Call it double lightning indemnity, and chalk one up to Mother Nature and her mysterious ways.

The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks opened 2025 Class B 11-Man football action hosting Cut Bank Friday. In a disjointed game delayed two separate times by lightning storm concerns, the visiting Wolves upended the Hawks 14-12. 

Now 0-1 in non-conference play, the Hawks will visit the 1-0 Whitehall Trojans Friday in another non-con encounter. Whitehall defeated new Western B addition Deer Lodge 38-6 in the opener for those teams.

Thompson Falls coach Jared Koskela said the double delay of game action was a little hard to deal with from a coaching and a playing point of view.

The game’s kickoff was delayed about half an hour initially. Early in the fourth quarter, when storms roiled the skies once again, the decision was made to delay action again, this time for the better part of an hour. The result was predictably unpredictable football.

“I’ve never been a part of a game like that, where it’s delayed twice,” Koskela said. “It kind of made for a sloppy game, one without much flow to it. Most of the fans had left by the time we started playing again in the fourth quarter, it was almost more like a scrimmage than a game.”

Not to mention those extended delays and how to deal with that. “It was strange. What do we do? The players were kind of hanging out and visiting with each other,” Koskela said. “Definitely not a typical game atmosphere.”

When the game did start, the Hawks got off to beautiful beginning as junior Chase Helvey gathered in the short opening kickoff and wound up streaking 67 yards for the touchdown on the first play of the season and the game, giving the Hawks 6-0 lead. The conversion attempt failed after Helvey’s impromptu TD.

“He was one of the up guys on the return team, caught the ball, made use of good blocking up the middle, found the lane and scored,” Koskela said.

After falling behind 14-6 later in the first half and now into the fourth quarter after the second delay, Mason Park scored another touchdown on a five-yard run for Thompson

Falls to make the score 14-12. Quarterback Brylon VanElswyk was “stopped at the one-inch line” on the conversion attempt, Koskela said.

“It was a game of inches,” he said. “We had so many opportunities, there were so many things that could went our way that didn’t. It was a little frustrating for sure.”

Looking ahead to Whitehall, the longest regular season trip the Hawks will make this year, Koskela is wary of the Trojans.

“We beat them 23-0 last year at home, but we are pretty much an entirely new team now,” he said. "We played them at camp in Butte this summer so we are familiar, we’ll see how it goes Friday.”

Michael Koskela led the Hawk defense against Cut Bank with 14 total tackles including six unassisted besides recording a quarterback sack and two tackles for loss, Jason Myers had 11 tackles with five unassisted, Hank Stone nine tackles with three unassisted and a tackle for a loss, and Jesse Buchanan seven stops with three solo and another tackle for loss.

Michael Koskela also carried the ball five times for 28 yards and caught a pass for another 15 on offense, Myers caught two passes for 39 yards and Park added 15 yards rushing including the touchdown. Van Elswyk completed five passes for 56 yards.