I have seen football games between Kootenai and Mullan high schools where one team nearly scored 100 points in regulation.

Another in a Kansas tiebreaker to determine a berth to the state playoffs in a driving snowstorm.

Chances are, if you were one of those fans in attendance for the Sept. 16 6-man football game between the two schools in Mullan was like nothing you’ve seen before.

KOOTENAI JUMPED out to a 46-0 lead just before halftime. With a running clock for the rest of the game — except on scoring plays and long incompletions — the Warriors outscored the Tigers 30-24 in the second half.

“We’re going to live off the second half,” said Mullan coach Stetson Spooner, who is in his fifth season as Tigers coach. “The second half was 30-24. A game like that against a team with the talent that Kootenai has, we were pretty happy with what we got there. We’re learning negatively from our first quarters and positively from the second half.”

The top two teams from the White Star League in Division II advance to the state playoffs. Since the state does not sanction 6-man football, there will be no postseason for Mullan, which doesn’t have enough players to field an 8-man team this year.

“We’ve just been working really hard in practice and our coaches have been pushing us hard,” Kootenai senior running back Dylan Wright said. “It was definitely a fun game (against Mullan). It was a blast. We’re going to feed off of this game and try to keep it going.”

The game, which featured running backs throwing touchdown passes to the quarterback and sometimes to a player on the offensive line — all six players can be eligible receivers depending on the situation, including the center. Kootenai senior center Coleman Donohoe caught a touchdown pass on a shovel pass from quarterback Hunter Whipple, then was part of a conversion play in the third quarter as Kootenai went on to beat Mullan 74-30.

“It was crazy,” Kootenai receiver Tanner Andersen said. “We’ve been wanting him to score a touchdown all year long, and we anticipated it could happen in this game. We wanted to get everyone in the end zone, and it was nice to see the big man score once.”

A FEW times, games between the two meant just who was going to advance to the postseason and which was staying home. A few times, it determined which team got to host that playoff game once the 1A classification opted to separate into two classifications.

“To play Mullan, there’s a rivalry between the two schools that goes back a long way,” said Kootenai coach Doug Napierala, in his 16th season as Warriors coach. “And our fans were happy to see it back on the schedule. Our kids were happy to play the game and hopefully Mullan can get a program going strong again. It sounds like they’re going to have a junior high program next year, and it’s going to feed up to the high school. Us and Mullan have had some just awesome battles. To revitalize that, it would be fun again.”

Some of those battles include a 2006 game where Kootenai jumped out to a 46-0 lead after the first quarter to beat the Tigers in the regular season finale to give the Warriors the right to host the playoff rematch a week later. In the rematch, played in a driving rainstorm, Mullan clipped Kootenai 26-22. Two years later, Kootenai steamrolled everyone on its way to the state 1A Division II title game before losing to Carey. Kootenai advanced to the semifinals three straight years from 2007 to 2009, then again in 2011. The Warriors advanced to the state playoffs for seven straight years, but have not advanced since the North Star League combined with the White Pine League in 2014 to form the White Star League.

Kootenai advanced to the state semifinals again in 2011, losing to Lighthouse Christian in the semifinals. After back-to-back one-win seasons in 2014 and 2015, Kootenai has opened with two wins in its first three games entering Friday’s game against Lakeside.

Things haven’t gone quite the same in Mullan, which is back after having to cancel its program in 2015. The Tigers set out to play an 8-man schedule in 2016, but due to low numbers, had to opt for 6-man instead.

WHETHER OR not this was just a one-year thing, or 6-man football could soon be something played in Idaho with other teams jumping on board in the coming years, the game definitely keeps your attention.

And for a change, focus on a game instead of wondering if they’ll actually get the chance to play it again.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.