POCATELLO — Snake River couldn’t get out of its own way.

Even when Sugar-Salem helped by wiping out some of the obstacles, the Panthers couldn’t capitalize.

Perhaps that’s not so much an indictment of Snake River’s shortcomings as it is a compliment to Sugar-Salem’s strengths. Both were evident Saturday in the Diggers’ dominant 52-14 win in the 3A state semifinals at Holt Arena.

“We ran into a team that was bigger and faster (than us), and as talented as I’ve seen,” Snake River coach Jeb Harrison said. “Not very often do we get a 3A team that can just out-physical us, and hands down, they were bigger and stronger than we were.”

The defending state champion Diggers (9-1) were unyielding early, suffered a few slip-ups mid-game and poured it on late to extend their winning streak to seven and cruise back to the title game. Sugar-Salem has scored at least 40 points in all of its wins, and kept it going Saturday with points in each quarter.

Snake River (8-3) showed flashes of a comeback, but each fizzled out, either via self-inflicted damage or Sugar’s relentless march toward next week.

The Panthers’ mishaps built from their first drive and continued into the fourth quarter. Their first two possessions ended with turnovers on downs, a holding penalty negated a third-down conversion on the next series, and the Diggers were 3 for 5 on third down and 1 for 1 on fourth in the first half, when they scored on all five possessions.

Two of those tallies happened in the final 21 seconds, when Sugar’s 25-yard field goal was followed by a Snake River fumble at its own 22-yard line, a Diggers recovery and return to the 9, an offsides penalty and a 21-yard field goal for a 27-6 score at the break.

The Diggers got the ball first to begin the third quarter, and seemingly tried to help Snake River come back. They faced fourth-and-23 on their opening drive before Hadley Miller ran a fake punt 61 yards into the end zone — but the score was wiped out with a flag for a block in the back.

That brought the play back to the Snake River 30, where Sugar-Salem was called for a delay of game, holding and another block in the back, before the snap sailed over Miller’s head on fourth-and-18, resulting in a 21-yard loss and turnover on downs.

Maybe that, finally, was the break Snake River needed.

Not quite.

Sugar got the ball back four plays later, when Panthers quarterback Cole Gilbert dropped back to throw from the Diggers’ 30 and was intercepted by Riley Thurber. That play was also returned for a touchdown, but was also brought back for a penalty.

Snake River never crossed midfield again, giving the ball back on two more failed fourth-down attempts while Sugar closed the third frame with a field goal and added three touchdowns in the fourth.

For the game, Sugar-Salem scored on 9 of 11 possessions and outgained the Panthers 361-227, dominating time of possession in the third and fourth quarters.

“They don’t turn the ball over. Their play-action game is solid,” Harrison said. “I was just hoping that we could’ve moved the ball a little bit better, but our defense was out there in the entire second half and so we got kind of worn out.”

Chandler Coombs scored Snake River’s final touchdown on a 5-yard run late in the fourth. Senior lineman Ty Belnap scored in the second quarter, when he lined up in the backfield and took a direct snap 5 yards to the end zone.

All-state running back Treyton Young racked up 20 carries for 60 yards and completed his lone pass attempt for 27 yards. Gilbert went 4 of 12 through the air with 105 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

The loss still earned the Panthers a third-place trophy — an outcome that Harrison made clear isn’t the goal, but that’s also a massive improvement from last season’s 2-6 record.

“They should be proud of themselves. They don’t hand out third-place trophies to everybody,” Harrison said. “You play to win a championship and so there’s disappointment in there, but after looking back at it, we competed and we gave ourself an opportunity to get there, but just didn’t come through at the end.”

Sugar-Salem quarterback Tanner Harris completed 15 of 23 passes for 156 yards and one touchdown, adding 50 yards rushing and three rushing scores. Samuel Parkinson rushed 15 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns, and Crew Clark was perfect on field-goal tries from 21, 25 and 27 yards.

Up next:

Sugar-Salem plays Homedale (11-0) for the 3A state championship next Saturday at Holt Arena.

SUGAR-SALEM 52, SNAKE RIVER 14

Sugar-Salem 15 12 3 22 — 52

Snake River 0 6 0 8 — 14

Scoring summary

First quarter

SS — Parkinson 4 run (Clark kick), 9:24

SS — Harris 3 run (Parkinson run), 2:37

Second quarter

SS — Harris 11 run (kick failed), 8:29

SR — Belnap 5 run (kick failed), 4:24

SS — Clark 25 field goal, 0:21

SS — Clark 21 field goal, 0:00

Third quarter

SS — Clark 27 field goal, 3:38

Fourth quarter

SS — Harris 1 run (Bennion run), 11:32

SS — Schulthies 10 pass from Harris (Clark kick), 7:48

SS — Parkinson 10 run (Clark kick), 4:55

SR — Coombs 5 run (Young run), 1:37

Individual stats

Passing — Sugar-Salem: Harris 15-23-156-1-0. Snake River: Gilbert 4-12-105-0-1, Young 1-1-27-0-0.

Rushing — Sugar-Salem: Miller 5-45, Parkinson 15-85-2, Bennion 6-28, Harris 12-50-3, Schulthies 2-(-3). Snake River: Gilbert 4-3, Young 20-60, Coombs 8-26-1, Ranstrom 1-1, Belnap 1-5-1, Garza 2-0.

Receiving — Sugar-Salem: Clark 4-44, Kirk 2-14, W. Harris 3-36, Schulthies 4-35-1, Miller 1-24, C. Harris 1-3. Snake River: Young 2-37, Wray 1-27, Ranstrom 2-68.