SANDPOINT — Lake City yielded two early touchdowns, fought back to within a score, but eventually fell to the Sandpoint Bulldogs 28-13 in nonleague play Friday night at Barlow Stadium.

Brayden Ross’ 1-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter pulled 5A Lake City (2-3) within 21-13, but Gerrit Cox’s third touchdown of the day, a 1-yard run with 3:49 left, sealed the win on homecoming for 4A Sandpoint (3-2).

“We were close on a lot of plays; we just weren’t quite disciplined enough,” Lake City coach Brian Fulp said. “Guys, defensively, we got out of gaps a couple of times, or we didn’t do a great job tackling, finishing tackles most of the night.

“And they’re good,” he said of Sandpoint. “And we know going in that Cox and (quarterback Parker) Pettit are going to be tough to bring down. We just didn’t finish the tackles when we got there.”

The Sandpoint defense held Lake City to 232 total yards, including 77 on the ground. They also did enough to limit the impact of Lake City playmaker Zach Johnson. The Division I recruit had six catches for 98 yards and one touchdown, and three carries for 27 yards.

"They're putting him at tight end, running back and receiver; I'm surprised they didn't put him at quarterback," Sandpoint coach Ryan Knowles said. "He just does it all and I give him credit, he's a dynamite player, but I was proud of our defense."

Cox had a 40-yard touchdown run and took a screen pass from Pettit and scored from 33 yards out in the first quarter to give SHS a 14-0 lead.

Johnson answered by catching a 12-yard TD pass from Jackson Pettit on a fade route in the back right corner of the end zone to pull Lake City within 14-7.

Sandpoint scored five plays into the second half as Pettit connected with a wide-open Max Frank for a 30-yard touchdown to boost Sandpoint’s lead to 21-7.

With 3:15 left in the third quarter, Lake City's Johnson intercepted a pass by Pettit. The Timberwolves took over at their own 29 and marched down the field, leading to Ross’s score with 11:57 left in the game. They missed the extra point and trailed 21-13.

With the win, Sandpoint finished 3-1 against 5A Inland Empire League schools this season. The Bulldogs beat Post Falls and Lewiston, and lost by two points to Coeur d’Alene.

"It just shows you where the program is and what we're doing," said Knowles, a former Sandpoint High standout who played at Idaho and was an assistant coach at Colgate for 12 seasons before coming back home to coach his alma mater in 2018. "When I first got here one of my mentors, (former Bulldog coach) Satini Puailoa, said, 'Hey, if you want to compete at the state level you’ve got to beat the 5As in the area,' and three wins against them with a 2-point loss to the other one is putting us at that stage."

Lake City opens 5A IEL play next Friday at home vs. Coeur d’Alene.

Lake City 0 7 0 6 — 13

Sandpoint 14 0 7 7 — 28

First quarter

SHS — Gerrit Cox 40 run (Jacob Gove kick), 7:08.

SHS — Cox 33 pass from Parker Pettit (Gove kick), 3:10.

Second quarter

LC — Zach Johnson 12 pass from Jackson Pettit (Kyrus Condon kick), 9:57.

Third quarter

SHS — Max Frank 30 pass from P. Pettit (Gove kick), 10:06.

Fourth quarter

LC — Brayden Ross 1 run (kick failed), 11:57.

SHS — Cox 1 run (Gove kick), 3:49.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — LC, Johnson 3-27, Ross 17-63, Condon 2-1, J. Pettit 5-(minus 14). SHS, Cox 21-171, P. Pettit 11-46, Wimmer 4-15.

PASSING — LC, J. Pettit 12-28-0-155. SHS, P. Pettit 12-20-1-164.

RECEIVING — LC, Johnson 6-98, Hill 3-25, Ross 2-14, Adkinson 1-13. SHS, VanDenBerg 3-26, Frank 5-93, Cox 4-45.