Vikings face tall order
Lake City High football coach Van Troxel isn’t trying to deceive his football team this week.
He knows and his team knows that the Timberwolves are better than Coeur d’Alene. But that doesn’t mean they automatically have a win locked up before playing today. The Vikings (2-3) visit the No. 1-ranked and defending state champion T-Wolves (4-0) at 7 p.m.
“I’ve been on the other end and I love being on the other end,” Troxel said of his team being heavy underdogs. “They have nothing to lose. They’re going in definitely as the underdog and they’ve got everything to prove.”
It will be LC’s first home game in more than a month. During that span, the T-Wolves have been nothing short of dominating. They’ve outscored opponents 147-58 while the Vikings have been outscored 92-55.
Troxel thinks the primary difference between his team and CdA is youth.
“They’re starting 12 juniors and we’re starting two,” Troxel said. “Things just come with maturity. I know this for sure. They’re better than anybody we’ve played. Every team that is left on our schedule is capable of beating us.”
Troxel said CdA could easily be undefeated.
“If you go back and take away their fumbles and mistakes, they win all their games,” Troxel said. “What’s been killing them is mistakes.”
LC is coming off a bye. The T-Wolves had the same situation last year and were measurably flat when they faced off with CdA. LC held off the Vikings 21-18.
So Troxel changed how his team approached the extra time off this time.
“It was a good bye week,” he said. “We needed to do a lot of things, but what we didn’t need to do was do a lot of hitting. We got to work on a lot of little things.”
The T-Wolves are also excited about returning home. They haven’t been home since a season-opening 40-0 win over Timberline.
The first month of the season, LC didn’t worry about who it was playing and made a concerted effort to develop depth. Beginning tonight, things change. The T-Wolves began this week planning for their opponent’s tendencies. The other thing that changes is LC will play full throttle until the game is decided instead of rotating a number of substitutes into the game.
CdA coach Shawn Amos doesn’t believe his team has to pull off a miracle to win.
“We understand we’re going to have to play a very good football game,” Amos said. “We don’t think it’s a lost cause.”
At the same time, Amos has a lot of respect for the T-Wolves, who have won 16 straight games dating back to season.
“What impresses me is there are no real weaknesses,” Amos said. “They’re solid to really good across the board. I don’t know if they’re better than last year. All I know is they’re plenty for us to prepare for that’s for sure.”
“In another game that could be entertaining, Lakeland (2-3) visits Post Falls (4-0) in the Battle of the Rathdrum Prairie.
“In a game that could decide the North Star League title, Wallace (4-0, 1-0) visits Kootenai (4-1, 1-0) at Harrison. The teams faced off in a non-league game two weeks ago at Silverton when the Miners pulled out a 28-18 win.