Southridge roars back to beat CdA

Coeur d’Alene learned painfully the dangers of sitting on an early lead in Friday’s 17-14 non-league football game against visiting Southridge.

The Vikings led 14-0 before the game was 5 minutes old, but wound up on the short end when Suns (4-4) kicker Jesse Keen capped the comeback by booting a 33-yard field goal with 11 seconds remaining in the game for the Kennewick school’s fourth straight win.

“That wasn’t our real team in the first half,” Southridge coach Andy Troxel said. “The guys that showed up in the second half, that’s how we’ve played the three weeks before this. They flipped the switch and played great in the second half.”

The way the game began it looked like the switch would be turned off in a hurry. Justin Goodwin broke a 52-yard running play for a 7-0 lead with just 1:47 gone in the first quarter.

Following a shanked Southridge punt, quarterback J.J. Turbin found Nate Clinton on a pass and the speedy receiver hoofed it 43 yards to for Coeur d’Alene’s second score.

The Vikings (3-5) had 210 yards of offense and didn’t allow Southridge a first down until the second quarter, and gave up a mere 84 total yards by halftime.

Except for the infrequent big yardage play, however, the Vikings could not get anything going the rest of the game.

The game turned suddenly in the third quarter after Coeur d’Alene blocked a punt and had the ball Southridge 36-yard line.

The Suns held and roared 71 yards in six plays on the arm of junior quarterback Andrew Mendenhall. He completed five passes, including a 34-yarder, then hit Cam Sanders from the 12 for the first Suns touchdown.

Coeur d’Alene continued to flounder on offense, but it survived a blocked punt back at its 12 when Southridge couldn’t punch it in. The Suns got the ball back at the 24 to start the fourth quarter and Mendenhall hit Clayton Homme from the 10 to tie the game.

Viking Eddie Hancock picked off a Mendenhall pass with 3:03 remaining and Clinton made one last nifty catch and move covering 24 yards. But once again Coeur d’Alene stalled.

Southridge had only 1:50 left and 79 yards in front of it, but the Suns were up to the task.

Mendenhall hit Devin Jones for 30 and ran for 10 more as Southridge reached the 16 yard line for Keen’s winning kick.

“Our quarterback managed the clock and got us down there and our kicker came through in a big way,” said Troxel.