Post Falls drops opener to Utah squad

MIDDLETON — Missed opportunities foiled a pretty good offensive effort by the Post Falls Trojans in a 35-17 loss to the Skyline Eagles of Salt Lake City in the Trojans’ season opener Friday afternoon at Middleton High.

“It was their third game and our first, and it kinda showed,” Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. “But we'll learn from it and get better.”

The meet-you-halfway game was closer than the final score indicated.

Trailing 28-17 in the fourth quarter, Post Falls drove to the Skyline 25, but a pass on fourth down and 6 fell incomplete with just under 5 minutes left.

Five plays later, Bo Tate broke several tackles on a 52-yard touchdown run to ice the game for Skyline (2-1).

“I thought we came out and played hard,” Bennett said. “We had some first-game miscues, turned the ball over and had a hard time tackling some of their talented wide receivers. We needed to tackle a little better. It took us a while to get up to game speed.”

Post Falls totaled 414 yards of offense. Sophomore quarterback Isaac McKeown started and completed 12 of 23 passes for 158 yards. Senior Jayden Butler came in early in the second half and was 5 of 9 for 61 yards.

“The thought going in was we were going to play McKeown for a couple series and Butler for a couple series in the first half, but Isaac was doing well, so we stayed with him,” Bennett said. “We wanted to give butler some series so we could evaluate him. The thought was to get both some playing time.”

Jake Bustamante ran for 122 yards on 25 carries, and most of the pass receiving was divvied up between Austin Rutherford, Alexander Shields, Troy Ostlund and Asher Bowie.

Skyline QB Josh Calvert was 21 of 33 for 372 yards and three touchdowns and was picked off twice, by Cole Kripps and Taycen Genatone. Jordan Summers also recovered a fumble for the Trojans.

Wide receiver Miles Hall, a BYU commit, took a screen pass from Calvert and dashed 84 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter to boost Skyline’s lead to 28-10.

“They’ve got a couple receivers that are very talented and hard to tackle,” Bennett said. “Our pursuit angles were off a bit.”

Post Falls also had two lost fumbles, one inside the Skyline 5, and was 1 of 4 on field goal attempts, though two of the misses came from outside 40 yards.

The Trojans had the ball in Skyline territory six times in the first half, 11 times for the game.

“We created some turnovers; our defense got the ball back for our offense,” Bennett said.

Post Falls plays host to Timberline of Boise next Friday.

Skyline 7 14 7 7 — 35

Post Falls 3 7 0 7 — 17

First quarter

Sky — Rayce Walker-Adams 9 pass from Josh Calvert (Zane Cooper kick)

PF — FG Andon Brandt 31

Second quarter

Sky — Porter Brockman 5 run (Cooper kick)

PF — Jake Bustamante 1 run (Brandt kick)

Sky — Brockman 50 pass from Calvert (Cooper kick)

Third quarter

Sky — Miles Hall 84 pass from Calvert (Cooper kick)

Fourth quarter

PF — Tevin Burns 1 run (Brandt kick)

Sky — Bo Tate 52 run (Cooper kick)