CdA outlasts Sandpoint

As season openers go, the non-league football game Friday between Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene didn’t disappoint.

The contest was chock-full of the bizarre and the wacky. In the end, though, the more seasoned program prevailed.

Coeur d’Alene overcame several typical season-opening mistakes and a fired up Sandpoint team making its debut under a new coach as the Vikings pulled away 44-34 before an estimated crowd of 1,200 at Viking Field.

“It was a very ugly win, honestly,” CdA coach Shawn Amos said. “It was a mess. We have a lot of work to do. We were lucky to get away with a win.”

Amos never felt comfortable until the final 4 minutes when the Vikings’ final touchdown put them comfortably ahead at 44-28.

Amos was shaking his head a little after Sandpoint’s Kyle Meschko returned the opening kickoff 93 yards to quickly put the Bulldogs ahead 7-0 with barely 16 seconds having elapsed.

By midway in the second quarter, though, Amos started seeing flashes of the team he expected to see Friday.

A 43-yard touchdown pass from Shea Vucinich to wide receiver Calvin Peterson, set up by a fumble recovery by Spike Gatten, gave the Vikings their first lead at 18-14 with 4:20 to go before halftime.

An interception by Matt Conger set up a dramatic last-second scoring drive for the Vikings as the first half wound down.

After Vucinich hit receiver Jake Rhodes for 35 yards to Sandpoint’s 11-yard line, the CdA quarterback drilled a scoring strike to Nate Clinton in the end zone as time expired. Clinton came open on a nice post route, slipping past Sandpoint defensive back Tyler Jinright. The TD gave the Vikings a 24-14 lead at intermission.

After CdA opened a 30-21 by the end of the third period, Sandpoint fought back, pulling within 30-28 when standout senior running back and workhorse Kurt Stoll rambled 13 yards into the end zone. The point-after kick by Kyle Gibson pulled Sandpoint as close as it would get with 10:05 to go.

The Vikings, in perhaps one of their best offensive series of the game, answered Sandpoint’s TD. CdA marched 75 yards in eight plays as Conger capped the series with a 3-yard TD dive behind the left side of his line. The score put the Vikings ahead 37-28 with 7:30 remaining.

Sandpoint couldn’t respond as the Vikings forced the Bulldogs to punt after three unproductive plays.

That’s when CdA put things away when Vucinich hit Leon Duplessis with an 8-yard TD pass.

First-year Sandpoint coach Mike Mitchell also saw lots of mistakes. But he couldn’t fault his team’s effort.

“I thought our kids really did a good job of coming back in that game,” Mitchell said. “They (the Vikings) had the long field and we just didn’t play very good defense (late). We had poor tackling. We had them stopped twice on long-yardage situations, but you’ve got to wrap up and tackle people. I’m proud of the intensity. That’s what we really wanted to get. I thought they competed well enough to win. We had ourselves in a position to win the game.”

Vucinich, a senior in his first year starting at QB, led CdA by completing 13 of 21 passes for 222 yards and four TDs.

Stoll gained a game-high 183 yards rushing on 35 carries. He scored three TDs.

CdA returns to action Thursday when it plays host to University. Sandpoint is home Friday against Post Falls.