CHUCKY'S BACK!

Maybe Chucky, that scary, ugly, movie star doll who keeps coming back to life and creating all kinds of mayhem on the silver screen, should be the team mascot for the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk football squad.

After all, the Hawks have been a recurring nightmare to the other teams of Western Conference 8-Man football since entering the league at the beginning of the 2019 season, winning 16 of the 17 conference games played that year and in 2020, and dastardly Chucky might be considered an appropriate choice as a mascot based on those results.

Serial killers of the other teams in the conference for going on three years now, coach Jared Koskela and his band of Chucky boys continued the domination Friday with a 42-0 dismemberment of the Charlo Vikings on their home field in Lake County to open the 2021 season.

“That was a statement game, Charlo had beat us at the Montana Tech camp earlier this summer and we didn’t like that,” Koskela said. “Our game plan was to wear them down by running the ball and the plan worked.”

Koskela said the field was wet and slippery in Charlo, leading to a lot of fumbles and ball-handling miscues.

Thompson Falls’ only returning All-State player, Trae Thilmony keyed the Blue Hawks’ win on both sides of the ball, gaining 158 yards rushing on only 12 carries and leading the defense with 15 total tackles (with 10 unassisted) and three quarterback sacks.

The new starting quarterback for the Hawks, Elijah Ratliff added 71 yards rushing on 19 carries and Keinen Williams 39 yards on five carries.

Williams scored Thompson Falls’ first touchdown on a three-yard run and Ratliff added another TD on an eight-yard jaunt to give the Hawks a 12-0 lead after the first quarter.

Jordan Fisher intercepted a pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, and Thilmony found paydirt on a six-yard run as the Hawks built the lead to 28-0 by halftime.

Williams added another touchdown on a six-yard run in the third quarter and Ratliff scored again on a four-yard run in the fourth quarter to complete scoring.

Now 1-0 in conference play and overall, the Hawks will rub Chucky’s head again for luck and trek to St. Regis Friday night for a non-conference tilt with Mullan/St. Regis, which normally plays in an Idaho conference.

Koskela said the entire Mullan/St. Regis team arrived by bus and watched the Hawks’ game at Charlo. He doesn’t know a lot about them, other than that they have an experienced core of solid players returning from last year, promising an interesting game Friday.

Now 19-3 overall since becoming an 8-Man entity in 2019 (with two of those losses coming in the 8-Man playoff quarterfinals), Koskela thinks the Hawks’ success is a product of hard work and buy-in from the players.

“It’s a success breeds success culture we have going that we built from the ground up,” he said. “We have three new transfers but none of them are starting for us, and we have a few seniors that have come out for the first time so they can be part of it, too.”

Koskela said a few other players have changed positions for the benefit of the team. “Not everyone can play the skill positions, we also have to have blockers,” he said, “and several guys have made that move to help the team.”

Koskela thanked Fisher, his little big brother Brandon Fisher and Ferris for their sacrifice for the good of the team in that regard.

Erik Strom added nine tackles, with two quarterback sacks, to the Hawks’ defensive effort, Josh Wilhite had 10 tackles with another sack, Ryan Bucher had eight tackles with a sack, Jordan Fisher made six tackles, Brandon Fisher and Ratliff four apiece, Breck Ferris three and Nathan Schraeder two.

Ratliff came up with two interceptions and Jordan Fisher and Schraeder one each.

Koskela sees Friday’s non-conference game with St. Regis as a good chance to experiment.

“We have to be more diverse with our offensive attack than we were in Charlo,” he said. “This game will give us the opportunity to try some different things.”