To What It Should Be

No matter which football team you were rooting for Friday - Coeur d’Alene or Lake City - the game deserved a better ending.

And I’m not talking about victory or defeat.

For 3-1/2 quarters, the game was ripe with intracity emotion as the underdog Vikings had the favored Timberwolves on their heels.

In a contest of two halves, Coeur d’Alene had Lake City reeling for the first 16 minutes, and the Timberwolves had the Viks staggering the first 6 minutes of the fourth quarter after a scoreless third.

Two plays after LC took its first lead at 20-14, CdA quarterback Kyle Ahlf’s season ended.

Ahlf, who had scrambled 8 yards for CdA’s first touchdown, broke loose for 9 yards and a first down at LC’s 29-yard line with 5:02 remaining.

That’s when Ahlf’s season and CdA’s upset hopes were terminated. In trying to fight for extra yardage, Ahlf got his body turned around in a heap of tacklers. The cleats of his left shoe dug in and his leg couldn’t sustain the compounding forces.

Ahlf suffered a hairline fracture. That was the least of the damage, though. He had surgery Saturday to reattach his fibula and tibia. The fibers connecting the two bones between the knee and ankle were torn apart, CdA coach Shawn Amos said.

“It looks like a three-month recovery at least,” said Amos.

LC won the game, don’t get me wrong. The Timberwolves certainly didn’t play the best for the longest period of time, but they won.

Still, the game deserved a better finish.

For 3-1/2 quarters, CdA had established itself as a contender for a playoff berth. The combination of Ahlf and junior running back Paul Ziegler - buoyed by a solid offensive line - had given the Viks their most balanced offense in three years.

Now, the Vikings find themselves starting over. Junior Jason Rupp, the starting QB on junior varsity last year, takes over for Ahlf.

“He’s (Rupp) got some skills,” Amos said. “He can run around and make things happen.”

Amos is thankful the Viks’ next two games are against Washington Border League teams. CdA goes to Clarkston on Friday and plays host to Cheney the following week before concluding with back-to-back home games against Sandpoint and Post Falls.

After Friday’s game, Amos talked about how well his team played and how much his program has improved after posting just one win in each of the last two seasons.

“Our kids just played assignment football; we didn’t play any different defense than we have for three years against them,” Amos said. “We just have a little better athletes and a little moredisciplined kids. They stuck to the scheme.”

Amos also couldn’t help but wonder what might have been had Ahlf finished the game.

“The momentum shifted back to just a good football game,” he said. “I felt good about our chances at that point.”

Despite the loss and Ahlf’s injury, Amos didn’t lose his sense of humor.

“It was two pretty evenly matched teams - and they didn’t even have their shoes tied together,” Amos said, laughing about a line in my football predictions where I had written that LC should win even with its shoes taped together.

“Not getting any breaks is tough, but the kids keep believing and keep playing hard,” Amos added.

Hopefully Friday’s game is an indication that competitiveness has arrived in the intracity rivalry.