After hopping a plane to Boise last Friday and having a choice of high school football games to scout, Coeur d'Alene High football coaches rolled the dice and opted to watch Mountain View play at Eagle.

Good choice.

The Viking coaches looked on as Mountain View of Meridian beat previously unbeaten Eagle 37-16 to lock up the third seed from the 5A Southern Idaho Conference to the state playoffs.

Mountain View (7-2) travels to top-ranked Coeur d'Alene (9-0) tonight at 7 in the first round of the state 5A playoffs.

"Yeah, I think they opened everybody's eyes (by beating Eagle)," Coeur d'Alene High coach Shawn Amos said. "I think they had their losses pretty early in the year and they've been on the roll since then. We just know we're going to play a good football team."

Mountain View lost to Capital 19-7 in its third game, and lost 24-17 to Rocky Mountain on Oct. 14. Coeur d’Alene beat Rocky Mountain 37-24 in the season opener. Rocky did not make the playoffs.

Capital (7-2) is the No. 2 seed from the 5A SIC, and plays host to Skyline (5-4) of Idaho Falls tonight. The winner of that game plays the winner of the Mountain View-Coeur d’Alene game next week in the semifinals.

Also tonight, Lake City (5-4) travels to third-ranked Eagle (8-1) tonight at 6 PDT, and second-ranked Highland (9-0) of Pocatello plays host to Meridian (6-3). Those two winners meet in the other semifinals.

Mountain View quarterback Kai Turner has passed for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns with two interceptions, and has rushed for 678 yards and nine TDs. Daniel Lau has rushed for 857 yards and six TDs, including 157 yards and two TDs last week vs. Eagle.

“They are more of a run-first team, and their defense is their strength,” Amos said.

Mountain View is allowing 15.6 points per game. Coeur d’Alene is scoring an average of 57.0 points per game.

Amos said the Vikings will get four players back this week that didn’t play in last week’s win over Lake City, but will be without sophomore wide receiver Addison Johnson, who suffered a concussion in last week’s game.

Lake City will face an Eagle team with two players already verbally committed to NCAA Division I schools — quarterback Tanner Mangum (BYU) and wide receiver/safety D.J. Dean (Boise State).

Mangum has thrown for 2,882 yards and 26 touchdowns, with nine interceptions.

Dean has caught 42 passes for 667 yards and three touchdowns this season, and also led the conference with six interceptions. He also had a scholarship offer from Idaho.

Lake City coach Van Troxel said preparing for Eagle was similar to preparing for Coeur d’Alene last week — spread option offense, talented quarterback, etc.

But mostly, Troxel said “there’s nothing to lose” this week, and was happy to guide another Lake City team to the playoffs for the 15th straight season.

“It means a whole lot,” Troxel said. “They’ve had to endure me the whole season. And I’m not the nicest guy in the whole world when we have high expectations. There have been a lot of rear ends chewed, and we’ve put them through a lot of paces, but that’s why we do it — so when you get to this point, they’re used to some adversity.”

Other games:

Middleton (8-2) at Lakeland (6-3): Middleton earned the 4A SIC’s second berth to the playoffs with a 43-33 victory at Columbia of Nampa last week. Middleton’s only losses were to playoffs teams Pocatello and Skyview (the 4A SIC top seed).

Victor Diaz rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries last week for Middleton, a predominantly running team.

“They are double-wing,” Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer said. “Their offensive line, the way they get off the ball ... their offense is finely tuned. It’s a smash-mouthed game. I always say playing a team like that is like playing football in a funnel, and that’s exactly what it’s going to be. It’s going to be 22 guys within five yards of the ball and it’s going to be smash-mouthed.”

Lakeland, which won the 4A Inland Empire League, is in the playoffs for the first time since 2007. The Hawks went 6-22 the past three seasons before turning things around this season. The reason?

“I think it’s guys like (quarterback) Eric (Cooper) and it’s all of those seniors,” Kiefer said. “I think they’ve just been a great group of kids to work with and they’ve really stepped up vocally and as far as effort and being good leaders.”

Weiser (8-1) at Timberlake (7-2): These teams met last year in the first round too, with Weiser ending Timberlake’s season with a 37-7 victory at Spirit Lake.

“A lot of the same kids will be playing, because they (Weiser) only had six seniors last year,” Timberlake coach Roy Albertson said. “They’re always a good option team, and always do a great job running the ball ... they’re kind of a smash-mouth team.”

Weiser’s only loss was to Fruitland (36-12), which won the Snake River Valley Conference. Weiser was the No. 2 seed. The Weiser-Timberlake winner plays the Fruitland-Kellogg winner next week in the state semifinals.

Timberlake is in the playoffs for the ninth straight year.

Tri-Valley (4-3) at Kootenai (4-5): The Titans, a co-op of players from Midvale and Cambridge high schools, finished second in the Long Pin Conference.

“Nothing real fancy — they just run right at you,” Kootenai coach Doug Napierala said of Tri-Valley. “They’re not so big where they’re going to drive us off the ball. We’ve got to tackle low and wrap up; they’ll run through arm tackles and high tackles.”

Kootenai, led by the running and passing of quarterback Brandon Carman, is in the playoffs for the sixth straight year.

“Our offensive execution has been really good the last few weeks,” Napierala said.

Prep football

Playoffs

Times PDT

Tonight's Games

Mountain View at Coeur d'Alene, 7 p.m.

Lake City at Eagle, 6 p.m.

Middleton at Lakeland, 7 p.m.

Saturday's Games

Weiser at Timberlake, noon

Tri-Valley at Kootenai, 1 p.m.

Kellogg at Fruitland, noon

Potlatch at Wallace, 2 p.m.