HARRISON FLATS - Often times, one player can't determine a high school football game.

On Saturday, Salmon River senior quarterback and safety Leighton Vander Esch had a big part of sending the visiting Savages of Riggins past the Kootenai Warriors in the quarterfinals of the state 1A Division II playoffs.

Vander Esch threw for 282 yards and ran for another 103, accounting for six touchdowns in a 56-6 victory at Warrior Field, ending Kootenai's season at 6-4.

"It's tough," Kootenai coach Doug Napierala said. "We knew coming into the game that they had the athletes and we had to focus on shutting (Vander Esch) down and playing good in pass coverage. And he just beat us. He's a hell of an athlete and he beat us. He had help, but if you take him out of the equation, it could have been a different story. But he's a hell of an athlete."

Vander Esch also had an interception in the second quarter for Salmon River (10-0), which travels to Dietrich next Saturday in a semifinal game. Salmon River was the top-ranked team in the final state media poll released on Thursday.

"At this level of 8-man football, especially the smallest level, to have a player of his caliber, it's just priceless," Salmon River coach Charlie Shepherd said. "When he can stand back and throw a 25-yard touchdown strike on the dime to the sidelines, it's tough to stop."

Kootenai was making its eighth straight appearance in the state playoffs.

Salmon River took a 6-0 lead after Vander Esch hit Jimmy Shepherd on a 25-yard touchdown pass at the 6:56 mark of the first quarter. Kootenai answered on its next play from scrimmage as Jake Pfeiffer hit Simeon Desautel on a 72-yard touchdown score to tie the game at 6-all 20 seconds later.

"We just noticed they were pressing us, so we thought that deep pass might work there," Desautel said. "Fortunately for us, it did."

From there, it was all Salmon River as the Savages scored the final 50 points of the game, ending it on the 45-point mercy rule with 4:58 left in the third quarter.

"We just had too many drives stall out on us," Napierala said. "In the second quarter, they rode that momentum and we couldn't get it away from them. We just had too many drives stall and couldn't answer. Our kids didn't quit. There's no quit in them. I'm proud of them for that, but we just lost to a better team."

Jimmy Shepherd, son of the Salmon River coach, had three touchdowns, including two touchdown runs in the third quarter.

It was the third time in the last seven years the two teams met in the playoffs, and the first time at Harrison Flats.

"We won on the last play of the game in 2007 and by one score (in the 2009 semifinals), so we knew they played hard-nosed football," coach Shepherd said. "We knew that if we didn't play well, our season would have been over. Kootenai came ready to play and brought it to us physically."

Senior Jake Pfeiffer threw for 122 yards and three interceptions for Kootenai, which will lose 10 seniors off this year's roster.

"We're going to be hitting the retooling shed," Napierala said. "We've got a lot of work to do. Having 10 seniors, they get a lot of the playing time, so we'll be coming in with youth and not a lot of experience."

Salmon River 14 30 12 - 56

Kootenai 6 0 0 - 6

Game called with 4:58 remaining in third quarter due to 45-point mercy rule

First quarter

SR - Jimmy Shepherd 25 pass from Leighton Vander Esch (pass failed), 6:56

Koot - Simeon Desautel 72 pass from Jake Pfeiffer (pass failed), 6:36.

SR - McCoy Hale 23 pass from Vander Esch (Shepherd pass from Vander Esch), 3:20

Second quarterSR - Vander Esch 22 run (20 pass from Vander Esch), 11:53

SR - Vander Esch 40 run (26 pass from Vander Esch), 7:28

SR - Vander Esch 10 run (pass failed), 4:35

SR - Vander Esch 13 run (16 pass from Vander Esch), 0:35

Third quarter

SR - Shepherd 45 run (pass failed), 7:31

SR - Shepherd 2 run (no conversion attempted), 4:58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - SR, Vander Esch 13-102, Shepherd 4-49, Zolman 1-6. Koot, Desautel 8-37, Willms 8-30, Pfeiffer 5-14.

PASSING - SR, Vander Esch 14-21-0-282. Koot, Pfeiffer, Pfeiffer 11-19-3-122.

RECEIVING - SR, Zolman 7-105, Shepherd 5-126, Hale 2-51. Koot, Willms 8-39, Desautel 3-83.