Passing mark
If Coeur d’Alene High football coach Shawn Amos had his druthers, he’d run the ball 75 percent of the time.
Amos, a battering ram of a running back in his day at Moscow, doesn’t have a choice this season. He won’t even try to find a balance between run and pass.
That explains how senior quarterback Shea Vucinich set a school single-game passing record Thursday as the Vikings romped past University 53-27 in a non-league game at Viking Field.
The 6-foot, 179-pound Vucinich passed for 391 yards, eclipsing a record that was set before he was born. Scott Wellman, a three-year starter during the early 1980s when coach Herb Criner revived a floundering program, passed for 353 yards in a game against Borah in 1983.
Vucinich broke the record in the first half when he completed 14 of 21 for 382 yards. He finished 15 of 23, three of which went for touchdowns.
“Believe me, it’s hard for me to fight my natural instincts,” Amos said. “In high school you’ve got to play with your personnel. We have a lot of good receivers – a lot of guys can catch the ball.”
Vucinich divided his 15 completions among five different receivers.
“It means a lot. I couldn’t do it without my team,” Vucinich said about the record. “We’ve got great receivers and I’ve got a great line. They did a helluva job. I only got hit once this game so for me stepping up in the pocket, that’s great. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Unfortunately for the Titans – who were making their season debut after scouting CdA’s season-opening 44-34 win over Sandpoint last week – the game was over before they could muster any offense.
The Vikings put up four touchdowns, the fourth coming on a 4-yard slant TD reception by Leon Duplessis, for a 28-0 lead with 7:29 to go before halftime.
The Titans, using a mixture of draw plays, got untracked momentarily, marching 80 yards for their first TD. Running back Tyler Carlson went the final 3 yards with 5 minutes left in the second period.
CdA managed two more TDs to take a 40-7 margin into intermission.
Things went from miserable to worse on the opening kickoff of the second half when the Titans fumbled, giving CdA possession at their 26-yard line.
Four plays later, Vucinich scored on an 8-yard keeper to make the score 47-7 less than 2 minutes into the second half.
The Titans responded by scoring three straight touchdowns, pulling within 47-27 with 5:06 to go.
U-Hi attempted an onside kick, but CdA wide receiver Calvin Peterson, part of the Vikings’ good-hands line near midfield, picked the ball up on a hop in stride as he streaked to U-Hi’s 17 before being caught from behind.
Three plays later, running back Alex Reyes accounted for the game’s final TD on a 2-yard plunge.
U-Hi coach Mike Ganey put the game in perspective – at least from his team’s standpoint.
“(That’s) a highly explosive offense and a sound defense,” Ganey said of CdA. “We’d rather play this game than have a bye and not play anybody, obviously. They had one game under their belt, and I think we started to settle down in the second half. Give credit to them. They’re a sound football team.”