EAGLE - Van Troxel felt it would take a supreme effort for his Lake City High football squad to notch an upset of powerful Eagle High.

But a mistake-filled effort sabotaged any chance the Timberwolves had against the Mustangs.

Lake City committed five turnovers in a 58-7 loss at Eagle High in Friday's 5A first-round state playoff game, and the veteran coach knows that is not a formula that leads to leaving the field victorious.

“This is my 15th year in the state playoffs and, almost without a doubt, all the playoff games won and lost usually come down to turnovers,” Troxel said as snow landed on his head and shoulders. “There are usually eight pretty good teams.

“Now they were a little better than we were, but you don’t turn the ball over and you don’t give them short fields. You just can’t do that against good football teams.”

The Timberwolves (5-5) fell behind early against the third-ranked Mustangs (9-1) and things went downhill from there. Eagle scored 17 points in the opening quarter and then poured it on with four second-quarter touchdowns to take a 45-0 halftime lead.

Eagle’s Tanner Mangum threw for 221 yards and three touchdowns in the first half and the Brigham Young-bound quarterback was a spectator in the second half.

“We prepared for a tough battle and we were fortunate that it was put away relatively early,” Eagle coach Paul Peterson said. “I give credit to my staff and the players. They came with an incredible desire to play at a high level and it was good for the organization. They wanted to dominate.”

Lake City was trailing 17-0 before it even notched its initial first down. It came on the final play of the opening quarter when junior running back Brandon Johnson rumbled for 14 yards.

But disaster occurred on the first play of the second quarter when Johnson lost a fumble and Eagle took advantage, with Mangum throwing a 25-yard scoring pass to Boise State-bound D.J. Dean on fourth-and-8 to make it 24-0 with 9:24 left in the half.

Things got progressively worse for the Timberwolves. Junior quarterback Bruce Shipley was intercepted by Eagle linebacker Donte Marquez, who returned it 32 yards for a touchdown. Then Shipley’s punt was blocked by Eagle’s Austin Huckvale and the deficit was soon 38 points as Collin Ray scored from 1 yard out.

Mangum’s third touchdown of the half — a 7-yarder to Jason Lane — made it 45-0 with 31.8 seconds remaining before intermission.

At that point, Lake City had committed more turnovers (three) than its accumulation of first downs (two).

“When the second quarter started, we still thought we could come back and get on Mr. BYU,” senior tight end/linebacker Danny Brum said in reference to the highly-touted Mangum. “We went in at halftime and said, ‘Let’s have fun. It’s our last game together. We’ll never play with each other again.’ And that’s what we did.”

The Timberwolves went three-and-out on their first possession of the second half and then botched a punt snap on fourth down. Eagle’s Kyle Smith recovered and the Mustangs made it 52-0 three plays later on Jake Erickson’s 1-yard run.

Lake City got on the board with 6:41 left in the third quarter when junior linebacker Dominic Oliver scooped up an errant Eagle shotgun snap and returned it 6 yards for a touchdown.

The Timberwolves kept a 15-season playoff streak alive by winning a Kansas tiebreaker earlier in the week. They bussed down to the Boise area early Friday morning and were right back on the bus headed home to Coeur d’Alene after the contest.

“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm,” Troxel said. “It was the first really big game for our junior quarterback and sometimes that happens and you just don’t get into a good rhythm and it just doesn’t go well.

“Like I told them at halftime, at the start of the game the difference was that (Eagle) blocked better and tackled better than we did.

“We didn’t wrap up, we didn’t finish. Those fundamentals were really the difference. Right now, they’re a better football team than we are, I can admit that.”

Eagle moves on to face Highland (10-0) in the semifinals and the Mustangs see the victory over Lake City as just the first part of the process.

“Absolutely,” Mangum said. “The state championship is our main goal and this is just another step toward that. We have to come out and have another good week of practice and continue this run.”

Lake City        0   0   7   0 — 7

Eagle            17  28  7   6 — 58

E— Jace Johnson 21 FG

E — Austin Diffey 48 pass from Tanner Mangum (Johnson kick)

E — Jason Lane 4 run (Johnson kick)

E — D.J. Dean 25 pass from Mangum (Johnson kick)

E — Donte Marquez 32 interception return (Johnson kick)

E — Collin Ray 2 run (Dillon Sabados kick)

E — Lane 7 pass from Mangum (Sabados kick)

E — Jake Erickson 1 run (Sabados kick)

LC — Dominic Oliver 6 fumble return (Andrew Hocking kick)

E — J.T. Williams 1 run (kick failed)          

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing — Lake City, Bevacqua 2-38, Williams 9-25, Johnson 2-14, Mitchell 2-5, Hewitt 1-2, Terrell 1-(-1), Louie-McGee 2-(-4), Shipley 6-(-8); Eagle, Martinez 7-35, Simons 5-35, Lane 6-27, Wheeler 3-18, Erickson 6-16, Cooper 5-15, Williams 4-15, DeWitt 1-5, Ray 2-3, Mangum 2-(-9)

Passing — Lake City, Shipley 5-16-2-24, Traverse 8-15-2-61, Louie-McGee 0-1-0-0; Eagle, Mangum 11-16-0-221

Receiving: Lake City, Balison 3-34, Bevacqua 3-21, Brum 2-(-2), Baker 1-18, Traverse 1-8, Mitchell 1-7, Williams 1-1, Terrell 1-(-2); Eagle – Cooper 6-113, Lane 2-32, Dean 2-28, Diffey 1-48.