Lake City downs Post Falls for first time since 2015

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

POST FALLS — For two teams who knew, win or lose, their season was over after the game, Lake City and Post Falls put on quite the show, at least in the second half, Thursday night. 

Junior Britton Johnston passed for 239 yards and four touchdowns — three to sophomore Landon Leveque — as Lake City defeated Post Falls 28-20 at Trojan Stadium. 

Most years, this game for second place in the 6A Inland Empire League would be for a state playoff spot. But this year, only the league champ (Coeur d’Alene) received an automatic bid, and the MaxPreps rankings of Lake City (3-6, 1-1 6A Inland Empire League), which entered the game 18th, and Post Falls (3-6, 0-2), which entered 15th, weren’t high enough to earn either one of the three at-large berths statewide to the 12-team playoffs. 

It was Lake City’s first win over Post Falls since 2015; the Trojans had won 10 straight from the Timberwolves. 

"A lot of good things right there,” third-year Lake City coach Byron Hout said. “Seniors get to walk off with a win; the next class gets a little bit of momentum with a win going into next year. We got to end that drought (vs. Post Falls). Pretty good win for our program tonight.”

Leveque finished with six catches for 106 yards, including scoring receptions of 24, 55 and 8 yards. 

Junior Brayden Van Leuven ran for 111 yards on 28 carries for the Timberwolves. 

"When we’re clicking, we’re pretty good,” Hout said. “When we’re not having self-inflicted wounds, our offense is good. Tonight we had just a few miscues, but for the most part played a pretty good game on offense.” 

Post Falls had qualified for the state playoffs seven times in the past eight seasons. 

"Obviously, not the kind of season we wanted to have,” 10th-year Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. “We had a great group of seniors, and we certainly wanted to let them go out with a victory tonight, and that didn’t happen. Obviously disappointed in that. We had a couple of chances early and didn’t execute and got behind by a couple of touchdowns. It’s just been one of those years; we shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit.” 

The only points of the first half came on Lake City’s first drive. On third and 4 from the T-Wolf 40, Johnston dropped back, looked left to draw the coverage that way, then threw back to the right to a wide-open junior Paxton Grant, who caught the ball all alone near the Lake City sideline around the 30, and ran it in to complete the 60-yard scoring play. 

On the play, Grant was as open as that stretch where Poleline now runs into Hanley at Huetter Road, and takes you straight to Lake City. 

Post Falls sputtered offensively until Lake City was called for roughing the punter late in the third quarter. 

The Trojans took advantage and got on the board as junior Marshall Tomlinson, who finished with 122 yards on 22 carries, scored from a yard out to cut Lake City’s lead to 16-6. 

But the Timberwolves answered on the first play after recovering an onside kick, as Leveque got past the secondary and hauled in a 55-yard TD pass from Johnston. 

Early in the fourth quarter, Post Falls turned to sophomore quarterback Griffin Carpenter, who had played four quarters in the junior varsity game the night before. 

Carpenter led the Trojans on scoring drives on two of his three possessions, completing seven passes for 104 yards. 

“He’s done a great job with the JV,” Bennett said of Carpenter. “The JV team beat Coeur d’Alene, they beat Lake City. He’s been traveling with us the last few weeks, but he still plays four quarters in the JV game. We thought that might give us a spark, and he did. Caden Reese has done a good job; he was thrown into the fire (when Post Falls lost its first two quarterbacks). We just thought in the fourth quarter we needed a little shot in the arm, and I think Griff did that.” 

Connor Carver had nine catches for 108 yards to lead Post Falls. 

Junior Carter Engebretsen had two interceptions for Lake City.

“If we harp on doing our jobs, we know we can play with anybody,” Hout said. “We know we’re a really good team when we do our jobs and play with the details and the fundamentals that have been coached. The juniors and sophomores that are going to see these seniors in the locker room, and celebrate with them, that memory is what is going to carry us into the offseason.” 

Lake City     8    0    14    6    —    28 

Post Falls    0    0    6    14    —    20 

First quarter 

LC — Paxton Grant 60 pass from Britton Johnston (Johnston run), 5:43 

Third quarter 

LC — Landon Leveque 24 pass from Johnston (Leveque pass from Johnston), 7:05 

PF — Tomlinson 1 run (pass failed), 3:33 

LC — Leveque 55 pass from Johnston (pass failed), :00 

Fourth quarter 

PF — Griffin Carpenter 1 run (pass failed), 8:06 

LC — Leveque 8 pass from Johnston (pass failed), 5:05 

PF — Carpenter 3 run (Connor Carver pass from Carpenter), 2:10 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING — LC, Van Leuven 28-111, Johnston 2-55, Team 2-(minus 36). PF, Tomlinson 22-122, Reese 3-11, Carpenter 2-4, Matthews 1-0, Team 1-(minus 13). 

PASSING — LC, Johnston 12-21-1-239. PF, Reese 12-23-2-108, Carpenter 7-15-0-104. 

RECEIVING — LC, Leveque 6-106, Hill 3-60, Van Leuven 2-8, Grant 1-60, Salsbury 1-5. PF, Carver 9-108, Matthews 7-85, Kern 2-14, Diaz 1-5. 

    MARK NELKE/Press Lake City junior Karter Engebretsen (23) breaks up a pass intended for Post Falls junior Cashton Bodman (3) on Thursday night at Trojan Stadium.