Heartbreaker for Vikings — Highland stuns Coeur d'Alene in overtime, advances to state 6A title game

By MARK NELKE 

Sports writer 

COEUR d'ALENE — Just like that, the Coeur d'Alene Vikings' season was over. 

Two plays after Coeur d'Alene kicked a field goal on the first possession to take the lead in overtime, Highland ran it in from 9 yards out to stun the Vikings 27-24 in a state 6A semifinal Saturday afternoon at Viking Field. 

"Brutal," 30th-year Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos said. "Just a helluva game. Give credit to Highland; they made the plays when they needed to, especially at the end. They deserve it. Good luck to them, hope they win it all." 

Top-seeded Coeur d'Alene, bidding for its first trip to the state title game since 2023, finished 10-1, bowing out in the semifinals for the fourth straight year. 

Highland (6-5), the fifth seed which beat Lake City twice this season, most recently in the Round of 12, will play third-seeded Rocky Mountain (9-2) of Meridian in the state title game Monday, Nov. 23 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise. 

Rocky won 41-21 at second-seeded and two-time defending champion Rigby in the other semifinal. 

"It's kind of the story of our season," fifth-year Highland coach Nick Sorrell said. "You start out 0-3, we were a few plays away from winning those games. So we've known adversity this year. And now, we know how to finish. These guys stuck together, and didn't let anything faze us, because there's a lot of teams that would have packed it in at 14-0." 

Coeur d'Alene forced four first-half turnovers, including two interceptions by junior Prentice Palmgren (one in the end zone), and led 7-0 at the half. 

On the first possession of the second half, Tannar Stern connected with Jackson Hackett on a 21-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 Vikings.  

Hackett finished with nine catches for 105 yards, but left in the fourth quarter with an injury. 

One play after Coeur d'Alene's score, Highland's Cedric Mitchell sped 80 yards up the gut to put the Rams on the board.  

Later in the quarter, Mitchell dashed 61 yards on a similar play to tie the game at 14. He finished with 203 yards on 19 carries. 

"Our O-line did a fantastic job opening those holes," Sorrell said. "I think I probably could have ran through those, right? We knew that those two linebackers were going to be aggressive, and if we could get them to come up, and seal them off, we were going to have some running lanes." 

"Sometimes they hit you like that," Amos said. "To get two of them was a backbreaker."  

Midway through the fourth quarter, Coeur d'Alene drove to the Highland 3, but Stern was sacked on fourth and goal. 

The Vikings forced a three-and-out, and a scrambling Stern hit Gibson Comstock for an 11-yard touchdown to make it 21-14 with 3:10 left. 

Highland answered with an impressive drive, mostly via the arm of quarterback Jacob Vincent, who came through with two big third-down completions for first downs. 

On second and 6 from the Viking 7, Mitchell swept to the right, faked a reverse handoff and strolled in with 58.7 seconds left.  The Rams opted for the tie. 

Sorrell said he thought about going for two and the win, "but I trusted us to go to overtime and win it. We practiced overtime this week, because I had a feeling. I had confidence that our defense could hold them out of the end zone." 

In OT, Coeur d'Alene had the ball first. 

Strait took a swing pass to the right from Stern and ran it 8 yards to the 2. Stern was stacked up for no gain on a keeper. A third-down pass fell incomplete, and Frankie Lopez booted a 19-yard field goal to put the Vikings up 24-21. 

"With that situation it's tough, but you have to (take the points), because if you don't score any points they just kick a field goal and win it," Amos said. "At that point you have to get some points on the board, and at least force them to score a touchdown." 

On Highland's possession, Mitchell gained 1 yard on first down. On second down, from a split-back set, Vincent faked a handoff to Mitchell, lined up to his right, and handed it to Easton Almond, who found a hole over the right side of the line, ran over a defender at the goal line and scored. 

Highland outgained Coeur d'Alene 151 yards to 57 in the first half, but had nothing to show for it. 

Late in the first quarter, Reid Ramsay stripped Vincent and Elias Golis recovered. 

Four plays later, Strait ran around left end from 6 yards out to make it 7-0. 

Highland drove to the Coeur d'Alene 2, but tried to throw it on third and 1, and Comstock broke up the pass in the end zone and Palmgren intercepted.  

For the game, Highland outgained Coeur d'Alene 384-237. The Vikings had just 43 yards on the ground. 

"That was a full team effort," Sorrell said of his defense. "Every single person has a job, a responsibility against a team like that. Tannar is a handful, and our D-ends did a great job in the run game, and keeping him contained, and keeping him uncomfortable. And they got home a lot, and got pressure in his face." 

Highland's defensive ends tried not to get too far upfield on the pass rush, which would open up running lanes for Stern, who finished with eight yards on 15 carries. 

"We never really got in a rhythm offensively, and that's because Highland played really well on defense," Amos said. "They just flew around; they shut down our run game, and they did a helluva job." 

The speedy Comstock was held to three catches for 23 yards.  

"We knew who their guys were," Sorrell said. "We were going to make somebody else beat us." 

Coeur d'Alene was in the semifinals for the 13th time since 2009. 

"It's a testament to these guys," Amos said. "We lost one of our other best seniors (Hackett) here at the end. We lost three of our best guys, and kids kept stepping up, kept believing. We lost three all-league, all-state level guys and we still got to this point. It always sucks at the end; only one team's happy at the end." 

The Vikings were looking to reach the state title game for the eighth time since 2009. Coeur d'Alene last won it all in 2013. 

"Super proud of these guys again," Amos said. "State semifinals again for how many years in a row (four), overcame a lot of adversity with a lot of kids getting injured, and they stayed together. This was a great group to coach. They cared about each other; they learned all the things that we care about — how to make the team more important than yourself, and with this group we enjoyed going to work every day with them, so ... it's going to suck here for a couple of days, but they can be proud of what they've done. So, we're proud of them." 

Highland     0    0    14    7    6    — 27 

Coeur d'Alene     7    0    7    7    3    —    24 

First quarter 

Cd'A — Oliver Strait 6 run (Frankie Lopez kick), :55.7 

Third quarter 

Cd'A — Jackson Hackett 21 pass from Stern (Lopez kick) 

High — Cedric Mitchell 80 run (Bridger Hanks kick), 7:55 

High — Mitchell 61 run (Hanks kick), 2:50 

Fourth quarter 

Cd'A — Gibson Comstock 11 pass from Tannar Stern (Lopez kick), 3:10 

High — Mitchell 7 run (Hanks kick), :58.7 

First overtime 

Cd'A — FG 19 Lopez 

High — Easton Almond 9 run 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING — High, Mitchell 19-203, Vincent 3-7, Almond 4-22, Jeppesen 1-0, Tingey 1-4, Alo 1-0. Cd’A, Strait 6-33, Stern 15-8, Coleman 2-2, Schillinger 1-0. 

PASSING — High, Vincent 18-32-2-148, Jeppesen 0-1-1-0. Cd'A, Stern 19-30-1-194. 

RECEIVING — High, Mitchell 6-32, Tingey 4-30, Hoopes 3-33, Almond 2-15, Baldwin 2-20, Henson 1-18. Cd'A, Hackett 9-105, Strait 4-20, Comstock 3-23, Coleman 1-12, Schillinger 1-11, Whittaker 1-23.  

    MARK NELKE/Press Coeur d'Alene junior Prentice Palmgren (13) intercepts a pass intended for Highland senior Kona Baldwin (11) in the first half Saturday at Viking Field.