Post Falls tops EV
Trojans score then grab Knights fumble to hold on
Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz was worried that Friday’s football game was slipping through his team’s hands late in the fourth quarter.
Instead it slipped through East Valley’s.
Seth McLeod’s 2-yard touchdown run broke a tie and East Valley fumbled inside the Post Falls 10-yard line with just over 1 minute remaining as the visiting Trojans held on for a 21-15 nonleague victory.
“I’m proud of the guys that we could have let it slip through our fingers and we didn’t,” Hinz said. “We found a way. The defense did a great job of bending but not breaking.”
East Valley (1-2), playing without receiver Gage Burland (head injury), lost quarterback Connor Ramm to a knee injury in the first quarter but the Knights still nearly pulled off the victory. They tied it at 15 when sophomore quarterback Dante Bryant connected with Alex Bowdish on a 31-yard scoring play with nine minutes left.
“We did a better job of competing in the second half,” EV coach Adam Fisher said. “But we had the ball two times inside their 10 and (scored) no points. We battled hard. We just didn’t make enough plays.”
Post Falls (2-2) drove 60 yards, keyed by Braden Davenport’s 26-yard fingertip catch and his 8-yard grab that moved the ball to East Valley’s 2. McLeod, who missed the last two games with an ankle injury, scored the second of his two touchdowns and the Trojans led 21-15 with 3:53 remaining after the extra point sailed wide left.
“They were loading the box,” Hinz said. “They had so many guys coming we had to open it up a little bit.”
The Knights responded by marching to the Trojans 6 but Bryant bobbled a shotgun snap from center and Post Falls lineman Alex Gibson pounced on the loose ball.
The Trojans ran out the final 63 seconds to collect their second straight win.
“After the first game against Capital, I thought we took two steps forward against Graham-Kapowsin and Sandpoint,” Hinz said. “This week I thought we took a step backward. Just the execution, mistakes, snap issues. You name it, it happened.”
Quarterback Joey Pfennigs completed all four of his second-half passes. Backup quarterback Dalton Thompson passed for 38 yards and rushed for 32, including a 20-yard touchdown that put PF in front 9-8 early in the second quarter. Patrick Agueros had 43 of Post Falls’ 170 rushing yards.
EV’s William Nixdorf ran for 76 yards and one TD before exiting late with an injury. Bowdish finished with 91 yards receiving and blocked two Post Falls PATs.