RATHDRUM - Lakeland senior Tyrel Derrick was in all the right places on Friday night.

Hitting open receivers for touchdowns, check.

Finding the lane on rushing attempts, check.

In the defensive backfield when a play needed to be made, check.

Derrick intercepted a Nate Loutzenhiser pass at the Lakeland 30-yard line with 1:58 remaining, sealing the Hawks' 31-28 victory over the Sandpoint Bulldogs in the 4A Inland Empire League opener for both at Corbit Field.

Derrick, who threw for 219 yards and ran for another 89, was inserted on defense to make something happen in the second half.

Mission accomplished.

"I'd played defense all the time as a sophomore, but haven't done it much the last two years," Derrick said. "We were in deep coverage, and they ran a deep pass. I just saw the ball and tried to make a play on it."

"It was just two great football teams going at it," Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer said. "It was fun. Fun for our team to play, and to coach. It was a great game played by both teams."

The rivalry, which was dominated by Sandpoint (3-4) from 2004 to 2009, and more recently by Lakeland (5-2), was reborn.

"In order to have a rivalry, both teams have to participate," Sandpoint coach Satini Puailoa said. "There was a period of time where it was all Sandpoint from 2004 to 2009. Then, it's been pretty much Lakeland from 2010 until now. It was a hard-fought contest. We've got to beat Moscow next week to keep our playoff hopes alive and lick our wounds from this one, but it was a heck of a battle. Lakeland made enough plays to keep us at bay, and we didn't."

With the expansion of the state 4A playoffs, the top two teams from the 4A IEL advance this season.

"No question it was a huge game," Kiefer said. "We came after this one and didn't leave anything to chance. We've still got two football games to play and Moscow looks much improved. We're going to turn our focus to them in the next two weeks."

Sandpoint (3-4) landed the first blow early on, driving right down the field and scoring on a 36-yard run by Kyle Perry to take an early 7-0 lead. Lakeland struck back on its first play from scrimmage on a 60-yard touchdown pass from Derrick to Jason Rose.

Derrick scored again at the start of the second quarter on a 31-yard run to give Lakeland a 14-7 lead. Rose caught another pass for a 40-yard score before halftime to break a 14-14 tie with 6:15 remaining in the half.

"I don't think there's been a situation where he's been covered this year," said Kiefer of Rose. Every play, when he comes to the sideline, he tells me he's open, 'I'm open coach," and we threw the ball to him and couple times and came up big. We're lucky to have him on the team."

"I always tell our coach that I'm open," Rose said. "We needed this win tonight. I couldn't have done it without our offensive line giving Ty the time to throw the ball and get the ball to me."

"That's the one thing I love about our receivers," Derrick said. "They're competitive every day. They want to get better each day and they want that ball. It's a win that needed to happen. That's a fantastic football team in Sandpoint. I thought we showed toughness tonight. I'm proud of the whole team and our coaches tonight."

After a Cade Coffey 52-yard field goal gave Lakeland a 24-14 lead, Sandpoint struck again as Perry scored on a 2-yard run, set up by a 76-yard pass from Loutzenhiser to Wyatt Cox to cut Lakeland's lead to 24-21 at halftime. Perry finished with 18 carries for 127 yards for Sandpoint, which ran for 257 yards.

"Kyle's having a great year," Puailoa said. "But it's a team thing. We had a lot of guys that made plays, but they made a few more at the end. It was just a great game."

Loutzenhiser threw for 151 yards and a 47-yard touchdown pass to Matthew Timothy with 5:32 remaining to cut Lakeland's lead to 31-28. Coffey missed a 46-yard field goal, and Sandpoint drove to the Hawks' 45 before Derrick made his final big play.

Tuekota Tate-Vandever ran for 145 yards, 138 coming in the second half for Lakeland.

Sandpoint hosts Moscow next Friday at Barlow Stadium, needed a win to keep its playoff hopes alive.

Lakeland hosts Pullman in a nonleague game next Friday.

Sandpoint 7 14 0 7 - 28

Lakeland 7 17 7 0 - 31

First quarter

Spt - Kyle Perry 36 run (Michael Plaster kick), 9:59

LL - Jason Rose 60 pass from Tyrel Derrick (Cade Coffey kick), 9:43

Second quarter

LL - Derrick 31 run (Coffey kick), 11:51

Spt - Tyler Presser 47 run (Plaster kick), 10:07

LL - Rose 40 pass from Derrick (Coffey kick), 6:15

LL - FG Coffey 52, 2:11

Spt - Perry 2 run (Plaster kick), 1:14

Third quarter

LL - Tuekota Tate-Vandever 2 run (Coffey kick), 3:33

Fourth quarter

Spt - Matthew Timothy 47 pass from Nate Loutzenhiser (Plaster kick), 5:32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Spt, Harris 2-16, Perry 18-127, Presser 7-79, M. Timothy 1-17. LL, Tate-Vandever 17-145, Derrick 18-89, Martin 1-0, Washburn 2-20, Marshall 5-5.

PASSING - Spt, Loutzenhiser 8-15-1-151. LL, Derrick 10-18-0-219.

RECEIVING - Spt, J. Timothy 2-12, Cox 1-75, Perry 3-17, M. Timothy 1-47, Harris 1-5. LL, Rose 3-138, Bodak 1-4, Howell 2-16, Tate-Vandever 2-16, Washburn 1-9, Derrick 1-0.