COEUR d’ALENE — The snow that blanketed the football field at Coeur d’Alene High on Friday turned out to be just the playground the Vikings ordered.

Coeur d’Alene dominated Capital of Boise from start to finish, on both sides of the ball, in a muddy 42-14 pounding of the Eagles in the semifinals of the state 5A football playoffs at Viking Field.

“Everyone was hoping, make sure it’s snowing, so we could just run the ball like we did. It was easy,” said Coeur d’Alene senior running back Ty Holgate, who ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. “Personally, I thought we were going to dominate them like we did. I knew it was going to happen. We play with so much heart, and I knew we were going to run all over them like we did, because we knew the snow was coming.”

Coeur d’Alene (8-3), state champion in 2011 and ’12, advanced to its fourth straight state title game, and will play Highland (11-0) of Pocatello next Friday night at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. Gametime has yet to be announced. Highland rallied to beat Coeur d’Alene 24-21 in Pocatello on Sept. 21. The Vikings have won seven straight since then.

The Coeur d’Alene-Capital game was pretty much over early. As the snow fell and the wind blew, the Viking players seemed to keep their traction while running, while the Capital players were slipping and sliding from the start.

Going into the wind, Capital went three and out to start the game.

After the punt, Coeur d’Alene went 45 yards in four plays, Holgate scooting the final 13 just 2:02 into the game.

After another Capital three and out, the Vikings went 56 yards in eight plays, Gibson Green scoring on a 7-yard run.

Two plays later, Coeur d’Alene’s Jackson Carlson picked off a Conner Poulson pass at the Capital 26 and returned it to the 3. Three plays later, from the 9, Viking backup quarterback Austin Lee threw the ball up in the air in the end zone for Chase Blakley, who manuevered around the defender for the catch and a 20-0 lead after just over eight minutes of play.

“These guys, with the way they’ve dealt with all the stuff we’ve gone through, it just pulled them all together, and they’re battling for guys who aren’t in,” Coeur d’Alene High coach Shawn Amos said, referring to his son and quarterback, Gunnar Amos, who suffered a broken ankle last week. “Austin Lee did his job; these guys played with a lot of heart, man. A lot of good football players.”

Turning their attention more to the ground game because of the elements, the Vikings churned out 401 rushing yards and totaled 517 yards. Capital had 70 yards in the first half and finished with 250. Green added 74 yards on 11 carries, and reserve Griphen Le ran for 87 yards on nine carries in the fourth quarter.

“We just started bad and didn’t get much better,” Capital coach Todd Simis said. “We both probably wanted to defer on that initial possession (because of the weather) ... they played a great game. They ran it down our throats, they beat us soundly on both sides of the ball.

“They took it to us early, and in those conditions it was going to be tough to come from behind,” he added. “They performed some of the things they were trying to do better than we did, let’s put it that way. They probably handled it (the conditions) a little better than us.”

Amos said his players embraced the conditions (“It’s North Idaho weather. This is how we roll,” he said), and praised his seniors (“Everybody elevated their play, and we didn’t have to count on one guy.”).

“These conditions helped us, as far as being able to get Austin in a rhythm as far as being able to run the ball,” Amos said. “Up front, we start five seniors, and they took control of the line of scrimmage, and the same thing defensively. It’s still won in the trenches; all the other stuff is just window dressing. We played really well up front.”

Coeur d’Alene drove 76 yards on nine plays in the final 3 minutes of the first half, capped by Green’s 3-yard TD run. The Vikings led 34-7 at halftime and punted just once in the first half.

Holgate opened the third quarter with runs of 32 and 28 yards, setting up Lee’s 2-yard keeper to make it 42-7 after a minute and a half.

Poulson, who rushed for a team-high 956 yards this season, was contained by the Vikings, managing just 38 yards on 20 carries, and he was sacked twice.

Tarik Littlejohn’s 28-yard interception return midway through the second quarter pulled Capital within 20-7 and gave the Eagles a little bit of hope. But on the Vikings’ first play after the kickoff, Holgate broke free up the middle for a 56-yard touchdown run, and Coeur d’Alene never looked back.

Capital 0 7 0 7 — 14

Coeur d’Alene 20 14 8 0 — 42

First quarter

Cd’A — Ty Holgate 13 run (pass failed), 9:58

Cd’A — Gibson Green 7 run (Drew Berger run), 5:43

Cd’A — Chase Blakley 9 pass from Austin Lee (run failed), 3:57

Second quarter

Cap — Tarik Littlejohn 28 interception return (Colby Larsen kick), 5:45

Cd’A — Holgate 56 run (Lee run), 5:23

Cd’A — Green 3 run (run failed), :54.2

Third quarter

Cd’A — Lee 2 run (Blakley pass from Lee), 10:24

Fourth quarter

Cap — Alex Kingmixay 2 run (Larsen kick), 2:23

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cap, Poulson 20-38, Kingmixay 15--69, King 1-(minus 1), Ideota 3-(minus 1), Foley 1-(minus 6), Jackson 2-12. Cd’A, Lee 14-34, Holgate 10-177, Plum 2-5, Green 11-74, Berger 1-2, Johnson 2-15, Le 9-87, Belmont 2-7.

PASSING — Cap, Poulson 7-15-1-75, Littlejohn 1-1-0-64. Cd’A, Lee 9-16-2-116.

RECEIVING — Cap, Littlejohn 4-32, Jackson 2-63, Ruzicka 2-44. Cd’A, Holgate 3-35, Blakley 2-23, Green 1-14, Walde 1-9, Johnson 1-17, Carlson 1-18.