Competitive season awaits Big 4 teams

Jul. 10—It might feel like summer vacation just started, but high school football teams are already hard at work preparing for the upcoming fall season that is just seven weeks away.

The area's big four high schools of Lewiston, Clarkston, Moscow and Pullman have released their schedules. While there is a lot of familiarity to last season's slates, there are lots of interesting matchups to look forward to.

Lewiston once again has loaded its nonleague portion of its schedule with tough competition to challenge itself going into Class 5A Inland Empire League play. The Bengals, who went 7-3 last season, will play nine opponents from four different states with a combined record of 50-36 (.581 winning percentage) in 2021.

"Just part of the nature of being in Lewiston," said coach Matt Pancheri, who enters his fifth season as Bengals coach. "Hard for us to schedule."

Pancheri said the team struggled to find an opponent for the opening week, but Lewiston found one in the Layton Lancers. The Bengals play the Lancers, a Class 6A school from Utah that went 6-5 last season and scored 20 or more points in 10 of its 11 games, at the Rumble in Rexburg on Aug. 26.

The Bengals then have their home opener Sept. 2 against a Capital team that eliminated them from the state tournament last year. Lewiston lost 38-7 on the Eagles' home field.

"We will know a lot about our team early on," Pancheri said.

The annual River Rivalry game Sept. 9 at Clarkston and a trip to Pendleton (Ore.) on Sept. 16 follow.

Lewiston wraps up its regular season the same as it did last year, with back-to-back Class 4A IEL games against Sandpoint (Sept. 23) and Moscow (Sept. 30) before getting into Class 5A IEL league play. The final two games of the season will be at home against Lake City (Oct. 14) and Coeur d'Alene (Oct. 21).

Clarkston (4-4) plays only three teams that finished with a winning record last year. If the Bantams' schedule looks familiar, it is because eight of their nine opponents are the same as last season.

The lone difference in the schedule is an Oct. 29 meeting at Grandview. Bantams coach Brycen Bye said it was extremely hard to find a team in eastern Washington within their size range with a Week 9 bye.

"Now that we have the bigger league, we don't wanna give up Moscow or Lewiston rivalry stuff so it only gives us one game to change," said Bye, who is in his eighth season at Clarkston.

The Bantams open the season with those rivalry games. Clarkston hosts Moscow on Sept. 2 before the River Rivalry game. It is the first time the Bears and Bengals have traveled to Clarkston since 2018.

Class 2A Greater Spokane League play kicks off Sept. 16 at East Valley before the Bantams play three straight at home against West Valley (Sept. 23), North Central (Sept. 30) and Rogers (Oct. 7). Clarkston has five home games in the first six weeks.

"Kind of a payoff year after so many road games last year," Bye said.

Last year, Clarkston won three of its last four games, topping 40 points in each of the three wins.

"We were so young last year, with so much inexperience, that we were trial by fire," Bye said of his team that only graduated six from the 2021 group.

Clarkston will play Pullman on Oct. 14 then finish league play against Shadle Park the next week.

Rob Bafus takes the reins at Moscow (3-5) and the first schedule he has to face is not friendly.

The Bears' opponents combined to go 42-33 last season, and two of the four home games for Moscow are against Class 5A schools. The Bears host Kellogg in the Aug. 26 season opener.

"Seeing how we start out, we put a lot of focus in our coaches' meetings on that game," Bafus said. "A big focus, being the first one out of the gates."

After the trip to Clarkston, Bafus takes a meaningful trip to Pullman to play at Hobbs Field on Sept. 9.

"I am a Pullman High grad, Ray Hobbs was my mentor (and) that is going to be a big emotional game for me," Bafus said. "Never played on the field under the lights."

The Bears stay on the road Sept 16, when they look for revenge against Class 3A Timberlake in a game Moscow lost 19-16 in 2021.

Moscow gets three straight at home, but against two Class 5A schools (Lake City and Lewiston) and its first league game against Lakeland. Those three teams swept the Bears last season and outscored Moscow 133-25.

The Bears then finish the regular season at Sandpoint, a team that beat Moscow 42-6 last year.

David Cofer leads the Greyhounds for the fifth season as they try to improve from a 4-6 record in 2021.

The schedule sets up nicely for Pullman, as it hosts several teams it lost to last year. In fact, the Greyhounds host five of their eight games this season against teams that went a combined 27-41 last year.

Pullman kicks off the season Sept. 2 against Lakeside before hosting the Bears in their annual rivalry game.

League play begins Sept. 17 at North Central with a trip to face Rogers a week later. The Greyhounds defeated both teams last year by a combined score of 69-16.

The two games set up interesting schedule quirks as the match-up against North Central takes place on a Saturday and the meeting with Rogers goes down at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday.

Pullman hosts three teams it lost to a season ago as Shadle Park (Oct. 7), Clarkston (Oct 14) and East Valley (Oct 21) all visit Hobbs Field.

West Valley then awaits the Greyhounds in the season finale.

Cofer was unavailable for comment.

Isbelle may be contacted at sports@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.

2021 schedules

All games start at 7 p.m. unless noted

Lewiston

Aug. 26 — Layton (Utah), 2 p.m.+

Sept. 2 — Capital

Sept. 9 — at Clarkston

Sept. 16 — at Pendleton

Sept. 23 — Sandpoint

Sept. 30 — at Moscow

Oct. 7 — at Post Falls*

Oct. 14 — Lake City*

Oct. 21 — Coeur d'Alene*

Clarkston

Sept. 2 — Moscow

Sept. 9 — Lewiston

Sept. 16 — at East Valley*

Sept. 23 — West Valley*

Sept. 30 — North Central*

Oct. 7 — Rogers*

Oct. 14 — at Pullman*

Oct. 21 — at Shadle Park*

Moscow

Aug. 26 — Kellogg

Sept. 2 — at Clarkston

Sept. 9 — at Pullman

Sept. 16 — at Timberlake

Sept. 23 — Lake City

Sept. 30 — Lewiston

Oct. 7 — Lakeland*

Oct. 14 — at Sandpoint*

Pullman

Sept. 2 — Lakeside

Sept. 9 — Moscow

Sept. 17 — at North Central*

Sept. 23 — at Rogers*, 3:30 p.m.

Oct. 7 — Shadle Park*

Oct. 14 — Clarkston*

Oct. 21 — East Valley*

Oct. 28 — at West Valley*

* — indicates league games

+ — Rumble in Rexburg, Idaho