There is very good. Then there is very, very good.

Looking very, very good – some might say scary good – in their first time out on the floor together this season, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys made holiday mincemeat pie out of the Troy Trojans Saturday, streaking past the stunned Lincoln County boys 76-13 in Troy.

The Hawks had the game won by the end of the first quarter, racing out to a 38-2 lead after the first eight minutes and cruising to the win from there.

“Our kids played like their hair was on fire,” an impressed coach Jake Mickelson said. “We have the numbers to play an up-tempo game this year and these guys are obviously eager to get after it.

“We are excited,” he added. “We got our toes in the water and got the jitters out. Now it’s time to really get down to business.”

Indeed, after almost endless practice sessions through most of December, the first of January is turning out to be extremely busy as the Hawks will now play three important games in the space of only five days this week.

The Hawks will begin the key stretch of games playing the Mission Bulldogs in St. Ignatius Friday, Thompson Falls will host Eureka Saturday and then visit Bigfork Tuesday.

“We are looking forward to these games with some tough opponents,” Mickelson said. “We should have a lot better idea of where we stand in our conference after these games.”

The Hawks stood alone as the far better team in Troy Saturday.

Junior Nathan Schraeder led the easy Thompson Falls win with 20 points (including 12 with two 3-pointers in the first quarter), Dante Micheli added 18 (scoring 10 in the first period), Cody Burk nine, Kade Pardee seven, Breck Ferris six, Justin Morgan and Roman Sparks five each, Tristan Subatch four and Jesse Claridge two.

All nine Hawk players scored in the game and Thompson Falls was charged with only four personal fouls over the entire 32 minutes.

Paxton Fisher led out-matched Troy with six points, Trevor Grant added three and Malachi Montgomery and Michael Foote two apiece.

Mickelson says the Hawks have no intention of letting up on the accelerator now.

“Expect more of the same from us, we plan on getting after some people,” he said. “These kids are raring to go and looking forward to a fun season.”