Hawks persevere
The Lakeland Hawks had plenty of chances to give up Friday night in the Battle for the Prairie Pig football game at Post Falls High, and, through four grueling quarters, they simply did not.
In a 5A/4A Inland Empire League contest that truly wasn’t over until it was over, the Hawks, playing from behind the whole way, took their first lead of the game at 31-27 with a 1:30 to play and then held on for the win.
Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer, after telling his team how proud he was of them, took a moment on the soggy turf to pour out some pent-up emotion.
“You take our entire season so far, and it’s basically just a handful of plays,” Kiefer said. “I can think of five plays, and our kids are basically five plays away from being 5-0.
“I kept talking to our kids all week long about focus, and having 11 guys on the same page, and it just seemed like all year long, there were one or two guys that just weren’t dialed in – it was like that at the beginning, but I tell you these guys battled back – and was that just beautiful.”
The Hawks (3-3) got to within 27-24 four minutes into the fourth quarter when junior quarterback Ryley Youngdell found senior wideout Dylan Cloyd in tight coverage on the left sidelines.
Cloyd, blanketed, somehow managed to pull in the pass over the falling defensive back and scamper in all alone from 30 yards out.
Post Falls was unable to get anything going on its ensuing drive, and then muffed the snap on the punt, giving the Hawks the ball at the Trojans 47 with just less than 6 minutes to go.
Lakeland subsequently converted a fourth-and-1 at the Post Falls 21 before senior tailback Corey Hiebert plowed through the middle from 6 yards out for the game-winner.
On its ensuing 2-minute drill, Post Falls punched the ball into Hawks territory, but, after the Trojans benefited from a tipped ball for a reception, another tipped ball on the next play was intercepted and the Lakeland sideline erupted.
“Growing up and being from Lakeland, there’s always a healthy rivalry between Post Falls and Lakeland.” Kiefer said. “Anytime you beat Post Falls, it feels good.”
So, is this the turning point for the Hawks?
“We’ll see,” Kiefer said. “These kids have had the tendency to be up one week and down the next.
Post Falls (4-1) took advantage of Lakeland’s two first-half turnovers, with quarterback Nikk Reinhardt converting both for short touchdowns runs.
“I just think that, tonight, Lakeland came out and played their tails off,” Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. “They made some mistakes and we made some mistakes at crucial times, too.
“We just made ours at the end.”