THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Robertson part of Coeur d’Alene’s resurgence on defense

Watching its playoff hopes end last season with a lopsided loss at Lewiston was bad enough for the Coeur d’Alene High football team.

Having the Bengals score 40 points in the romp … well, the Viking defense took that personally.

“We let four teams score over 40 points (last year), so everybody made a collective decision this year that we’re not going to let that happen,” Coeur d’Alene senior middle linebacker Shea Robertson said. “So we’re averaging about 10 points a game scored on us.”

Officially, Coeur d’Alene is allowing 12.7 points a game this season, with two shutouts — but you get the drift.

“Our defense has been solid all year,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said.

THE VIKINGS’ latest shutdown performance came last week in a 24-8 win over Rocky Mountain of Meridian in the state 5A quarterfinals. 

Coeur d’Alene held Rocky to 15 total yards in the first half, 38 rushing yards for the game, and 132 total yards.

“45 (Robertson) is a real good football player,” Rocky Mountain coach Scott Criner said after last Friday’s loss. “The other guys are all good in their roles … 7 (defensive lineman Camden DeGraw) is effective; he can shut down half the field with his athleticism. And schematically, their staff does a really good job.”

Next up for Coeur d’Alene (8-2) — a state semifinal Friday at Eagle (10-0).

Robertson has a team-high 136 tackles for the Vikings, including 1.5 sacks and 23 tackles-for-loss. Junior linebacker Parker Neff has a team-high 3.5 sacks, senior D-lineman Aaron Ivankovich 2.5 sacks and 17 tackles-for-loss.

Junior linebacker Jayson Cady has five of Coeur d’Alene’s 13 interceptions.

“Hard work,” Robertson said. “Our coaches are great, coach (Jeff) Vesser puts together a great plan … coach (Vinny Lupinacci), coach (Brian) Holgate, coach (Vance) Mitchell, coach (Max) Garrick … we have great coaches, everybody likes to work in practice. They make it fun, everybody likes to work hard.”

Robertson has committed to play football at Eastern Washington University next year. He participated in a camp at Eastern last summer, and received a scholarship offer.

“It's close to home, I love the coaches, I love the campus, I love the feel,” said Robertson, who said he also drew some interest from some schools in the NAIA Frontier Conference. “I love the program (at Eastern), the tradition.”

Robertson and his family moved up to Coeur d’Alene from Long Beach, Calif., in 2022, shortly after he finished his sophomore year. 

“We’ve always wanted to live here,” Robertson said. “My dad is a retired police officer, 30 years, so we made the decision to move … I’m glad to be here; I love these guys.”

FOR MOST of the season, senior Owen Harris has been part of that staunch Viking defense, as a safety.

But after senior running back Carsen Speelman was lost for the season in Coeur d’Alene’s regular season finale, Harris, who was getting a few carries each game, got a whopping 38 of them against Rocky, totaling 158 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s been great,” Harris said of being the featured back. “Obviously I miss the guy, miss having that 1-2, but I’ll take what I can get. We miss Carsen; everybody misses Carsen. Usually I play 100 percent on defense, and whatever I can get on offense, but this game (vs. Rocky) I was just 100 percent on offense.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.