Wildcats exercise football demons against Timberlake
Courtesy photo Mullan’s Lindsey Foster hits the ball in a home match last week.
Courtesy photo Wildcat seniors Emma Noto and Desiree Beach stand with their families on senior night.
Photo by Chanse Watson Destiny Angle hits the ball during a recent Miner volleyball match.
Photo by Josh McDonald Morgan Nusz shows off her backrow hitting for the Wildcats.
Football
- Friday, Oct. 6
Kellogg 32, Timberlake 14: 15-0 …
Since 2001, that was Timberlake’s record against Kellogg in football.
1-0 …
Kellogg’s record against Timberlake in football since last Friday.
The Wildcats took control of the Intermountain League early after knocking off the Tigers 32-14 at Timberlake High School.
The stands began to clear out early in Spirit Lake, something that hasn’t been uncommon for matchups between the Wildcats and Tigers — parents and fans clear out early and wait to discuss the game with their kids once they get home.
But on Friday night it was the Timberlake fans who began to leave early; losing your first league game since 2008 will do that to a fan base.
Kellogg struggled to get going, but by the middle of the fourth quarter it was very clear that the Wildcats were well in control of the game.
After one quarter, both teams failed to find the endzone and the slow, grinding pace made it feel like neither team would score, but Timberlake broke the seal midway through the second quarter on 35-yard run to put the Tigers up 7-0
Kellogg would answer before the end the of the half when Ryan Morgan found the endzone, and after converting on a fake PAT, the Wildcats went into the intermission up 8-7.
In the second half things moved a lot faster.
Kellogg running back Wolfgang Beier really dominated the second half on both offense and defense, including a 45-yard touchdown run that put the Wildcats up 16-7 at the end of the third quarter.
Timberlake tried to keep things interesting, scoring on a 60-yard pass to cut the Wildcat lead to just two points, but that would be the last time they saw any success on offense.
And things got ugly.
After being on the end of a hard tackle a Timberlake running back took a swipe at the head of a Kellogg defender, which was seen by everyone except the officials.
The Wildcats took it personal and proceeded to clamp down on defense while running the ball down the throats of their opposition.
Both Beier and Morgan would find the endzone again before the end of the game.
Beier amassed an impressive 165 yards on the ground, Morgan added 105 yards of his own, and the team finished with more than 320 rushing yards.
Kellogg (4-2, 1-0) will host Priest River on Friday for homecoming and senior night.
Volleyball
- Tuesday, Oct. 3
Priest River d. Kellogg
KELLOGG–– The Wildcats won convincingly during the first two sets of their Intermountain League match but then dropped three straight sets to the Spartans (25-18, 25-17, 21-25, 23-25, 15-13).
The ‘Cats seemed to lose their edge between sets two and three, despite sound efforts from seniors Morgan Nusz at Kat Rauenhorst.
“Morgan kept us competitive tonight especially in the last few sets,” coach Hollie Yrjana said. “Kat has been great for us at the net and keeps getting better.”
On the loss itself, Yrjana was less than pleased.
“We didn’t pass well, we didn’t communicate well, and you aren’t going to win much when you aren’t moving the ball or talking,” Yrjana said.
- Thursday, Oct. 5
Timberlake d. Kellogg
SPIRIT LAKE–– The Tigers made it a clean sweep of the Wildcats for the regular season as they knocked of the Wildcats in three straight sets (25-14, 25-20, 25-10).
Soccer
- Wednesday, Oct. 4
Priest River 2, Kellogg 1
TEETERS FIELD–– The Wildcats took a gamble on senior night, but it wasn’t to be as the fell to their league opponents.
Tied 1-1 with under two minutes left the Spartans scored on an open goal after coach Craig Petersen made the aggressive decision to try and win the game instead of end on a tie.
“We played well and played well enough that we deserved to win the game,” Petersen said. “But we made the decision to go for it and they got one over our heads.”
Wallace High School
Volleyball
- Monday Oct. 2; Tuesday Oct. 3
Kootenai d. Wallace
Wallace d. Lakeside
WALLACE–– The Miners faltered down the stretch during their North Star League match with the Warriors (25-13, 16-25, 27-25, 13-25, 13-15), but they did rebound and beat Lakeside the next night in three sets (25-17, 25-14, 25-17).
Sometimes having two games so close together can have a negative effect on a team by wearing them down. But in the case of the Wallace Volleyball team, it’s just less time to wait to redeem yourself.
The Lady Miners split home games Monday and Tuesday nights when they took on the Kootenai High School Warriors and the Lakeside High School Knights, respectively.
The game with the Warriors was a back and forth affair.
WHS came out strong in the first and third matches, but Kootenai refused to quit though and came from behind each time by winning the second and fourth matches.
To complete the comeback, the Warriors stole the fifth match from Wallace for the win.
Wallace Junior Hayley Oertli contributed eight assists, nine digs, and three aces.
Senior Destiny Angle once again put up solid numbers from the serving position with five aces and two kills.
Coach Spooner attributed the loss to simply not finishing.
“I think the girls were just hoping that Kootenai would make the mistakes to give us the points,” she said, “but they were hungry for a win as well.”
Following the tough loss against conference rival Kootenai on Monday, the Lady Miners looked to give their home crowd at least one win against another conference rival on Tuesday — Lakeside. With determination and confidence, WHS breezed through the Knights by sweeping them in three sets.
Senior Halei Ungerbuehler powered the team’s offense with an impressive 11 kills and one ace.
Oertli had another great showing and put up seven assists, four digs, four aces, and one kill.
Angle also continued her superb serving play with seven aces and contributed to the team’s defense with 10 digs.
Coach Spooner was pleased with the girls’ effort in this one and thought they improved upon mistakes they were making the night before.
“During the lakeside game,” she said, “I thought we had much better ball control than when we played Kootenai. When we played Kootenai we were diving for no reason and flopping around. Against lakeside it seemed like we got under the ball a lot better and moved our feet.”
- Thursday, Oct. 5
Wallace d. CDA Charter
COEUR d’ALENE–– The Miners were able to knock off the Panthers in non-league play. No further report was received.
Mullan High School
Volleyball
- Thursday, Oct. 5
Lakeside d. Mullan
MULLAN –– The Tigers were unable to turn some momentum in the second set into a full rally as they fell to the Knights in three sets (25-12, 25-21, 25-10).