Lewiston 54, Sandpoint 27

LEWISTON — Junior Jensen Sheetz broke free for a career-high 140 rushing yards on 18 carries and scored his 10th touchdown of the season, junior Jack Schriber caught his first career receiving touchdown on a 34-yard strike from junior Logan Iverson, who recorded his first career passing touchdown, but the Bulldogs suffered a 27-point 5A Inland Empire League loss to the Bengals Friday night at the P1FCU Sports Complex.

Sandpoint started off the game just like they did last Friday when senior quarterback Braden Buckhout found senior Maverick Gomez for a 48-yard receiving touchdown to cap off a five-play, 76-yard opening drive. After taking the 6-0 lead, Lewiston responded with rushing touchdowns of four and 31 yards, eventually taking a 14-6 advantage after one quarter of play.

The Bulldogs responded as Sheetz rattled off his longest run of the season for a 34-yard rushing touchdown to cut the lead to one point. However, the Bengals found the endzone twice more on rushes of one and three yards and took a 26-13 lead heading into intermission.

Unfortunately for Sandpoint, Lewiston came out of halftime playing lights out. After the opening kickoff was returned to the Sandpoint 38-yard line, the Bengals found paydirt on a 7-yard Mason Way run to extend their lead to 20 points. Way, a senior quarterback who returned for his second start after a week one injury, totaled 236 yards and four total touchdowns in the contest. The Bengals then punched in a 30-yard run roughly 30 seconds later, shortly following their second successful onside kick of the night, to push their lead to 40-13, which stood until the end of three quarters.

In the fourth, within the first two minutes of the quarter, Lewiston scored two more touchdowns on runs of 56 and 70 yards as they scored 40 unanswered points to take a 54-13 lead.

Playing until the final whistle, the Bulldogs would find the endzone two more times.

Senior Wes Smith, who carried the rock 11 times for 59 yards, all in the fourth quarter, put Sandpoint on the scoreboard in the second half with a two-yard rushing touchdown with 3:45 remaining in the game. After a successful Brock Yarbrough onside kick, Schriber and Iverson connected for the 34-yard touchdown with just over two minutes to go before Lewiston gained control and ran out the clock.

"We needed to sustain a few more drives on offense — I think tonight, our best defense was our offense," Sandpoint High head coach Ryan Knowles said of his team, which had trouble wrapping up opposing players and lost the field position battle on the night. "Just not what I expected to see out of our boys tonight, but we have to regroup quickly here."

Sophomore DJ Wilkerson totaled 203 total yards and two touchdowns for Lewiston, which is 3-4.

Yarbrough hauled in six catches for a team-high 58 receiving yards and seniors Aiden Smith and Roman Turnbull both registered sacks and a tackle for a loss on defense for Sandpoint (6-2), which will look towards undefeated Lakeland, who they will host Friday for their league and regular season finale.

"It will be senior night, and we have a lots of seniors who have put a lot of time into this," coach Knowles said. "I think they'll be a little humbled and hurting with this loss, just like I am, and I expect them to respond and bounce back. We'll have a good week of practice and make it a one-game season."

Sandpoint 6 7 0 14 — 27

Lewiston 14 12 14 14 — 54

1st quarter

SPT — Maverick Gomez 48 pass from Braden Buckhout (conversion failed), 10:14

LEW — Mason Way 4 run (Michael Earl kick), 5:56

LEW — DJ Wilkerson 31 pass from Mason Way (Michael Earl kick), 0:36

2nd quarter

SPT — Jensen Sheetz 34 run (Brock Yarbrough kick), 10:03

LEW — Sawyer Casey 3 run (kick blocked), 4:19

LEW — Mason Way 1 run (kick blocked), 1:50

3rd quarter

LEW —  Mason Way 7 run (Michael Earl kick), 7:59

LEW — Austin Topp 30 run (Michael Earl kick), 7:27

4th quarter

LEW — DJ Wilkerson 56 run (Michael Earl kick), 11:45

LEW — Austin Topp 70 run (Michael Earl kick), 10:00

SPT — Wes Smith 2 run (Brock Yarbrough kick), 3:45

SPT — Jack Schriber 34 pass from Logan Iverson (Brock Yarbrough kick), 2:02

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

SPT — Sheetz 18-140, Smith 11-59, Buckhout 8-17, Gomez 1-5, Palmer 1-0, Team 1-(-7). LEW — Topp 6-123, Wilkerson 3-60, Way 10-39, Casey 6-11, Rehfelt 1-5.

PASSING

SPT — Buckhout 9-18-1-121, Iverson 1-1-1-34. LEW — Way 12-17-1-197.

RECEIVING

SPT — Yarbrough 6-58, Gomez 1-48, Schriber 2-46, Taylor 1-5. LEW — Wilkerson 7-143, Earl 2-26, Casey 1-26, Robbins 1-2.