COEUR d’ALENE — The start looked promising — until the ball ended up on the ground.

And then it happened again moments later.

Lake City turned the ball over on its first two possessions, Madison of Rexburg turned both into touchdowns and the Bobcats went on to rout the Timberwolves 48-7 in the high school football season opener for both teams Friday night.

“We had that first drive going, and then we turned the ball over,” said Lake City coach Bryce Erickson, who was making his debut as T-Wolves’ coach. “And on the next series we turned it over right on the next play and kinda lost the momentum from there on out.”

Lake City took the opening kickoff and began an impressive drive, picking up a couple of first downs in its first four plays. But on the fifth play, junior Grant Clark fumbled near midfield and Madison recovered at the Lake City 45.

The Bobcats scored seven plays later on a 2-yard run by Blake Moseley.

On the first play after the kickoff, the Timberwolves fumbled the exchange between the quarterback and running back, and Madison recovered at the Lake City 21. On the next play, Devin Berry lofted a pass to Mason Downey down the far sideline for the score and a 14-0 lead just over four minutes in.

Lake City wasn’t quite the same after the miscues, and Madison started to snuff out the T-Wolves’ up-the-gut running plays.

“They helped us with those turnovers,” Madison coach Mitch Buck said. “They looked good for that little possession, and it really hurt them when we took it in and scored.”

Madison scored on four of its first five possessions and led 28-0 at the break.

Moseley muffed the second-half kickoff, but picked it up and raced 89 yards up the middle for a touchdown.

Moseley ran for 71 of his 79 yards in the first half, including 59 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter.

Madison returned seven defensive starters and three on offense from a team that reached the state 5A semifinals last season. It was the second time in the last three games Madison traveled to North Idaho — the Bobcats won at Coeur d’Alene in last year’s state quarterfinals.

Clark, making his Lake City football debut, finished with 62 yards on 17 carries. Madison outgained the T-Wolves 392-256.

“I thought they did a pretty good job; the game started out exactly the way they wanted to until they turned the ball over,” Buck said. “And then it just kinda went downhill from there. Our kids play fast and hard, and they have a lot of confidence from last year, so it’s easy for them to take advantage of those things.

“I didn’t anticipate that score; I thought this would be a really, really tough game for us, because I know Lake City plays great football,” he added.

Lake City had a scoring chance late in the first half, following an interception by Derek Peters and return to the Madison 23 with 54.6 seconds left. But poor clock management stalled the T-Wolves and, out of timeouts, quarterback Matt Duchow was stopped at the 5-yard line as the clock ran out.

Lake City averted the shutout when backup quarterback Bryce Buttz connected with Nick Goldthorpe on an 8-yard touchdown pass with 6.8 seconds left.

“That’s something to build on,” Erickson said. “My dad (former college and NFL coach Dennis Erickson) would have killed me if we’d gotten shut out tonight. He’d have never talked to me again.”

“The thing that I’m proud of the kids is, I didn’t see any give-up,” he added. “Defensively we played the second half really well; it’s just the little things we’ve got to keep cleaning up.”

Lake City plays host to Lewis and Clark of Spokane next Friday.

Madison 21 7 14 6 — 48

Lake City 0 0 0 7 — 7

First quarter

Mad — Blake Moseley 2 run (Chris Edstrom kick), 8:06

Mad — Mason Downy 21 pass from Devin Berry (Edstrom kick), 7:55

Mad — Moseley 1 run (Edstrom kick), 1:51

Second quarter

Mad — Ryan Perkes 2 pass from Berry (Edstrom kick), 4:44

Third quarter

Mad — Moseley 89 kickoff return (Edstrom kick), 11:46

Mad — Hayden Leatham 72 pass from Berry (Edstrom kick), 1:23

Fourth quarter

Mad — Karson Hastings 9 run (kick failed), 3:13

LC — Nick Goldthorpe 8 pass from Bryce Buttz (Marco Rojo kick), :6.8

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Mad, Moseley 20-79, Berry 2-16, Leatham 2-10, Porter 8-60, Hastings 10-62. LC, Clark 17-62, Duchow 9-5, R. Lettau 6-22, Buttz 1-(minus 3), Mitchell 6-29, Z. Lettau 2-15.

PASSING — Mad, Berry 13-21-1-167. LC, Duchow 11-21-1-81, Buttz 3-5-0-42.

RECEIVING — Mad, Hodges 2-19, Downy 4-73, Weiszhaar 1-13, Perkes 2-14, Moseley 1-13, Robinson 1-24, Dayton 1-1, Leatham 1-10. LC, Baughman 2-17, Watkins 4-30, Clark 2-6, Pierard 3-28, Goldthorpe 2-13, Kosiancic 1-24, No. 81 1-10.