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Prep football: Chris Irvin leads Lake City over Lakeland in season opener

Lake City’s Uriah Chavez runs upfield against visiting Lakeland during Friday’s season-opening, nonleague high school football game in Coeur d’Alene. (Tyler Tjomsland/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Dave Nichols daven@spokesman.com(509) 459-5441

Returning All-Inland Empire League quarterback Chris Irvin threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score and Lake City beat visiting Lakeland 26-20 in a nonleague season opener for both teams on Friday.

It’s the first week of high school football games in North Idaho since the pandemic shut down athletic competition in March.

“It looked like a first game,” Lake City coach Brian Fulp said. “It looked like we hadn’t had contact football since last October. We didn’t do camp, any of that stuff. So I mean there’s a lot of things to work on, but leaving the field with the ‘W’ is always good.”

Just getting on the field was a victory in itself.

Lakeland
Lakeland’s Devon Suko (2) runs the ball against Lake City during a high school football game on Friday, August 28, 2020, at Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene, Id. (Tyler Tjomsland/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)

“I feel so happy for all these kids, these coaches, their families, to be able to get out here and compete and do it safely,” Fulp said. “We’ve been telling them, you got to play every game like you think it’s going to be your last because this year, it could be.”

Irvin connected with Matthew Whitcomb on a 15-yard score in the second quarter and hooked up with Porter Howard on a screen that went 44 yards in the third. Uriah Chavez added a 77-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to seal it.

Lakeland’s Devon Suko had a pair of short TD runs and tossed a 14-yard scoring strike to John Cornish.

Lake City built a 20-6 lead after three quarters. Suko hit Cornish on fourth-and-7 to get the Hawks within a touchdown, but Chavez busted a run to the right sideline and rumbled the length of the field with 2:46 left to restore the two-score lead.

Post Falls 35, Sandpoint 14: Jaxon Anderson connected with Joshua Shields for a touchdown pass to put the Trojans up in the second quarter and the visitors outlasted the Bulldogs in a nonleague opener.

Nicolas McLeod opened the scoring for Post Falls with a 1-yard plunge.

Gerrit Cox had an 18-yard touchdown run for Sandpoint and Tag Benefield returned a blocked field goal for a score.

Lewiston 37, Kuna 30: Kash Lang rushed for 164 yards with three touchdowns and the visiting Bengals held off the Kavemen.

Lang completed 9 of 12 for 189 yards with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jared Jelinek. Cruz Hepburn rushed for 89 yards with a touchdown and returned a kickoff 85 yards for another score.

Kuna quarterback Sean Austin connected with Koltin Teater for three touchdown passes and Brayden White returned a kick 91 yards for a TD.

Lincoln County (Mont.) 14, Bonners Ferry 0: The visiting Lions shut out the Badgers in a nonleague opener.

Clark Fork 50, Wallace 6: The Wampus Cats beat the visiting Miners in a nonleague opener.

Kellogg 44, Priest River 0: Ripley Luna threw three touchdowns and rushed for one and the Wildcats defeated the visiting Spartans in a nonleague game to start the regular season.

Mullan 70, Seeley Lake (Mont.) 36: Ryan Hearty and Braeden Keuneke ran in a combined seven touchdowns and the Tigers topped the visiting Blackhawks in a nonleague opener. Mullan scored 32 unanswered points in the second quarter.

South Fremont 41, Timberlake 28: The visiting Cougars defeated the Tigers in a nonleague opener.