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Written by: Paul Kingsbury
Follow IdahoSports.com on Twitter: @idahosports
5A
11/8 7:00pm Timberline (4-5) @ Coeur d’Alene (6-3)
Congratulation Timberwolves! You made the state tournament! Now go drive 8 hours on a bus to play the Coeur d’Alene Vikings. Yes, the same Vikings team that has won the last 2 out of 3 5A state championships and narrowly missed a three-peat by a mere touchdown last year. The 2013 Viks may not be the same dominating team they were the last few seasons, but don’t doubt for a second that they could just be the best 6-3 team in the entire state. Sorry Century, I meant the best 6-3 team in 5A.
Timberline will have a rough go of it from the start. If the cold weather and swarming Viking defense can cause a few turnovers, this one could be over early. CDA will move on to play the winner of….
11/8 7:00pm Capital (9-1) vs Idaho Falls (8-1) @ Dona Larsen Park
If you are just tuning in, that is not a typo. The Idaho Falls Tigers are 8-1 under new head coach Pete Molino, with their only loss of the season coming two weeks ago to #1 ranked conference foe, Highland, 51-6. The Eagles also come in to this game with just one loss after getting upset 31-28 last week at DLP by the Eagle Mustangs.
This game has all the makings of an old-fashioned dog-fight, minus the creepy Michael Vick vibe. Both teams have stellar QB’s running their respected offenses and defenses that can stop the pass and the run. In my opinion, the key to this game will be the play of Conner Poulsen and how well the Tiger defense can get past the Capital line to pressure him. If you give him time, he’ll make the throw. If you pressure him but give him a gap, he’ll bust lose on you for big yards.
The Tigers are going to make this close, but in the end I think big plays by Capital and little mistakes by playoff-newbie Idaho Falls will give the Eagles the edge, and the win.
11/8 7:00pm Highland (9-0) vs Mountain View (7-2) @ Holt Arena
The good news for Mt View, the 3rd seed out of the 3A SIC, is that they will be playing indoors at Holt Arena this Friday night. Unless they get a 2-for-1 deal at Golden Corral after the game that’s pretty much where the good news ends for the Mavericks. On paper, these two teams are pretty similar. Both have star quarterbacks, Kai Turner for Mt View and Tommy Jewell for Highland, who have both put up great numbers all year. Both also have MVP-worthy running backs, Josh Buss for Mt View and Thad Hansen for Highland, who keep defensive coaches up at night trying to find ways to stop them.
Both teams have shown they can put up big numbers, but Mt View’s defense hasn’t been able to stop really good offenses. They let Rocky Mt put up 45 points and Capital dropped 55 on them the first game of the season. Highland’s opponents, on the other hand, have averaged a paltry 11.6 points per game against the Rams. Highland will be playing in the very friendly confines of Holt Arena, where they played 7 out of 9 games this season. They know every nook and cranny of Cassia Field and will send the Maverick’s home with a fairly sizable loss. Up next for the Rams, the winner of……
11/8 7:00pm Eagle (7-2) @ Rocky Mountain (9-1)
This game has more plot lines going on than Pulp Fiction, and each one could be a story in and of itself. Capital beat Rocky Mt. Rocky Mt beat Eagle. Eagle beat Capital. After last week’s win by Eagle to snatch away Capital’s undefeated season, it seems that Coach Peterson has his Mustangs playing their best football right when they need to be. If they are, who would be more qualified to coach against them than Rocky Mt skipper Scott Criner, who ran the Eagle Mustang’s offense the previous five seasons?
Because of a very light schedule the first half of their season, the Mustangs didn’t get much respect in the polls, despite going 5-0 before losing to Rocky Mt 47-27 on October 11th. Conversely, the Grizzlies stayed pretty consistent the entire year. The key to this game will be which Eagle team shows up on both sides of the ball. Will Eagle bring the team that played October 11th or the team that played October 31st?
My gut says that Coach Peterson isn’t quite ready to lose to Coach Criner so soon after becoming colleagues in the same conference. Eagle comes back to take this one in the 4th.
4A
11/8 7:00pm Skyview (8-1) @ Lakeland (5-4)
It’s hard to judge an Idaho 4A team who, during a 9-game season, has played four out-of-state teams, two 5A teams and a 3A team. They split the four out-of-state games, lost to the 5A teams and beat the 3A team like they should have. Then, they wrapped up their season by handily beating their only two conference foes, Sandpoint and Moscow.
Skyview ended the year 8-1 with their only loss coming to #1 ranked Bishop Kelly during their season opener (14-10). The 4A SIC had a VERY down year as 5 of the 9 teams had losing records. Is Skyview as good as their record says they are, or are they the just a good team in a down conference?
Despite the travel to Rathdrum, Skyview appears to have the upper hand in this one. Will there be an all 4A SIC championship game…?
11/8 7:00pm Kuna (7-2) @ Bishop Kelly (9-0)
Like Skyview, Bishop Kelly definitely enjoyed a down year in the 4A SIC. However, you don’t average almost 40 points a game by not being able to run, pass and catch. You also don’t hold your opponents to just over 9 points a game without playing a little defense now and again. The Knights also enjoyed the love of the media folks this year as nearly unanimous #1 picks each week in the Media Polls.
