Lake City has ball last, hangs on to beat Lewiston

LEWISTON – The best defense for the Lake City High football team Friday was played by its offense.

The Timberwolves’ offense ran out the final 4 minutes, 5 seconds as Lake City held off the Lewiston Bengals 44-42 in a 5A Inland Empire League offensive slugfest at Bengal Field.

LC defensive coordinator Russ Blank, in fact, had perhaps the statement of the game that he directed to head coach Van Troxel as the Timberwolves offense went onto the field one last time after the Bengals had pulled within the final margin.

“Don’t score too soon,” Blank begged.

LC (6-1) took over at its 25-yard line and picked up three first downs to keep Lewiston’s offense on the sideline. An 8-yard gain by running back Kyle Ferebee accounted for the final first down with 1:15 to go. Lewiston had no timeouts remaining and all LC quarterback Garren Hammons had to do was go to his knee twice as time expired in the 5A conference opener for both teams.

For Lewiston to stay in the hunt for one of the two 5A state playoff berths, the Bengals (4-3) must beat Coeur d’Alene at CdA next Friday. A CdA win would lock up playoff berths for the city rivals and set up a showdown between the teams the final week of the regular season.

“It was a great high school football game,” Troxel said. “We knew Lewiston was a whole lot better (this season). We kept shooting ourselves in the foot on defense. We’d get them in a hole and give them a big play. But most importantly I’m proud of our guys. They’ve dealt all year long with a lot of adversity.”

The T-Wolves were handed another dose of adversity Friday morning when they learned that standout two-way senior starter Chris Delport was suspended two games for violating school conduct rules.

That meant LC had to play without two key offensive weapons and defensive stalwarts. They lost another two-way starter, junior Brandon Hanna, last week to a broken fibula.

So LC trimmed back its playbook and went with its bread and butter – speed option. And with Lewiston focusing on taking away the dive and the pitch, Hammons came up big on several keepers.

The junior quarterback rushed for a career-high 211 yards on 24 carries, including a 77-yard breakaway TD that put LC ahead 44-35 with 6:12 to go.

Lewiston, which seemed to answer every time LC scored, did one more time when bruising fullback Brooks Reynolds plunged 2 yards to pull the Bengals within the final margin with 4:09 remaining.

LC did a good job mixing up the run calls on its final clock-chewing possession. Seth Sanders, filling in for Hanna, picked up 15 yards for the T-Wolves’ first first down on the final drive. Ferebee, who had 129 tough yards on 19 attempts, darted 16 yards for another first down on the ensuing play. And Ferebee picked up the game-clinching third first down when he rumbled 8 yards to Lewiston’s 23.

“Offensively, we’re as good as anybody,” Troxel said. “All the other stuff (adversity) is a non-issue at this point because what’s really important is these guys are starting to believe in themselves.

“And Lewiston’s a good football team, and they showed a lot of character. When we got up they could have rolled over, and they never quit.”

Lewiston coach Emmett Dougherty thought his team needed one defensive stop to knock off LC.

“It was a shootout,” Dougherty said. “It seems like we always end up with those. We told our kids if we got one stop we were going to win the game. We got our stop, but that’s when the ball bounced off Noah (McKay) and they picked it off and ran it in.”

Dougherty was alluding to a 30-yard interception return by LC defensive back Brad Bemis, who grabbed the ball in stride after it bounded off McKay’s shoulder pads. The TD put LC ahead 37-28 with 10:07 left in the fourth quarter.