POST FALLS - In football, if you give a team an inch, it'll take a yard.

Give a team four turnovers, chances are you're going to find yourself on the wrong side of the final score.

Post Falls forced four turnovers - two inside its own 10-yard line - in a 25-14 win over the Lewiston Bengals in a 5A Inland Empire League game at Trojan Stadium.

More importantly, for now, it also keeps the Trojans' (4-4, 1-1 5A IEL) playoff hopes alive heading into the regular season finale at home vs. Coeur d'Alene.

"Our defense played really well," Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. "They flew around, and got to the football and just did a nice job. Especially on those goal-line stands."

A Lewiston fumble set up Dalton Thompson's 28-yard touchdown run, which gave Post Falls a 6-0 lead early in the first quarter.

Lewiston (1-7, 0-2) drove down the field in the second quarter, but was stuffed on three straight plays from the 1-yard line.

"The fact that we turned the ball over four times on fumbles, we're not good enough to make mistakes like that and recover," Lewiston coach Shawn Nilsson said.

"We're playing too many young kids. We don't have the speed to break away big plays. We had a couple of plays early, but had dropped passes and couldn't punch that ball in."

A fumbled punt in the second half set up another score by Thompson, a 7-yard run, to give Post Falls a 19-7 lead after the third quarter.

"He's our go-to guy," said Hinz of Thompson. "He's the one that makes it happen for us on offense."

Junior tailback Austin Jackson had 26 carries for 158 yards, including a 22-yard touchdown run to seal the win for Post Falls.

"He worked hard and ran the ball hard," said Hinz of Jackson. "He really just got after it tonight."

Jackson also had one of the Trojans' four fumble recoveries. Thompson ran for 72 yards for Post Falls and threw for 64.

"We kept to the running game, and it really helped us out tonight," Jackson said. "We just need to keep it up. Coeur d'Alene is a big game next week, and we just need to keep it up now."

Next week's winner between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene will get the region's second seed to the state 5A playoffs. The loser will remain alive for a wild card bid in the expanded 12-team bracket this season.

"Basically, we need to keep worrying about ourselves," Hinz said. "We can't worry about who does what, where, when and how. We need to take care of ourselves and get after Coeur d'Alene."

Lewiston, which has lost six straight games, hosts Lake City in its regular season finale next Friday.

Lewiston 0 7 0 7 - 14

Post Falls 6 7 6 0 - 25

First quarter

PF - Dalton Thompson 28 run (pass failed), 9:04

Second quarter

PF - Thompson 14 run (Nathan Gregory kick), 9:00

Lew - Troy Ahlers 6 pass from Colton Richardson (Lane Grant kick), 17.8

Third quarter

PF - Thompson 7 run (pass failed), 1:06

Fourth quarter

PF - Austin Jackson 22 run (kick failed), 9:00

Lew - Ahlers 5 pass from Richardson (Grant kick), 2:10

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Lew, Eberhart, 8-58, Robertson 7-(-3), Sharp, 1-3. PF, Jackson, 26-158, Thompson, 8-72, Bailey, 2-5.

PASSING - Lew, Robertson, 28-49-0-322. PF, Thompson, 6-13-0-64.

RECEIVING - Lew, Way, 7-63, Sharp, 8-96, Ulrich, 3-44, Ahlers, 8-83, Driskill, 2-30. PF, Koski, 3-44, Welker, 2-20, Nelson, 1-0.