Hawks force tiebreaker ... Tamagni, Lakeland run past Lewiston to create three-way tie for 5A IEL title; Kansas tiebreaker to determine auto berth to playoffs

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

RATHDRUM — Lakeland’s Mike Schroeder hasn’t been part of one in his 22 years as a head coach.

Neither has first-year Lewiston coach Zane Hobart.

But — like it or not — come Monday, someone’s going to be a lot happier with where their team is playing in the first round of the state 5A playoffs.

Lakeland outscored Lewiston 33-14 in a frantic fourth quarter and went on to beat the Bengals 42-17 in a 5A Inland Empire League football game, forcing a three-way tie for the league title.

Lakeland (8-1, 1-1 5A IEL), Sandpoint (6-2, 1-1) and Lewiston (3-6, 1-1) will compete in a Kansas tiebreaker on Monday at 6 p.m. at Viking Field at Coeur d’Alene High to determine the automatic qualifier to the state playoffs.

Lakeland is ranked fourth by MaxPreps, which is used to seed the state playoffs. Lakeland, Sandpoint (seventh) and Lewiston (ninth) will all be in the 16-team playoffs starting next weekend.

“It’s the first one of my career,” Schroeder said. “We’re going to do some film and prep, walk-through and we’ve got to prepare to play on Monday night. It’s something new and exciting, but a lot of work to play for a three-way tie.”

Matchups will be determined by a coin flip.

“I haven’t been personally, but some of our coaches have been a few years back,” Hobart said. “We’ve been there before. I think it’s going to be a challenge for all three of us. To beat each other up on a Monday and then turn around and go play a game on Friday or Saturday, it sucks, but that’s the situation we’re in. We’ve just got to get our kids ready to play on Monday.”

Lewiston beat visiting Sandpoint 54-27 on Oct. 10. Sandpoint beat visiting Lakeland 31-27 last Friday night.

“From what I hear, it’s quite the experience,” said Schroeder of the tiebreaker format. “You can be out of that thing in 30 minutes, or you could be there an hour. I heard a school was on the bus in 18 minutes. But we’re looking forward to it.”

After the teams exchanged field goals to make it 3-3 at halftime, Lakeland took the lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by Griffin Tamagni to make it 9-3 at the end of the third quarter.

“We had some red zone issues last week and tried to rectify that this week, and we did for the most part,” Schroeder said. “We had one turnover in the first quarter where we had to get back to the running game and establish the line of scrimmage.”

Tamagni ran for 176 yards in the fourth quarter, including an 86-yard touchdown run with 1:56 to give the Hawks a 35-17 lead.

“When I got to the 30, I was about to go down, but just decided to score,” Tamagni said. “I just started seeing the hole a lot better in the fourth quarter and just started warming up.”

“He gets better as the game goes on and gets more competitive,” said Schroeder of Tamagni, who scored three touchdowns. “And that’s the way we like it. The O-line started blocking a little better and Lewiston started to get discouraged there, but it was a good game for him.”

Lewiston cut the deficit to 22-17 with 4:09 remaining on a 78-yard kickoff return by DJ Wilkerson. Lakeland senior linebacker Ben Bixby scooped up the ensuing onside kick and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. 

“I thought our kids played really well,” Hobart said. “We’re in a ballgame there until about four minutes to go and the game just got away from us. From trying to get an onside kick to try and go win the ball game, to that.”

Lakeland senior quarterback Peyton Hillman threw for 112 yards and ran for another 63.

“We thought in the first half we were good physically and playing really well,” Schroeder said. “But we started doing the right things and executing the right way.”

Lewiston    0    3    0    14    —    17

Lakeland    0    3    6    33    —    42

Second quarter

Lew — FG Michael Earl, 22. 7:25.

LL — FG Parker Sterling, 24, 4:06.

Third quarter

LL — Griffin Tamagni 2 run (kick failed), 2:58.

Fourth quarter

Lew — Earl 50 pass from Mason Way (Earl kick), 7:05.

LL — Tamagni 32 run (Sterling kick), 4:24.

Lew — DJ Wilkerson 78 kickoff return (Early kick), 4:09.

LL — Ben Bixby 50 kickoff return (Sterling kick), 4:04

LL — Tamagni 86 run (kick failed), 1:56.

LL — Peyton Sardinha 45 interception return (Sterling kick), 1:45.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Lew, Casey 3-8, Moody 1-0, Way 3-19, Topp 4-6. LL, Tamagni 31-228, Hillman 9-63, Lund 3-52. 

PASSING — Lew, Way, 16-29-0-201. LL, Hillman, 11-18-1-112.

RECEIVING — Lew, Earl 7-131, Wilkerson 7-54, Haines 2-30, Bernatz 1-0. LL, Rivadeneira 1-16, Taylor 5-43, Yager 2-20, Lukey 1-5, Cooper 1-18, Bevacqua 1-8.

    JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Lakeland senior linebacker Peyton Sardinha intercepts a pass and returns it 45 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of Friday's 5A Inland Empire League football game against Lewiston at Corbit Field in Rathdrum.