Warriors await Hawks

THOMPSON FALLS – From here to eternity.

Okay, maybe not clear to eternity, but from here to far, far away Fairview, one of the towns closest to North Dakota in Montana, some 725 miles away from here on the route the Hawks plan on taking there, according to coach Jared Kosklea.

To earn their trip to face the No. 1 ranked Fairview Warriors, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks raced past the Twin Bridges Falcons 55-20 on the friendly though slightly frozen turf of Previs Field Friday in the first round of the State 6-Man playoffs.

Ranked No. 7 in the final 406sportsmt.com poll, the Hawks were one of three Western Conference teams to win last week as Clark Fork, the regular season champs, topped Shelby and the fourth-seeded Flint Creek Titans topped previously undefeated West Yellowstone 46-40 in double overtime at West Yellowstone.

West was the No. 1 seeded team from the south. The third seed from the west, Mission was the only team from this side to lose after the Bulldogs gave up a big early lead and lost to the Rangers 34-24 in Park City, the second seed from the south.

The Hawks overcame several costly penalties, which resulted in two long touchdown runs by quarterback Trey Fisher being called back, in fighting past Twin Bridges Friday.

Unfazed by the quick whistles, Fisher would go on to have another marvelous night anyway, running for five scores and passing for another to lead Thompson Falls to the win. Fisher finished the night with 156 yards rushing and 74 passing, in addition to pulling down six tackles, including two for losses.

Fisher was nominated for Western Montana Player of the Week honors for a second time this season as a result of his latest big game. He won the honor based on fan voting the first time and was leading the latest poll as of this writing.

Senior running mates Nate Wilhite and Dakota Irvine also enjoyed big games. Wilhite rushed 16 times for 129 yards and two touchdowns, while Irvine caught three passes for 67 yards and another touchdown.

Irvine also had five tackles, including a quarterback sack, from the defensive side and Wilhite pulled down four more tackles, with two QB sacks.

Alex Vogelsang, who would finish the night with two big pass interceptions from his defensive back position, started the Hawks off strong by taking the opening kickoff back 45 yards to give Thompson Falls good field position.

Three plays later, Fisher scored from three yards out and then passed to Irvine for the two-point conversion giving the Hawks an 8-0 lead with 10:37 left in the first quarter, and they would never trail after that, although Twin did tie it up at 14-14 late in the first quarter.

Trystan Harmon and Nate Konen scored touchdowns on pass plays from Bryce Nye for Twin Bridges during the game.

The Hawks improved to 9-1 with the win while Twin Bridges finishes play at 3-6.

Please see View from the Sidelines for a preview of this week's game at Fairview.