SANDPOINT – A few breaks finally went the way of the Lakeland High football team.

Lakeland scored a touchdown and John Novak kicked two field goals as the Hawks rallied from a 26-14 deficit to upset Sandpoint 27-26 in a 4A Inland Empire League game Friday before a crowd estimated at 1,600 at Barlow Stadium.

The Hawks (5-3, 1-0) can clinch their first 4A state playoff berth since moving up from 3A in 2004 when they play host to Moscow (3-6, 0-1) on Friday. Sandpoint (5-4, 1-1) is done unless Moscow pulls an upset and creates a three-way tie.

The victory was sweet redemption in many ways for the Hawks, who watched a late rally last year against Sandpoint fall short 21-20.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer, a Lakeland alum whose team is one win away from earning the school’s first playoff berth since 2002, the year before Kiefer replaced his father as head coach. “Coming from Timberlake, we built it from the ground up there. And I departed at about the time when things were starting to really go well there. I came to Lakeland and things weren’t quite what we’d hoped them to be. We built it back up, so it’s been a long time coming. This made it all the more sweeter.”

While many Hawks were involved in the victory, none was more important than senior Shawn Hiebert.

After Lakeland had pulled within 26-24 on Novak’s 32-yard field goal with 5:53 to go, Kiefer decided to pooch the ensuing kickoff. Novak’s half kick bounded near Lakeland’s sideline where Hiebert hit an unidentified Sandpoint player who retrieved the ball so hard the smack could be heard in the pressbox 60 yards away. Hiebert forced a fumble and recovered it at Sandpoint’s 22-yard line.

Moments later, Novak’s 19-yard field goal gave the Hawks the lead for good at 27-26 with 2:24 remaining.

“We really wanted this last year,” Hiebert said. “It was a devastating loss. But we have so much character on this team that we really deserve this. We’re not there yet, we’ve still got Moscow, but we’re definitely making history. We’re going to take care of business next week and bring it to Moscow.”

Lakeland took a 14-12 lead into halftime. Both teams scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, but a missed point-after kick attempt – the first miss by Sandpoint this season, according to Bulldogs coach Mike Mitchell – ultimately would prove costly.

Still, the Bulldogs responded in the third quarter, taking advantage of an interception that gave them the ball at Lakeland’s 15 and following that score with a 17-yard TD run by Sione Puailoa that put Sandpoint ahead 26-14 with 2:56 remaining in the third quarter.

“Both teams played well, but I’m really disappointed in our special teams,” Mitchell said. “We kind of let them back in it. You’ve got to give them credit. They ran over us in the first half. They broke a lot of tackles. We’ve been physical and tonight we got outphysicaled.”