Penalties plague Bulldogs in 38-28 loss to Lakeland

RATHDRUM - With a berth in the state 4A football playoffs in their sights, the Sandpoint Bulldogs saw the color yellow instead.

Yellow, as in penalty flag yellow.

The Bulldogs were penalized 16 times for 150 yards, and gave up three long touchdowns in a 38-28 loss to the Lakeland Hawks on Friday night in a 4A North game at Corbit Field.

"It's the most we've had all year," Sandpoint coach Mike Mitchell said. "Our whole concentration this week was to try and get rid of those things, so I'm frustrated by that at the moment."

Sandpoint, Lakeland and Moscow each finished with 1-1 records in 4A North play. Sandpoint beat Moscow last week, and Moscow beat Lakeland the week before.

So the three teams will meet Monday at 7 p.m. at Coeur d'Alene for a Kansas tiebreaker to decide the lone berth to the state playoffs from 4A North.

Jake Semones passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns for Sandpoint (4-5), including a pair of 9-yarders to Shawn Visintin in the fourth quarter to pull the Bulldogs within 31-28.

But Sandpoint kicked off deep and never got the ball back until it was too late. Lakeland (2-7) ate up almost all of the final 4:03, with Kyle Cooper plunging 2 yards for the clinching touchdown with 15 seconds to play.

"Being flat wasn't the deal. We knew they'd play hard - Lakeland always plays hard, and I give them credit for that. You only get about eight possessions a half and every possession we had a penalty on. It just kills your drives.

"We're very lucky we still have an opportunity to climb back into this thing. When you have 16 penalties in a big game, we're lucky we get another shot."

Sandpoint     7    7    0    14    —    28

Lakeland     10    6    7    15    —    38

LL - FG Novak 23

Spt - Semones 1 run (Brusaw kick)

LL - Black 40 pass from English (Novak kick)

LL - McKinney 66 run (run failed)

Spt - Hecker 1 run (Brusaw kick)

LL - McCrite 85 kickoff return (Novak kick)

LL - McCrite 85 run (Youngdell run)

Spt - Visintin 9 pass from Semones (Semones kick)

Spt - Visintin 9 pass from Semones (run failed)

LL - Cooper 2 run (Novak kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Spt, Fisher 11-56, Semones 11-31, Lang 4-7, Hecker 2-0. LL, McCrite 15-139, Cooper 12-42, English 7-8, McKinney 3-77, Thorne 3-16, Sparks 1-(minus 2).

PASSING - Spt, Semones 23-32-1-341. LL, English 5-8-0-68.

RECEIVING - Spt, Visintin 7-87, Cafferty 4-68, Fisher 4-72, Lang 3-14, Hubbard 2-25, Lawrence 2-37, Smith 1-28. LL, Black 2-39, McKinney 1-13, Thorne 1-5, McCrite 1-11. a