A Lakeland surprise

The Lakeland Hawks had a lot to play for Friday night.

After all, it was the 2006 edition of the Battle of the Prairie against Post Falls, and it was homecoming, and Post Falls had been favored by the prognosticators and …

Well, you get the picture.

With all that pressure, all the Hawks did was pound out 294 yards on the ground in a 35-21 win over Post Falls, taking advantage of four Trojans turnovers and a crazy play at the end to put it away.

“Pretty much every game, the guys on this team have come out and played physical,” Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer said. “Even last week against Coeur d’Alene, but we just had a few execution problems there.

“We worked on executing all week and I think we did that tonight – at least offensively.”

Lakeland (4-2), ranked fifth this week in the state 4A poll, set the tone on its first possession, going 70 yards on seven running plays, capped by Chase Roberts’ 8-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0.

Post Falls (3-2) looked poised to answer right back, but quarterback Jake Salisbury’s short pass over the middle went off his receiver’s hand and right into the hands of Hawks linebacker Cruz Bruner, giving Lakeland possession at its own 22-yard line.

The Hawks went on another TD drive, this time 15 plays and 78 yards punctuated by senior Bubba Bartlett’s 3-yard plunge to put Lakeland up 14-0.

Post Falls shot itself in the foot again on the ensuing drive, when running back Jon Aune’s attempted pitch on a flea-flicker fell short of Salisbury and was recovered by Lakeland.

The Hawks, however, gave it right back three plays later on a Roberts fumble.

The Trojans wasted no time cutting the lead to 14-7 when Randy Hamilton followed up a 46-yard run with an 8-yard TD with 4:17 left to go in the first half.

But Lakeland wasn’t done, mounting yet another long scoring drive and going up 21-7 six seconds before the half, scoring on Jack Vanderlinden’s slightly underthrown 21-yard pass on a fade route to wideout Steve Hanni.

Post Falls cut the lead to 21-14 midway through the third quarter, driving 69 yards on three plays that included a 28-yarder by Aune to set up a 28-yard touchdown run by Brandon Brubaker.

After forcing a Lakeland punt on the ensuing drive, the Trojans again seemed ready to pull even, but a costly miscue – this time a Brubaker fumble on a double-reverse – gave the ball back to the Hawks.

After a key run of 20 yards on a fourth-and-1 at the Hawks 36, Bartlett added a 23-yard run to the Post Falls 3-yard line. Shawn Hiebert punched it in from there to extend the Lakeland lead to 28-14.

Aune pulled Post Falls to within seven again at 28-21 on a 17-yard TD run with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter.

Then the craziness: The Trojans attempted an onside kick, touched it before it went 10 yards, and then let the ball sit on the ground at their own 43-yard line.

With no whistles having been blown, Bruner alertly picked the live ball up and ran untouched into the end zone to salt the game away.

“My coaches had told me a story about a kid who did that in the early years of Lakeland,” Bruner said. “And I saw them touch it, and nobody went for it, so I just picked it up and ran.

“I hate losing to Post Falls – they’ve had our number recently, so I’m glad we won.”