Post Falls finds a way

It was a game Post Falls probably should have won, and did.

But second-year coach Jeff Hinz was anything but ecstatic about his team’s 22-16 victory over visiting Cheney on Friday night.

“We’re just kind of struggling,” Hinz said. “We look great at times and then not play very hard at times – and that’s what we have to overcome.

“We saw it in the Sandpoint game, we definitely saw it last week, and we saw it tonight – we just have to figure out how to play four quarters as a team.”

Hinz paused a moment when asked to point out what positives he saw from his team Friday night.

“We won the game,” Hinz said. “That’s the most important thing.”

The Trojans (2-1) won it with their running attack.

Post Falls rushed for 244 yards on 42 carries, the biggest of which came at the end of the third quarter.

The Trojans trailed for the first time 16-14 after Cheney phenom kicker Justin Hale’s third field goal of the game.

His second field goal was a 53-yard rocket that temporarily silenced the Post Falls faithful.

On the first play of the ensuing Trojans drive – which, like all others in the game, began at their 20 because Hale’s kickoffs routinely landed in the end zone for touchbacks – Brandon Brubaker got the ball on an end-around.

Brubaker rushed right for a minimal gain and play almost seemed to stop, but the junior wideout wasn’t done yet as he cut back and found a wide open field.

“At first I thought I was going to get rocked,” Brubaker said of the play. “But I cut back real fast and saw a big zone and took off as fast as I could.

“But I got a little tired at the end.”

Cheney’s Corey Adams finally ran down Brubaker, but not until Brubaker had reeled off 55 yards to the Blackhawks 25.

Four plays later, Brubaker did the honors, taking it in from 13 yards out for the game-winning touchdown.

“They’d been flowing really hard on our outside sweep play and Brandon just cut it back and almost went the distance,” Hinz said. “It was a key point of the game because it changed the field and flipped the field.”

Brubaker did some other changing and flipping earlier in the game as well.

After the teams traded short touchdown runs in a first quarter that ended 7-7, Hinz went to the playbook for a trick play, calling on Brubaker’s arm this time.

Brubaker took the second handoff on a double reverse, and after a few strides pulled up and found fellow junior wideout Levi Buckles all alone down the right sideline for a 34-yard touchdown.