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Looking ahead

Football

It’s mid-October, which can only mean one thing: The stakes become much more significant for North Idaho high school football teams.

Inland Empire League teams begin interdivisional play Friday. In 5A, Lewiston (3-3 overall) travels to Lake City (5-1). In a pair of 4A games, Post Falls (6-0) visits Lakeland (2-4) and Moscow (1-5) treks to Sandpoint (5-1).

•In a showdown that should decide the Intermountain League title and the league’s lone state playoff berth, defending champ Bonners Ferry (3-4 overall, 2-0 league) meets preseason favorite Timberlake (4-2, 1-0) at Van Tuinstra Memorial Field in Spirit Lake.

•In the North Star League, Wallace (3-4) is at Lakeside (3-3) with a 1A 8-man Division I state playoff berth going to the winner.

•All games in the area Friday begin at 7 p.m.

•In a non-league game Saturday afternoon, Coeur d’Alene (4-2) travels to Sentinel (1-6) in Missoula.

•Lake City made a statement with a 21-9 win over Sandpoint last week. A week earlier, the Bulldogs throttled Lewiston 52-19 at Sandpoint.

LC suffocated the Bengals on offense and defense last year, as the T-Wolves raced to a 48-6 lead by halftime en route to a 48-13 win.

Lewiston coach Emmett Dougherty sees many similarities between LC from a year ago and the 2004 edition.

“They’re doing a lot of the same things, and they’ve tailored it to the quarterback (Ben Widmyer),” Dougherty said. “It’s a hard offense to run, but he does an unbelievable job with it.”

What impresses Dougherty most is how much LC has improved since a 35-19 loss to Post Falls.

“We had an early (video) on them and now you can really see a difference with where they were and where they are now,” Dougherty said. “Their seniors have really stepped up. They’ve settled in and running things well.”

Defense is the biggest question mark for the Bengals. In addition to the 52 points Sandpoint scored on them, they allowed 45 earlier against Post Falls.

“Our emphasis has been (to) protect the ball,” Dougherty said. “We’ve got to play close to perfect to beat them. We can’t have any turnovers. We can’t give up big plays.”

LC coach Van Troxel said the message to his team this week is simple: Friday is the most important game to date.

“I told them we’ve finally played at the level we can play,” Troxel said. “Now, this is what is expected every day in practice and every game. This is the level we need to play at the next five or six weeks offensively and defensively.”

•Timberlake has looked forward to Friday since the end of the 2003 season. This is the Tigers’ opportunity to avenge two losses to the Badgers last year – one during league and one that ended their season in the first round of the state playoffs.

But Timberlake may have to play without starting quarterback Tim Brennan, who suffered a knee injury in the first quarter last week against Post Falls and spent the rest of the game on crutches.

Timberlake coach Roy Albertson said the injury isn’t as serious as first suspected. He feared Brennan might be lost two to four weeks, but he could be available as soon as Friday.

The Tigers are preparing as if Brennan won’t be available. Sophomore John Macklin is scheduled to start.

Badgers coach Caleb Arceneaux said his team is preparing as if Timberlake will start Brennan. What most concerns Arceneaux is his team’s consistency.

“We’re still waiting to put four quarters together,” he said. “We’ve had to deal with the injury bug all year and that’s part of the issue in creating some consistency.”

State-qualifying week

Boys and girls soccer, volleyball and cross country teams decide state berths next week.

The 5A and 4A Region I boys and girls cross country meets will be held Wednesday at Kiwanis Park in Post Falls. Racing begins at 1 p.m.

The top two teams and top one-third individuals in each race advance to state, which will be held Oct. 30 at Soda Springs.

Looking around

S-R football rankings

Here are The Idaho Spokesman-Review’s 5A, 4A and 3A polls:

5A

1. Lake City (5-1)

2. Centennial (4-1)

3. Coeur d’Alene (4-2)

4. tie, Highland (4-2)

Twin Falls (5-1)

4A

1. Bishop Kelly (6-0)

2. Post Falls (6-0)

3. Sandpoint (5-1)

4. Caldwell (6-0)

5. tie, Pocatello (5-1)

Madison (5-1)

3A

1. Shelley (7-0)

2. Declo (5-0)

3. Marsh Valley (5-0)

4. Timberlake (4-2)

5. Gooding (5-1)