Vucinich, CdA put on show

LEWISTON – Good answer.

For the Coeur d’Alene High football team, there weren’t any signs of rust from a bye or any aftereffects from its last loss.

The Vikings used their speed and athleticism to run away from Lewiston in the first half as Coeur d’Alene handled the Bengals 46-26 in a 5A Inland Empire League game Friday night.

For the Vikings (5-2 overall, 1-1 league), it was a must win after they fell to No. 1-ranked Lake City 21-18 two weeks ago. CdA coach Shawn Amos liked his team’s response, especially coming off the bye week.

“They came out ready to play. It was excellent,” Amos said. “Lewiston’s a tough place to play. So it was a great win for us. Step No. 1 taken care of.”

The next step for CdA would be a win at Post Falls in two weeks – the final week of the regular season. A second league win would most likely guarantee the Vikings one of the two state playoff berths.

CdA definitely was on top of its game early, but the Vikings did go three-and-out on their first possession.

Thereafter, though, CdA was unstoppable. The Vikings scored on their next six possessions in the first half, taking a 39-7 lead into halftime.

Vikings senior quarterback Shea Vucinich had another record-breaking game. He passed for 403 yards, eclipsing his single-game mark that he set earlier in the season (391). He also threw five touchdown passes.

Vucinich was typically humble afterward.

“It was just a normal passing game. I had a lot of openings,” Vucinich said. “We had two good weeks of practice. We practiced really (well). We put the loss to Lake City behind us.”

Six of CdA’s seven touchdowns were big plays. Vucinich’s TD passes went for 48, 80, 60 and 54 yards, in that order.

In the first half, Vucinich completed 10 of 14 passes for 316 yards. CdA had 432 yards in total offense in the first half. CdA finished with 578 – 478 of which were accounted for by Vucinich. He rushed six times for 75.

“You dream about that stuff – being that sharp,” Amos said of his team’s first-half execution. “Early in that first half we were clicking (on) both sides of the ball.”

CdA’s first two TDs were a 48-yard pass to Nate Bligh and a 49-yard option run by Calvin Peterson. The third TD came on an 11-yard scamper by Alex Reyes.

Vucinich followed that with a 51-yard toss to Peterson that extended CdA’s lead to 26-0 with 9:17 to go before halftime.

Lewiston’s lone first-half TD came on an 11-play series, capped when junior quarterback Tom Kerr tossed a 12-yard swing pass to Noah McKay.

On CdA’s first play following Lewiston’s score, Vucinich hit Leon Duplessis on a slant that he broke for 80 yards for the Vikings’ fifth TD.

Then after forcing Lewiston to punt on its next series, Vucinich and Duplessis connected again on the first play for a 60-yard TD.

Lewiston coach Emmett Dougherty challenged his team at halftime, saying the rest of the Bengals’ season would be determined essentially by how they played in the second half.

To that end, the Bengals (3-4, 0-1) fought back, pulling within 39-20 when Kerr hit Paul Merrill on a 5-yard scoring connection with 1:01 to go in the third quarter.

But that’s as close as Lewiston would get.

Kerr actually finished with more yards throwing than Vucinich. Kerr completed 31 of 47 for 411 yards.

“I knew they had all kinds of weapons,” Dougherty said of the Vikings. “I thought we had prepared. I obviously didn’t get us ready.

“Their skill guys … we knew we’d have trouble matching up with them. We tried to get some pressure on them and they did a good job picking up our blitzes. I obviously didn’t do a good job preparing them and getting a game plan that would work.”

CdA plays its final non-league game next Friday when it travels to Southridge of Kennewick. Lewiston continues in league when it plays host to Post Falls.