Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

by Kael Brown

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks went into their second game of the season traveling all the way to Three Forks to compete against the Wolves. While the Hawks suffered a 30-8 loss against the Wolves and are now 0-2, the team still has high hopes for the rest of the season.

“I thought we progressed a lot from where we were last week. For such a short amount of time, we progressed a lot and I think we’re going to be a force for the rest of the season,” said senior captain Elijah Ratliff.

The team had high spirits in the first half. The first quarter was a battle with teams going back and forth. Both teams struggled to score on their opening possession and the defensive struggle continued into the second quarter. The Hawks were on the 25-yard line, where Breck Ferris outran his defender and broke free into the corner of the endzone, however, Ratliff’s pass was unexpectedly intercepted at the one-yard line, leaving the score at the end of the first quarter at 0-0.

In the second quarter, the Wolves struck first with a 25-yard pass into the endzone. The Hawks were unable to answer on their next possession and gave the ball up on downs. The Wolves were threatening to score again from the 25-yard line but the Hawks intercepted the pass on a deflection and returned the ball to the 35-yard line. After the interception, the Hawks were able to even the score due to the strength of their running game. Ratliff had a long breakaway rush to put the hawks in scoring position. Ratliff rushed for the short touchdown and hurdled into the endzone tying the score at 8-8.

In the third quarter, the Wolves took advantage of good field position and scored two more touchdowns bringing the score up to 24-8.

“I thought our effort in practice showed through the first half but we digressed as we went through the rest of the game,” said Ratliff.

The Hawks continued to struggle in the fourth quarter and the Wolves scored their final rushing touchdown, making the final score 30-8.

“We made significant progress as a team towards finding our identity in 11-man football this past Friday in Three Forks,” Hawk Head Coach Jared Koskela said. “We have seven new varsity players trying to adjust to new responsibilities and building chemistry with the four seasoned players from the state title team last year. It's been a learning struggle thus far. Our first half is a representation of who we are. During the second half, we took the easy way out and let big plays against us affect how we play.

“One of the biggest differences between the 8 man and 11 man game is the flexibility of playing any position on the field in 8 man where we used that advantage last year to gain the edge over our opponents,” Koskela continued. “We lost that advantage and it is very hard in a small school to match up to these bigger Class B schools without that advantage. We look forward to playing Shepherd this Friday in Butte at Naranche Stadium. We match up really well with them and it should be a good game.”