Sandpoint Seeks Little Things That Make Good Teams Better

Prep football

The Sandpoint and Cheney football teams will be better by season’s end.

As it stands, Border League-leading Sandpoint (3-0 league and overall) isn’t bad now. But the Bulldogs are still in search of consistency, especially offensively.

Cheney coach Tom Oswald wouldn’t mind if that search continues at least another week. What he’s seen of the Bulldogs on video has impressed him.

“They’re real solid and they don’t make many mistakes,” said Oswald, who brings a young but talented team (1-1, 0-1) to Sandpoint tonight. “They’re not going to beat themselves so you’ve got to beat them.”

And that could be a tall task. The Blackhawks made a good account of themselves in a season-opening 14-7 loss to Lake City, which fell to Sandpoint 20-19 a week earlier.

Sandpoint coach Satini Puailoa believes his offense is moving closer to its potential. Which could mean a long night for the Blackhawks.

“Right now we’ve got to find out when our offense is going to click,” Puailoa said. “The offense has practiced better the last couple of days.”

In other Border League games tonight, Coeur d’Alene (3-0, 2-0) visits West Valley (0-2, 0-2), Colville (0-2, 0-2) is at Lake City (2-1, 2-1) and Moscow (1-2, 1-1) travels to Clarkston (1-1, 1-1).

In an always entertaining non-league game, Post Falls goes to Lakeland in the Battle of the Prairie. Both teams are 1-2.

Elsewhere, Wallace (1-2) is at Bonners Ferry (1-2); Lethbridge, Alberta (0-2) comes to Kellogg (1-1); McCall-Donnelly (2-2) is at St. Maries (1-2); and Deer Park (2-0) visits Timberlake (1-2).

In North Star League play, hot-starting Mullan (2-0, 2-0) goes to two-time champ Falls Christian (0-1, 1-2) in an afternoon game and Clark Fork (0-2, 0-1) goes to Kootenai (1-1, 1-2).

Most games in the area kick off at 7.

Cheney at Sandpoint: Puailoa knows the Blackhawks are young. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have talent.

“They’re going to be pretty good down the road,” Puailoa said. “They’re going to execute. If you’re not playing solid they’ll find a couple of spots and hammer it. It’s a solid program.”

Oswald isn’t so sure that his team, by defeating Medical Lake in a nonleague game last week, improved over its loss the week before to LC.

“We made some mistakes, some bonehead plays,” Oswald said. “For us, we just want to keep doing what we’re doing and get better at it.”

Post Falls at Lakeland: Trojans coach Jeff Choate refuses to listen to any talk about the Hawks not being as good as recent teams.

“It’s the same old Lakeland,” Choate said. “I don’t know where they roll out these linemen. They’re as big and physical as ever. They just seem to reload.”

Choate is thrilled his team broke through last week in a 33-13 win over Colville.

“Colville isn’t the most intimidating team in the Border League,” Choate said. “But we were able to mix it up offensively a little more than in the past. We just have to keep plugging away, not try to get too exotic offensively and we’ll improve every week.”

Lakeland coach Terry Kiefer suspects his team will get everything it can handle from Post Falls.

“What impresses me about them is their aggressiveness,” Kiefer said. “I don’t care if it’s punt or kickoff coverage they’re coming at you. I think it’s going to be a typical Post Falls-Lakeland game.”

And Choate expects to see a traditional Lakeland team.

“They’re every bit as good as any team we play all year long,” Choate said. “Last year, they were probably the best team we played. I don’t see them any different this year.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Quick kicks

The best game around tonight may be in Helena, where Lewiston (3-0) meets defending Class AA champ Capital High (3-0).

Lewiston and the Helena school have a home-and-home contract.

Capital is ranked No. 1 in Montana’s largest classification.

The best game in these-here parts is just a week away when defending Border champ Lake City visits undefeated Coeur d’Alene.

“It’ll be bigger than anything that’s happened in Coeur d’Alene in a long time,” LC coach Van Troxel said.

So how did favored Falls Christian fall to Kootenai 35-28 last week?

The answer, according to one side, may be different than those spouted by most coaches.

“We had three problems: pride, jealousy and self-righteousness,” FCA coach Bill Reese said. “They were jealous of who was going to get the touchdowns and they all thought they were doing their jobs and nobody else was.”

Refreshingly frank.