COEUR d’ALENE — Austin Lee did his best Gunnar Amos impersonation, Chase Blakley looked like a Pac-12-bound tight end, and Coeur d’Alene’s defense eliminated any potential suspense Thursday night.

The Vikings, minus their starting quarterback, fended off a gutsy Post Falls squad 31-14 at Viking Field to capture the 5A Inland Empire League championship and the league’s lone berth to the state playoffs.

Coeur d’Alene (6-3, 3-0 5A IEL) will play host to either Timberline of Boise, or Meridian, next Friday night in the first round of the playoffs.

“It wasn’t always pretty,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “Austin stepped up, did what he needed to do, and everybody else rallied around him.  Pretty proud of the way they found a way to win.”

Lee, a sophomore, started at quarterback for Gunnar Amos, who suffered a concussion last Friday at Lake City. The Vikings learned Thursday afternoon that Amos would not be cleared to play until today at the earliest. Lee, who played well in the fourth quarter last week, rushed for 76 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, and completed 13 of 22 passes for 226 yards and one touchdown, with one interception.

“I had some big shoes to fill,” said the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Lee. “But the team had great confidence in me, and I felt comfortable, and it was exciting and fun. Coach said ‘do your job,’ and I just tried to do what I could to get us in position to move the chains. Stick to the script, and don’t screw up.”

“He’s a good player, he’s a good player,” Shawn Amos said of Lee. “We’ll be glad to have Gunnar back, but he’s a good player. You look at the number of kids that are good football players, this isn’t a one-man show by any means. We’ve got a lot of good football players, so if you just do your job, we’ll be OK.”

Blakley, who has verbally committed to the University of Washington, caught six passes for 148 yards and one touchdown, a 14-yarder late in the second quarter the extended the Vikings’ lead to 24-6.

Post Falls, which finished 5-5, 1-2, kept it close and had its chances. But the Trojans turned the ball over on downs five times deep in Coeur d’Alene territory — including four times inside the Viking 10.

“We left a few (points) out there,” Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. “I thought our kids played hard, and played with them. We stalled out in the red zone, and we left a few on the field and didn’t put ’em up on the board. It’s not a moral victory; we had our chances. We’re not too bad of a football team, fellas. I really do believe in those guys, in those seniors and juniors and sophomores that stepped up, through the injuries and the pain, they played their tails off, and I’m proud of every one of them.”

Three times in the third quarter, the Trojans had the ball deep in Viking territory, and came away empty each time. On the second drive, Post Falls was stopped at the Coeur d’Alene 3 on fourth down, a yard short of a first down.

Coeur d’Alene fumbled the ball back to the Trojans on the next play, and Post Falls had four shots at the end zone from the 1. But the Vikings stopped three straight runs for no gain, and on fourth down, tackled the Trojan ball carrier for a 1-yard loss.

“I thought Post Falls had a good plan; they executed well,” Amos said. “Our defense did a heckuva job making some huge red zone stops. That was huge.”

Coeur d’Alene scored on its fifth play from scrimmage — a 32-yard keeper by Lee — and led 10-0 after 3 1/2 minutes. Post Falls responded with a 79-yard drive, capped by backup quarterback Dalton Thompson’s 16-yard TD pass to Michael McKeown.

Post Falls     6    0    0    8    —    14

Coeur d’Alene     10    14    0    7    —    31

First quarter

Cd’A — Austin Lee 32 run (Brennan Barber kick), 11:05

Cd’A — FG Barber 29

PF — Michael McKeown 16 pass from Dalton Thompson (pass failed), 4:30

Second quarter

Cd’A — Lee 18 run (Barber kick), 8:31

Cd’A — Chase Blakley 14 pass from Lee (Barber kick), 4:43

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Drew Berger 1 run (Barber kick), 8:07

PF — Marc Conradi 42 run (Tom Roman pass from Thompson), 1:36

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — PF, McLeod 19-45, Thompson 14-32, Conradi 3-39, Agueros 2-18. Cd’A, Holgate 3-10, Green 6-33, Lee 11-76, Plum 3-35, Johnson 3-11, Berger 2-1, Le 3-11.

PASSING — PF, Thompson 19-34-0-180, Hauser 0-1-0-0. Cd’A, Lee 13-22-1-226.

RECEIVING — PF, Koski 7-80, Davenport 2-7, McKeown 7-68, McLeod 1-5, Triplett 1-20, Stroh 1-0. Cd’A, Blakley 6-148, Johnson 2-48, Plum 3-4, Green 1-13, Berger 1-13.