Lake City looks for second league win
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 14 years, 3 months AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | October 8, 2010 9:00 PM
One big win does not a league title make.
But it’s not a bad start.
Having opened 5A Inland Empire League play with a last-minute victory over Post Falls, the Lake City Timberwolves travel to Lewiston for another league game tonight at Bengal Field.
Lake City (3-2, 1-0 5A IEL) has the early league lead. It’s the league opener for Lewiston (4-1). Lake City won 49-19 at Lewiston last season.
“Lewiston’s no pushover; they’re going to be a tough game,” Lake City coach Van Troxel said. “Coeur d’Alene down the road ... this is still anybody’s game, but, being 1-0 in league definitely puts us where we want to be.”
Lewiston gets to play two of its three league games at home. Coeur d’Alene makes the long trek down there next Friday for its league opener.
Last year’s Lewiston quarterback, Justin Podrabsky, is redshirting at Idaho this season. His successor with the Bengals, senior Beau Kerns, has passed for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns this season.
Coeur d’Alene (4-1) at Vallivue (5-0): The Vikings head to Caldwell tonight in their final nonleague game, before playing three league games in the next three weeks.
Coeur d’Alene moved up to second in the state 5A rankings after beating top-ranked Rocky Mountain of Meridian last week. Vallivue is ranked third, and averaging 51.4 points per game.
Post Falls (4-1) at Sandpoint (2-3): The Trojans look to bounce back after last week’s disappointing loss at Lake City. The Bulldogs are coming off a pair of big losses to 5A teams, Lewiston (56-21) last week and Coeur d’Alene (55-7) the week before.
Pullman (2-3) at Lakeland (1-5): The Greyhounds have lost to Moscow (35-0) and Lewiston (46-7). Lakeland opens 4A IEL play next Friday at home vs. Sandpoint.
Timberlake (1-4, 1-0 Intermountain League) at St. Maries (3-3, 1-1): St. Maries is riding high after its first league win since 2008. The Lumberjacks are looking for their first win over Timberlake since 2000.
On the air/web: Lake City-Lewiston is on KVNI, niwebsports.com and IdahoSports.com. Coeur d’Alene-Vallivue is also on IdahoSports.com.
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“I’ve been very impressed by Zach’s natural ability to rush the passer,” Eck said. “And he’s worked hard on his body, he’s up to about 222 pounds now, and I really think he can be a difference maker for us. He’s still doing some things with the linebackers, but I think his speed can give some offensive linemen problems (as an edge rusher).”
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“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”