Lake City muscles way to title game

With weather conditions dictating the tempo, the Lake City High football team reverted to its old style – the grind it out, pound-it-down-your-throat mode.

Coupled with a defense that likes it physical, too, the No. 1-ranked Timberwolves manhandled defending 5A state champ Meridian 31-7 in a semifinal Friday played before a rain-soaked, chilled crowd estimated at 2,000 at Lake City.

LC (11-0) will take on traditional power Highland (10-1) Friday in the state championship game at the University of Idaho’s Kibbie Dome. The game most likely will be at 7 p.m., depending on how many other title games are played there.

In the other semifinal, third-ranked Highland knocked off No. 2 Centennial 19-14, snapping the Patriots’ 26-game home winning streak.

It was LC’s second win over Meridian this season. The T-Wolves blanked the Warriors 23-0 in a season opener in late August.

The first half was similar to the opener. At Meridian, LC held just a 3-0 lead at halftime. This time, the T-Wolves led by the same margin, 10-7. The Warriors (7-4) got their lone score – a 13-yard A.J. Storms to Mitch Burroughs pass play – with 17 seconds left before intermission.

When the teams returned for the second half, it was all LC.

“What can you say about our whole defense?” LC coach Van Troxel asked. “In two games we’ve given up seven points to Meridian and nobody else has even come close to holding them down.”

Fittingly, LC’s final touchdown was scored by none other than the defense. Specifically, it was scored by junior defensive end Byron Hout, a manchild at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds.

Hout came free up the middle and plastered Meridian running back Austin Deck, who had just taken the ball from Storms. Hout popped the ball loose and he picked up the fumble and darted 15 yards for the score as LC took a 31-7 lead with 7:32 to go.

Deck had to be helped to the sideline.

“There’s a reason Byron Hout’s the most valuable player in our league,” Troxel said.

Hout said he and senior tackle Cory Tanner were running a crossing scheme. That allowed Hout to go sprinting into the Warriors’ backfield untouched. He has caused a lot of mistakes that have led to many of his teammates scoring the past two seasons, but it was Hout’s first defensive TD.

“He (Tanner) just set it up perfect,” Hout said. “He set up the offensive guard perfect and I had a straight opening in.”

LC’s defense limited Meridian to 161 yards, 107 coming on the slippery ground. Storms, who rushed for 345 yards last week, was held to 43 on 14 carries. Deck had 53 on 12 attempts. The Warriors fumbled four times, losing three.

The T-Wolves dominated time of possession and had no turnovers. That manifested itself in 297 rushing yards on 54 carries. LC quarterback Garren Hammons had 141 yards on 25 attempts and running back B.J. Palmer chipped in 105 on 18 rushes.

“When it gets right down to it, what’s going to win on this (surface) is being able to knock somebody off the ball,” Troxel said. “Defensively, we got after them as well or better than anybody else has gotten after them.”

All Meridian coach Mike Virden could do was praise LC.

“Lake City is every bit as good as they are,” Virden said. “They’ve earned the right to be where they’re at. I’ve got to take my hat off to them. They got it done tonight.”

Virden didn’t use the weather as an excuse.

“We missed a few opportunities,” Virden said. “We’re not a finesse football team, we’re a power football team.”

LC owned the power game – on both sides of the ball.

It will be LC’s fourth time in a state title game since 1999. The T-Wolves’ lone championship came in 2002, their last year in 4A.