But Cd’A coach says there’s plenty of room for improvement

COEUR d’ALENE — They have such a high standard, and such talent, that the Coeur d’Alene Vikings can pile up 54 points and 527 yards in a state playoff game — and still leave their coach yearning for more.

“It’s like a broken record for me, though; we could be so good. We just continue to be our own worst enemy,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said after the Vikings routed Borah of Boise 54-13 in the first round of the state 5A playoffs Friday night at Viking Stadium.

Coeur d’Alene (6-3) jumped out to a 14-0 lead after 2 1/2 minutes and was never seriously threatened by the Lions (5-5). The Vikings advance to travel to top-ranked Eagle (9-0) in the quarterfinals next Friday night, with game time tentatively set for 6 p.m. PDT.

But Amos pointed to numerous penalties, a couple defensive breakdowns and some missed opportunities on offense by his team.

“What scares us as coaches is, we have that many penalties against Eagle, we will not play beyond Eagle,” he said. “Great win, on to the next round, nice to win your last home game, but there’s just a lot of stuff we need to work on.”

Coeur d’Alene took the opening kickoff and marched 65 yards in 12 plays, capped by a 14-yard pass from Colson Yankoff that Cole Ramseyer went up and snagged in the right corner of the end zone.

On Borah’s first play, from its 10, the snap from center whistled past the quarterback and Viking senior Ethan Lillis pounced on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.

Yankoff was 22 of 37 for 304 yards and four touchdowns, two each to Ramseyer and Kyler Prendergast. Ramseyer had six catches for 65 yards.

Both of Prendergast’s catches went for scores. The first one was a 56-yarder in the first quarter where he got behind the cornerback down the left sideline after he bit on a fake wide receiver screen. On the second, he took a short pass from Yankoff in the right flat, slipped a tackle and turned a short gain into a 62-yard score as he zipped down the right sideline to the end zone.

“I thought he was going to get me out, but he just gave me a little boost,” Prendergast said of the defender. “I think Folsom (the season opener) was our best game, but I think we can get it back, (with) hard work, good prep.”

Coeur d’Alene held Borah to 37 net rushing yards. Senior Kegan Lester came into the game as the second-leading rusher in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference, with 1,347 yards and 11 touchdowns. But the Vikings bottled him up, holding him to short gains and a total of 81 yards on 27 carries.

“We did a great job on the run,” Amos said. “If it wasn’t for pass interferences, we would have done a very good job on the pass. And no comment on that. We stopped what they want to do, but they made some good plays throwing the ball; they hung around in the game.”

Lester ran for both Borah scores, which were both set up by long pass plays.

Borah’s punter fumbled a snap from center late in the first half and got snowed under at his 40, and Coeur d’Alene turned that into a touchdown and a 34-13 halftime lead.

In the second half, interceptions by Ross Chadderdon and Ben Hoffman led to Viking touchdowns. Chadderdon also had a fumble recovery in the first half when Joey Naccarato dislodged the ball from the quarterback and Chadderdon caught it.

“We have not played close to our best game yet,” Amos said. “That’s the frustrating thing. We won by whatever we won by, but you’re still not satisfied because we have just not put it together. And with Eagle, we’d better put it together. They’re pretty dang good, I’ve heard.”

Borah 7 6 0 0 — 13

Coeur d’Alene 20 14 13 7 — 54

First quarter

Cd’A — Ramseyer 14 pass from Yankoff (Harrison kick), 9:46

Cd’A — Lillis fumble recovery in end zone (Harrison kick), 9:28

Bor — Lester 2 run (McCullough kick), 5:40

Cd’A — Prendergast 56 pass from Yankoff (run failed), 5:07

Second quarter

Cd’A — Prendergast 62 pass from Yankoff (pass failed), 9:02

Bor — Lester 3 run (kick failed), 3:47

Cd’A — Ramseyer 10 pass from Yankoff (Vang run), :59

Third quarter

Cd’A — Vang 8 run (Harrison kick), 3:18

Cd’A — Yankoff 43 run (kick blocked), :03

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Yankoff 1 run (Harrison kick), 10:35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Bor, Lester 27-81, Standlee 1-(minus 10), Haley 1-0, Swann 2-2, team 3-(minus 37). Cd’A, Sumner 1-9, Vang 9-58, Yankoff 9-79, Beggerly 6-23, Gove 1-1, Anderson 3-12, Morgan 2-11, Edwards 1-9.

PASSING — Bor, Standlee 12-30-2-178. Cd’A, Yankoff 22-37-0-304, Edwards 2-2-0-21

RECEIVING — Bor, Suarez 1-38, Nett 3-25, Lester 2-3, Magnuson 2-31, Haley 4-81. Cd’A, Vang 4-27, Naccarato 3-29, Ramseyer 6-65, Prendergast 2-118, Gove 3-11, Sumner 1-21, Beggerly 1-9, Dawson 1-12, Langley 1-12, Thompson 1-(minus 1), Linehan 1-23.