Lakeland squeaks out win over BF

RATHDRUM — The league rivalry may be over, but the Lakeland Hawks and the Bonners Ferry Badgers still know how to put together a pretty entertaining football game.

Lakeland, moving up a classification from 3A to 4A and the Inland Empire League had to dig deep to pull out a 27-20 non-league win over the 3A Badgers Saturday at Lakeland’s Corbit Field.

And the miracle Lakeland pulled out of its hat was a 61-yard run by quarterback Kam Kiefer with just 3:38 left in the game.

Having just seen Bonners Ferry tie the score, Kiefer and his offense went to work. And it didn’t take them long.

Starting at his own 12, Kiefer picked up 27 yards on an option keeper. Following a 2-yard run by Keith Olson, Kiefer again took the ball, faked a pitch and found a huge hole on the left side of the Badger defensive line.

Kiefer broke through the line, cut right and broke two tackles on his way to the end zone.

Bonners Ferry tried to put one last drive together, but it was halted near midfield after two consecutive sacks of Badger quarterback Sam Botkin. Lakeland defensive linemen James Cooper and Lance Carr both got to Botkin, forcing a desperation pass which was knocked down by the Hawks.

Kiefer’s winning score game just moments after the Badgers had scored on a big play of their own.

Starting at their own 31, Bonners Ferry drove to a first-and-goal at the Hawk 6.

An intentional grounding call and an offensive interference penalty pushed the Badgers all the way back to Lakeland’s 31.

Botkin rolled out and eluded pressure by the Lakeland front and hit wide receiver Travis Stolley at the 5. Stolley carried a would be tackler into the end zone. The extra point attempt was blocked by Hawk linebacker Bubba Bartlett and the score was knotted at 20-20.

Kiefer, seeing his first action at quarterback since he was a freshman, ran for 137 yards on 16 carries.

“For his first game under center, he really did a good job,” Lakeland offensive coordinator Mike Bayley said. “This is the first time since I’ve been here (25 years) that we’ve called plays for the quarterback. He’s our third back and he had some great blocks on that run.”

Both teams fought miscues in the first half, with each fumbling the ball away twice and hurting themselves with penalties.

Lakeland was able to take a 13-6 lead at the half thanks to an effective ground game.

The Hawks increased that lead to 20-6 shortly after halftime, but the Badgers tied it with two fourth quarter scores.

Lakeland finished with 325 rushing yards led by Olson’s 145 yards on 21 carries.

The Badgers’ offense was led by running back Matt Bennett who carried the ball 20 times for 106 yards and a touchdown.

Botkin also had a good night for Bonners Ferry, completing 10 of 17 pass attempts for 135 yards and two touchdowns.