Moses Lake unable to stop CDA

MOSES LAKE - The reigning Class 5A Idaho state champions performed as advertised Friday at Lions Field.

Moses Lake (2-1) fell behind 21-0 in the first quarter and was unable to recover, going on to lose its first game of the season 41-21.

The Vikings used explosive plays through the air and took advantage of four Chiefs turnovers to build a commanding lead.

"I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job against them, but you hope that we're going to get better at that (turnovers) every week," Moses Lake head coach Todd Griffith said. "Four turnovers again, not very good. We've got to get better if we want to win football games."

Moses Lake received the ball to start the game and was able to record a first down after Coeur d'Alene (3-0) was called for a roughing the kicker penalty on senior kicker Rehn Reiley's punt attempt.

However, Moses Lake promptly committed its first turnover of the game when there was miscommunication on a pitch between senior quarterback Easton Castro and senior running back Nathan Ball.

The fumble was recovered by CDA senior defensive lineman RC Nazemi.

The Vikings were able to work their way down to the 3 yard line before junior quarterback Austin Lee punched in a 3 yard run to give CDA a 7-0 lead (PAT good) with 7:01 to go in the first.

Lee finished with three rushing touchdowns, one passing touchdown and 304 passing yards. Although Lee recorded only a completion percentage of 35, several deep pass plays burned the Moses Lake defensive backs.

"He's still got stuff to work on," Coeur d'Alene head coach Shawn Amos said. "I like the way our team, on road trips, they would jump out and be ready to play right from the start so that's a good sign for our program."

The Vikings' second score was set up on a 52 yard connection from Lee to junior wide receiver Brian Skinner.

CDA worked its way down to the 1 yard line and Lee notched his second rushing touchdown of the game with 3:44 left in the first quarter, 14-0 (PAT good).

After another three and out from the Chiefs, Reiley pinned the Vikings on their own 3 yard line.

It wasn't an issue.

Lee threw an easy swing pass to senior wide receiver Kyle Schneider who took it 92 yard for the score, giving CDA a 21-0 (PAT good) advantage with 1:05 left in the opening quarter.

Early on, Amos called several quick hitters to the outside to keep Moses Lake's pass rush at bay.

"We knew they had that in their plan," Griffith said. "They didn't throw anything new at us. We prepared for everything ... They're a good football team and definitely they were better than us tonight. I thought our kids played hard."

Moses Lake began to show signs of life on offense about midway through the second quarter when Castro was able to complete a 28 yard pass to senior tight end Derek Crum.

A 16 yard completion to senior wide receiver Kevin Cosper set up 15 yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Jordan Simmons with 5:47 left in the half.

Simmons' score cut into the Viking lead 21-7 (PAT good).

"I think we could've thrown it to him all day long if we would've just could've got a little more of a running game going more than what we did ... We weren't able to get that running game going so it kind of limits what we can do," Griffith said."

Moses Lake churned out 97 yards on the ground on just 2.5 yards per carry. Ball was the leading rusher with 86 yards.

CDA seized the momentum right back when Lee hooked up with senior wide receiver Cole Williams for a 68 yard gain.

The deep pass set up Lee's third rushing touchdown of the game with 4:08 left in the second quarter and the Vikings extended their lead to 27-7 (PAT no good).

Late in the first half, Moses Lake had a chance cut CDA's lead in half but Simmons was unable to haul in his second touchdown reception of the game.

On the next play - a long third down - Castro was intercepted by Williams.

At the start of the second half, Moses Lake was able to recover a Viking fumbled but promptly gave the ball right back when Williams intercepted Castro for the second time.

Castro finished with 126 passing yards, two interceptions and one touchdown.

Coeur d'Alene took a 34-7 lead (PAT good) when there was more miscommunication between Castro was stripped by senior defensive lineman Elliot Sparks who took the ball 34 yards for the score with 9:03 left in the third quarter.

There was some miscommunication between Castro and Ball as the running back went the wrong direction on a read play, leaving Castro with the ball exposed.

Junior running back Griphen Le punched in the final CDA score on a 4 yard run with 10:55 left in the game to give CDA its biggest lead of the game, 41-7.

Moses Lake scored its second touchdown of the game on a 4 yard run by Ball with 6:48 left in the fourth quarter to draw the score to 41-14 (PAT good).

Late in the game, sophomore quarterback Wes Harrington relieved Castro and scored his first touchdown of the season on a 1 yard run with 2:00 left in the fourth to bring up the final score, 41-21 (PAT good).

In the last four games, Moses Lake has played the eventual Class 4A Washington state champions, Chiawana, and Class 5A Idaho state champions Coeur d'Alene.

Griffith wanted to test the mettle of his team early on.

"We chose them for a reason," he said. "I didn't want to get to the first round of the playoffs and have to play a tough team. I wanted to do it now. I think it sets us up well ... We wanted to play early a tougher game and not have to worry about having an easier nonleague.

"We wanted to play tougher teams so we could test ourselves and I think we did it tonight."

Now, the Chiefs will prepare for two straight road trips - their Columbia Basin Big 9 opener at Eisenhower and their last nonleague game against Post Falls.

"You have to keep grinding," Simmons said. "You just got to keep grinding, keep going and games like this make the team better as a whole. Games like this bring us together. They let us know what we've got to work on. We're going to get into film and we're going to come back strong."