Badgers earn state berth

October 28, 2013
By Coach Don Alt

On Friday, the Bonners Ferry Badgers hosted the Kellogg Wildcats in an Intermountain League football game, and earned a trip to state with a 59-13 romp.

The Badger defense started the game by limiting Kellogg to three plays and out. This was a start of a long first quarter for the Wildcats.

The Badgers took over on their own 35 yard line and immediately struck with a 60 yard pass from Christian Trocke to Matt Sabin to the Kellogg five yard line. On the next play, Anthony Skeen went in untouched off the right side behind the blocks of Quinn Cummings, Matt Kramer and Matt Sabin for the score. The PAT was
blocked and the Badgers led 6 to 0.

Kellogg was unable to do anything on offense and was forced to punt after three downs. Kylar Rice ran the punt back 25 yards to the Kellogg 20 yard line. On the Badger's first play, Bryan Yeoumans ran a counter play 20 yards for a touchdown following the blocks of Jay Gasbar, Chase Hannahs, Jake Rossi and Connor
Bennett around the left side.

Kellogg was able to make a first down on their next drive, but was forced to punt again. Bonners was able to drive the ball on the legs of Yeoumans, Rossi and Skeen to the Kellogg 35 yard line. From the 35, Trocke dropped back and hit Bennett for a touchdown. Jason Schutes added the PAT and the Badgers led 19 to
0.

On the next Kellogg series, Kellogg surprised the Badger secondary with a reverse pass. Blake Ivie threw to Anthony Kitchen for a 65 yard touchdown and Jared Job kicked the PAT to make the score 19 to 7.

On the dreaded ensuing kick off, Yeoumans returned up the right sideline for 45 yards to the 50 yard line. Yeoumans would rip off another 20 yard gain on this drive before sticking the ball in the end zone from one yard out. Schutes added the PAT and the Badgers led 26 to 7 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Kellogg responded with a drive to the Badger 10 yard line. Kellogg used a Badger pass interference penalty and a 20 yard throw from quarterback James Red to Jerome Casey to set up first and goal at the 10 yard line.

The Badger defense stiffened with good run defense by Quinn Cummings and
Parker Davis. On fourth and goal from the five, Kylar Rice came up from his safety position and tackled running back Jared Job for a five yard loss as the Badgers took over on downs.

The Badgers would score quickly, as Trocke threw to Sabin on a play action pass for 65 yards. Schutes added the PAT and the Badgers led 33 to 7. The Badgers would score two more times in the second quarter on a Skeen 15 yard run and a Yeoumans six yard run, ending the first half with the Badgers 45-7.

Rossi and Skeen would score two short touchdown runs in the third quarter and Kellogg would add one in the fourth quarter for the final score of Bonners Ferry 59, Kellogg 13.
 
The Badgers end the regular season at 5-4 and 2-1 in league. The Wildcats drop to 1-7 and 0-2 in league. Kellogg will end their season at Timberlake on November 1.

Bonners Ferry will advance to the Idaho State 3A playoffs on November 9. The Badgers will play the winner of a play-in game between Homedale and Buhl.