Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

by John Hamilton

Chaos causers; that is what the Thompson Falls football Blue Hawks want to be this week.

Fresh off a 43-0 road loss to the undefeated, No. 1 ranked Bigfork Vikings last Friday, the Hawks will jump out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire this week when equally powerful Loyola visits Previs Field this Friday for Thompson Falls' annual homecoming game.

Loyola destroyed two-time defending State B champion Eureka 56-12 in Missoula Friday night, a week after Bigfork had topped Eureka 37-0. For comparison's sake, the Hawks lost to the Eureka Lions 51-6 in Thompson Falls three weeks ago.

Clearly, the frying pan into the fire analogy holds true for the Hawks this week as they prepare for Loyola. The Rams are 2-0 in Western B conference play and 4-1 overall while the Blue Hawks are 0-2 and 0-5.

"It is what it is, we played the toughest part of our schedule early this season," Thompson Falls coach Jared Koskela said. "We know the cards are stacked against us with Loyola but we will go out there and give it our best shot."

Montana Griz signee Ryan Tirrell led Loyola to the win over Eureka scoring five touchdowns on 147 yards rushing (all in the first half), and was named Loyola's homecoming king at halftime to boot.

"They have a good running attack," Koskela noted, "and then they will go over the top on you. They have some very tall, fast receivers that we could have an issue with."

The key to combatting such an attack is going a little kamikaze, he said.

"We have to cause chaos on defense, we have to make the line of scrimmage an uncomfortable place to be," Koskela said. "We need to control the gaps, to fly around and make some things happen."

As usual this season, junior signal-caller/linebacker Trey Fisher led the Hawks in Bigfork. Fisher completed 7 of 17 passes for 93 yards and added another 86 yards rushing on 30 carries.

"Trey had another good game," Koskela said. "Quarterback runs were our best option and he ran hard for us."

Brandon Zimmerman caught three passes for 52 yards, and Dakota Irvine and Trevor Harris had one catch each for 17 yards apiece, Kade Pardee and Trae Thilmony also had pass catches in Bigfork.

Defensively, Zimmerman pulled down a team-high seven unassisted tackles, Thilmony had six solo stops and eight total tackles, Fisher had three and four, Cody Burk two and two (including one tackle for a loss) and Jack Jacobson one and five.

Anders Epperly threw for four touchdowns and ran for another, and Randy Stultz scored three TDs for the Vikings.