Bulldogs hungry for third straight win tonight

SANDPOINT — Riding a hot defense and the first winning streak in three years, Sandpoint will look to make it three wins in a row tonight on the road at Cheney High School.

The Bulldogs (2-2) have been stingy defensively, allowing just 14 points in the past two games against West Valley and Timberlake. Seniors Jarvis Abbott and Talon Egbers have been disruptive on the defensive line, Isaac Johnson and Quinn Pearlstein are making plays at linebacker and the defensive secondary has limited the big plays that plagued the team last year.

“Everybody is settling in,” said Bulldogs head coach Satini Puailoa. “This should look like one big choreographed dance on offense and defense, and we’re getting closer to that.”

Cheney (3-1) is big up front and plays a lot of guys both ways. They beat Lakeland 27-9 two weeks ago, before falling to Pullman 29-26 last Friday. On paper, the game looks fairly even, and the Bulldogs hope their superior depth makes a difference in the second half.

“Hopefully we can wear them down with our platoon system,” said Puailoa, who is still waiting for all facets of his offense to click at the same time. “It would be nice to run the ball well and throw the ball well in the same game.”

Last week it was the running game, led by Dean Knaggs’ 145 yards, that carried the Bulldogs to a 21-14 win over Timberlake. The previous two games Nate Loutzenhiser threw for 478 yards. When a team can strike a balance between the two and remain unpredictable, it’s that much tougher to defend.

Puailoa was encouraged by how his team rallied after digging an early 14-0 deficit last Friday, staying calm and grinding out a win. It marked another small step on the journey to become a playoff football team.

“What’s slowly started to happen is guys are starting to trust the process and not take the world of burden by themselves,” described Puailoa, noting the team’s practice habits continue to improve. “It’s a full time proposition to get that to happen.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Cheney High School. Bob Witte and Chris Chatburn will call the game live on AM1400, starting with the Yoke’s pregame show at 6:40 p.m.