View from the Sidelines

 

November 12, 2020



The final results are not in, but some of the semifinals and quarterfinals have now gone down in Montana prep football.

Although the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks had their magical, up-to-that point-unbeaten season ended 40-24 in Scobey Saturday as you can learn about elsewhere on these pages, the 8-Man teams have worked their way into the semifinals.

Fort Benton will host Flint Creek in one of those semis while Scobey will host Shelby in the other this week.

In the other 8-Man quarterfinal games, Fort Benton defeated Joliet 64-14, Flint Creek dumped defending champion Fairview 48-6 and Shelby out-scored Park City 87-68 in a wild, high-scoring affair.

In Montana 6-Man football, which is a week ahead of 8-Man teams in their playoff process, White Sulphur Springs defeated Shields Valley 54-13 and Froid-Medicine Lake stopped Big Sandy 42-26.

Froid-Medicine Lake will host White Sulphur Springs in the 6-Man title game Saturday.

The Class A championship game is also on tap this week as Billing Central will entertain Laurel.

The only Western B team left in the field, Florence will play at Fairfield in the State B semifinals while Glasgow will take on top-ranked Manhattan in Manhattan.

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When they say that Lady Hawk volleyball is family, they actually have living proof, actually three living proofs, of that fact.

Thompson Falls coach Sandra Kazmierczak was proud to point out that this year’s team, which qualified for the State B tournament for the first time since 2016 with their third place finish in the Western B in Anaconda last week, has three girls who had sisters on that ’16 team.

And those 2016 Lady Hawks won the third place trophy in the State B that year, still the best season-ending result for a Sanders County net squad ever.

The three sisters Kazmierczak is talking about from this year’s team are Scarlette Schwindt, Elli Pardee and Riley Wilson. Their three sisters from the ’16 team are Ember Schwindt, Bailey Pardee and Haley Wilson.

Although an injury to Elli Pardee has sidelined her for the State B this week and may hurt the Hawks in Shelby this week, these three sisters of today would love to live up to what their three sisters of yesterday accomplished only four years ago in securing the first and to date only State B volleyball trophy in TFHS history.

***

When it’s game over, it’s game over. Isn’t it?

As much as you wish you could replay, or at least replay parts of, the game, once it is over it is, well, over.

And it’s time to get over it.

There are no re-dos in life, as there are none in sports. Once the final results are there, they are there forever, set in stone, until death do they part.

That’s the one worthwhile thing sports writers are for, to convey the results, to make the facts a part of the record, a part of history, and to do that without too much political comment or, in this instance, bias in favor of the home team.

As difficult as Saturday’s hard-fought 40-24 loss to Scobey in the 8-Man playoffs was and perhaps still is to accept to some, the way the Hawks played in coming back is noteworthy. It was a historic effort by the Hawks, the comeback they made and win they almost pulled out, and they should be proud of what they accomplished this year.

But it is really over – both the game and the season – and it’s time to get over it.

 

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