The Kuna Kavemen(or the Fighting Leslie’s as former IdahoSports.com broadcaster Jeff Duncan called them) is enjoying huge success under the continued tutelage of proven head coach Lee Leslie. The Kavemen earned the #3 spot in the SIC, and a spot in the state tournament, by running the table on their final five opponents of the season by an average of 35-8. While Kuna made great strides this year behind the outstanding play of senior QB, Spencer Trautman, I just don’t see them beating BK.
It was a great season for the Kavemen, but unfortunately it ends Friday night.
3A
11/9 1:00pm(p) Fruitland (8-1) @ Timberlake (6-3)
It was rumored that Fruitland might be in a rebuilding year after graduating a great senior class including Joey Martarano and Alex Dhaenens and the departure of long-time head coach Bruce Schlaich. But after easily beating their first 6 opponents, people started taking notice, even getting the #1 ranking in the state during weeks 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the State-Wide Media Poll. Then came Homedale who routed the Grizzlies at home 34-12 on October 11th. The next week Fruitland dropped the #5 in the polls. That loss to Homedale also lost them the SRV championship which is why the Grizzlies are playing in Timberlake Saturday afternoon and not hosting Bonners Ferry.
Will Hoenike went over the troubles that Timberlake has had with District 3 teams for the past decade, so I won’t go over that again. I’ll focus instead on the great year Timberlake has had, especially against fellow conference members. If there is a wood shed in the 3A Intermountain Conference The White Tigers took them all behind it, beating Bonners Ferry by 44, Priest River by 55 and Kellogg by 51.
I just can’t shake the feeling that this could be the north’s year to break the curse. I see an upset happening on the frozen tundra in Spirit Lake Saturday.
11/9 2:00pm Bonners Ferry (5-4) @ Homedale (8-1)
After going 0-8 last fall, Bonners Ferry was looking forward to a new year and a new season. But the Badgers’ season got off to a rough start when former head coach, Ed DePriest, was unexpectedly pressed back in to action for his second tenure during the first week of August. Getting a late start is never a good thing and the Badgers went 3-3 in non-conference play and then lost their first conference game to Timberlake 57-13. The bounced back to win their final two conference games beating Priest River 20-13 and Kellogg 59-13.
Homedale returned 19 varsity players, which is huge in the 3A ranks. Combine that with the incredible play of 1st year quarterback, Lawsen Matteson, who has 26 passing TDs on the season. Five of those came last week against Filer in their tournament play-in game. After beating Fruitland on their home turf by 22 points, the Trojans became the team to beat in the SRV, and maybe the state.
Bonners Ferry just doesn’t have enough to get it done Saturday. Homedale moves on.
2A
11/8 5:00pm Firth (8-1) @ Cole Valley (9-0)
The Firth Cougars are not QUITE as dominating as they have been in years past, but they are still good. Very good. Their only blemish on the season was a 2-point loss to 3A Sugar-Salem, who ended up 2nd in the Mountain Rivers conference behind power-house Shelley. Not too shabby.
Cole Valley returned almost all of their skill players from last season, including 1st team All League WR Tallen Eveland and Honorable Mention QB Mason Vanderhoff. Despite running the table on every one of their opponents, the Chargers never got the respect of the Media Poll voters. The were stuck at #3 for the past 4 weeks, as they piled on more and more victories. (Just for the record, I voted them #2 in week 8.) Is Cole Valley that good, or are they just a good team that played a mediocre schedule? (The #2 team in the 2A WIC was 5-4 Melba)
Is Cole Valley for real?
My prediction – If you aren’t Firth, you’re second. Yes. I went there.
1AD2
11/9 1:00pm(p) Salmon River (9-0) @ Kootenai (6-3)
Salmon River averaged over 51 points per game behind MVP Leighton VanderEsch. I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot. Here’s the kicker - they only played one complete game that wasn’t over early due to the mercy rule in 8-man football. That game was the one Will Hoenike and I broadcast live from Prairie on 9/6. Salmon River pulled out a good one at the end, 36-32.
Kootenai had a four-game stretch in the middle of the season where they did not allow their opponents to score a single point before Karma caught up to them on October 25th and Wallace hung 92 points on them. That brought the average total points scored by their opponents during that five game stretch to an average of 18 points per game. Wallace will be getting thank-you cards from Clark Fork and Lakeside and two from Mullan.
VanderEsch and Company are not going to lose a game this year. Period.
11/8 4:00pm Deary (8-1) vs Council (7-2) @ Lapwai
Led by 3rd year starting QB, Cody Brown, Deary is another team that put up big numbers this year in half the time. The Mustang’s last six games were mercy-rule wins including conference wins against Kendrick, Lewis County and Timberline, respectively. The only one to score against them was Kendrick, who put up 8 points.
The Council Lumberjacks brought back a slew of great players including Corbin Hedges, 1st team all-conference DB, Mick Wilson, honorable mention QB and Casey Dehaas, honorable mention LB.
Council lost two games, but those two losses are very telling. They lost to Troy 66-0 and Salmon River 50-0. Deary is a team that can put up big numbers on offense and defensively shut down opponents. Council will hold their destiny in their own hands as they try to keep the Mustangs from doing either Friday afternoon. It will be a close one that will go the full 48 minutes, but Deary will move on to the next round.
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