Watch Pete Play

Bengals young from A to Zacha
By BYRON EDELMAN OF THE TRIBUNE | Posted: Friday, August 26, 2011 12:00 am
Six offensive players – including three linemen and a quarterback – will be making their first varsity
starts tonight when the Lewiston High football team visits Post Falls.
“Youth’s our biggest challenge,” said Lewiston coach Emmett Dougherty, who enters his 13th year
with the Bengals “It’ll be a growing experience this season.”
Among the key newcomers: quarterback Cole Zacha, a junior who led the junior varsity to a 5-4
record last season.
“The varsity pace is a lot faster. Everyone’s bigger and stronger,” said Zacha after last Friday’s
Watermelon Bowl, an intrasquad scrimmage. “The biggest challenge for me is being younger and
having to take the place of a great QB (Beau Kerns) – I’ve got to be a whole lot better.”
At one point during the scrimmage, Zacha fumbled the snap, then was carefully covered by a slew of
white-jerseyed defenders.
“Quarterback’s live!” shouted a coach from the sideline, telling his linebackers not to take it easy on
Zacha.
The message from coaches to players was clear: Lewiston can’t afford to take it easy on anyone this
year – least of all its first-year signal-caller.
Aiding the development of Zacha will be senior receiver Randon Fuentes, whom Dougherty called a
clutch player.
“Against Boise, we needed a touchdown to seal the win,” Dougherty said. Fuentes reeled in a 90-yard
bomb late in the fourth quarter – his second long TD of the game – in the Bengals’ 33-20 victory last
year.
Another key offensive weapon, the coach said, is 190-pound fullback Pete Bakker.
“He’s fast and physical,” Dougherty said. “Pete’s worked extremely hard in the offseason, he looks
really good.”
Bakker was witness to the Bengals’ successful 2009 season, when they marched into the semifinals of
the state playoffs unbeaten (Lewiston lost to Eagle 49-26 in that round). Last season, the Bengals
went 5-4 and missed the playoffs.
“I want to go to State, man,”Bakker said. “You can’t play (halfway). You’ve got to play like you’re going
to make it every day.”Summing up his squad’s chances of making the playoffs, Dougherty sounded optimistic:
“We have a lot of guys with college potential, and we also have a lot of guys who are going to be
getting their first varsity action. The goal is for all the players to develop over the course of the
season, and be mature heading into the final three game-stretch (in league play) that determines
whether we qualify for the playoffs.”
That stretch of 5A Inland Empire League games starts with back-to-back trips north to play Lake City
(Oct. 7) and Coeur d’Alene (Oct. 14), then, after a bye, a home game with Post Falls (Oct. 28).
Those October dates with Post Falls and Lake City will be rematches. After traveling to play the
Trojans tonight, Lewiston will welcome the Timberwolves on Sept. 9 – two games that won’t count in
the league standings.
The IEL clubs were forced to schedule such games when the Boise-area schools pulled out of a
scheduling agreement in December, Lewiston athletic director Tim Sperber said. That move came in
the middle of a two-year scheduling cycle, which gave the IEL clubs little time to find nonleague
opponents. So they looked to each other.
Lewiston’s annual showdown with Clarkston will be at Bengal Field next Friday. The Bengals lead the
all-time series 70-37-6.
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Edelman may be reached at bedelman@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2277.