Vikings rip Sentinel, 55-7

A heavy dose of confidence is just what Coeur d’Alene needed heading into next week’s Inland Empire League football opener at home against Lewiston.

The Vikings got plenty of it Friday in a 55-7 non-league drubbing of hapless Missoula-Sentinel, but five turnovers took some of the luster off of the victory.

CdA coach Shawn Amos said he was pleased with his team’s overall effort, but knows that the time for miscues is over.

“We turned the ball over too many times – my gosh, if we take care of the ball, who knows how well we’d play,” Amos said. “Turnovers, you can’t have them – our next two games are (like) playoff games and you’ve got to take care of the football.

“Otherwise, we played well.”

Indeed, the Viks forced four Spartan turnovers, including a pair of first-half interceptions by senior corner Scott Lind.

“That gave us some great field position, too,” Amos said. “The way we were turning over the ball, we needed the help in that first half.”

Senior running back Kevin Ah-Hi, led Coeur d’Alene (6-1) with 233 yards on 19 carries including first-half touchdowns of 17 and 77 yards. Ah-Hi’s numbers would have been even more staggering had he not fumbled twice into the end zone.

Senior quarterback Jake Hall rushed for touchdowns of 2, 1 and 9 yards and added a 45-yard scoring strike to Ah-Hi.

Hall pointed to the play of his team up front as the biggest positive.

“Our offensive line played really well, and that’s something that we can take forward into league play,” Hall said. “Obviously we turned the ball over too many times, but winning the game was a good thing.”

Coeur d’Alene held the Spartans (0-8) to just 197 yards of total offense in the contest.

•Kurt Stoll ran 42 times, racking up 257 yards and five touchdowns as Sandpoint (3-4, 1-3) routed Moscow (5-2, 0-1) 36-14 in Inland Empire League action at Moscow. Joey Lovell was 9 for 13 for 138 yards and a touchdown to Eric Stoll for the Bulldogs.

•Chris Lund was 6 for 9 for 323 yards and four touchdowns as Kellogg (5-2, 2-0) amassed 502 yards of offense in a 42-20 win over Priest River (1-6, 0-3) in Intermountain League play at Kellogg. Joey Sauer (four catches, 187 yards) and Jacob Kagarise (2 for 125 yards) each caught two touchdown passes for Kellogg.

•Heath Petersen had three touchdowns on the ground and caught two more from Justin Keener, who had two rushing scores of his own, as Wallace (5-2, 3-1) moved into a three-way tie for first in the North Star League by upending Clark Fork (4-3, 3-1) 44-26 at Wallace. … Cory Pehan ran for a touchdown, threw for a touchdown and returned a punt for a touchdown as Mullan (5-2, 3-1) scored 30 points in the second quarter en route to a 38-20 win over Post Falls Christian (3-3, 2-2) at Mullan. … Defensive end Justin Thomas ran back two fumbles for touchdowns – one for 35 yards and one for 39 – as Kootenai (1-6, 1-3) defeated Lakeside (1-6, 0-4) 46-12 in Plummer. Keith Sperber ran for 189 yards and two touchdowns in a losing effort for Lakeside.

Washington

Michael Thomas scored with less than a minute remaining and Pullman, which blocked an earlier Lakeside extra point, made off with a 28-27 Great Northern League win at Nine Mile Falls.

Pullman (7-0, 3-0) also had an earlier PAT fail, but, following Justin Erwin’s 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Erwin threw a pass to J.T. Levenseller to earn the two points.

Travis Corigliano had a touchdown run and a pair of TD passes for Lakeside (4-3, 2-2).

•In other GNL action, Derek Martin had a pair of touchdown runs and Josh Crites had 108 yards and a touchdown on the ground as Riverside (4-2, 1-2) jumped to a 20-0 halftime lead and held on for a 26-15 win over Deer Park (2-5, 1-3) at Riverside. … Clayton Becker rushed for 198 yards on 38 carries and had a pair of touchdowns as Chewelah (4-3, 2-2) went out to a 28-6 lead before holding on for a 28-21 victory over Medical Lake (0-7, 0-3) at Medical Lake.

•Tony Starrett scored on a 74-yard screen pass and a 95-yard interception return just before halftime as Colfax (4-2, 2-1) moved into a tie for first place in the Northeast A League with a 16-10 win over Freeman (4-2, 2-1) in Colfax. Starrett finished with 206 all-purpose yards while Andrew Wilkerson, with touchdown pass, field goal and extra point, accounted for all 10 of Freeman’s points.

•David Johnson had 211 yards on 40 carries and four touchdowns, but his attempted two-point conversion – a run to the right side – with 57 seconds left was stuffed as Republic (2-4, 1-4), behind Jesse Eich’s two touchdowns – one running, one passing – held on for a thrilling 28-27 win over Odessa (2-5, 1-5) in Northeast B-11 action at Rebpulic. … Ty Anderson had a touchdown on the ground and passing as Liberty (4-2, 4-2) jumped out to a 20-0 lead and held on for a 20-13 win over Lind-Ritzville (4-2, 3-2) at Liberty.

•Clay Hegar threw for 126 yards and a touchdown and Charles Appleton had 94 yards on six carries and a touchdown, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Jack Dickson’s five touchdown passes as DeSales (6-1, 2-0) beat Asotin (4-2, 1-1) 49-13 in Southeast B-11 action at DeSales.

•Kyle Kelly finished 20 of 31 for 253 yards and two touchdowns in the air and had 15 carries for 270 yards and three touchdowns as Colton-Pullman Christian (5-1) beat visiting Garfield-Palouse (1-3) 78-54 in non-league eight-man action. Jesse Cole ran for 311 yards on 18 carries and tallied seven total touchdowns.