Lake City romps
If there were any doubts before Friday, there aren’t any now.
The No. 1-ranked Lake City High football team undressed Coeur d’Alene in every way imaginable as the Timberwolves tromped the visiting Vikings 48-7 in a State 5A playoff opener played in steady rain.
The victory earned Lake City (10-0) a home game Friday against defending state champion Meridian (7-3), which did a little of its own romping in a 56-13 win over Eagle.
In the other playoff openers, No. 3 Centennial handled Mountain View 27-6 and second-ranked Highland stopped Skyline 28-17.
Some doubt lingered as to which team was better after LC prevailed 21-18 in a sloppy game between the teams in late September. But a month later, the T-Wolves answered most of the questions.
The playoff game may have been bigger than any one individual – as the coaches stressed – but few stood as tall as LC senior quarterback Garren Hammons.
Hammons accounted for 302 of LC’s 452 yards total offense. The 6-foot, 195-pound QB ran for three touchdowns, finishing with 178 yards on 16 attempts. He completed 4 of 7 passes for 144 yards.
Hammons shared the praise with his linemen and the wide receivers who block on option runs.
One by one Hammons singled out his offensive linemen – seniors Matt Kelso, Mike Bessey and Carson York and juniors Byron Hout and Thomas Mayo. Moments later he pointed out the receivers – seniors Shane Fitzgerald, Charlie Chadderdon and Tyler Sanders.
“What happened was our offensive and defensive lines just kicked the crap out of them,” Hammons said. “They were unbelievable. And our receivers blocked well on the edges and that (allowed) us to get outside. And we got blessed by the weather, too, which kind of worked to our style.”
The persistent rain certainly bogged down CdA’s high-octane offense. But what clamped down the Vikings the most, though, was LC.
“They played a heckuva game,” CdA coach Shawn Amos said of the T-Wolves. “We couldn’t manufacture anything, but it was due to them. They were a lot better than us tonight.”
LC scored on its second play when Hammons, in shot-gun formation, took off up the middle on a 64-yard TD scamper. About halfway to the end zone, Hammons jumped trying to leap over a would-be tackler and was sandwiched briefly by two Vikings. But the athletic QB spun out of trouble and couldn’t be chased down.
On LC’s second possession, Hammons hit wide receiver Matt Widmyer on a lead-option pass for a 52-yard gain to CdA’s 1-yard line. Showing his ability to improvise, Hammons turned to his left expecting to hand off to a dive back, but it was a broken play. Instead Hammons backed into the end zone from the yard out to extend the T-Wolves’ lead to 14-0 with 2:26 left in the first quarter.
Then LC’s defense, which allowed one TD in the first game and wasn’t scored on this time, got in on the scoring. Senior safety Patrick Jewell intercepted a Shea Vucinich pass and returned it untouched 42 yards as LC finished the first quarter with a 21-0 lead.
Two more TDs in the second period allowed LC to take a 35-0 lead into halftime.
Junior running back B.J. Palmer added two more TDs in the second half as LC built its biggest lead to 48-0 with 10:55 to go before the reserves took over.
LC coach Van Troxel acknowledged it was his team’s best game in a season that has seen the T-Wolves make measurable improvement since the first contest at CdA.
“Defensively, there’s a reason where we’re at,” Troxel said. “Our defense is going to have a big impact on where we’re going, hopefully in the next two games.”
Troxel reserved special praise for Hammons.
“What can you say about No. 10?” Troxel said, smiling. “He’s just a competitor when the chips are on the line.”
Troxel also tipped his hat to CdA (7-3).
“That’s a good football team on the other side of the field,” Troxel said. “It’s not like this happened against somebody that’s not good. They’re very good. We were very nervous about (this game), but very confident.”
Amos started to point out some mistakes by his team, but he stopped in midsentence.
“You can’t drop the ball …. There’s a lot of things, but they outplayed us. That was the bottom line,” Amos said. “It’s the best we’ve seen them that’s for sure.”