The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Sept. 14, 2011

Anytime you get a team playing in front of its home fans, there's a good chance you can expect the unexpected most of the time.

Should this trend continue, a few teams in the area could find themselves playing deep into the season, and in some cases, contending for a championship.

WHEN COEUR d'ALENE took the field last Saturday to face the Skyview Storm from Vancouver, Wash., the Vikings were facing the only team that beat them on the way to a state 5A championship last season.

After the first half, the game seemed like a mismatch, with the host Vikings leading 25-0 at intermission and showing no signs of slowing down.

They didn't either - scoring 52 points in the nonleague game and may have scored more had they decided to keep their starters in for the final 10 minutes of the game.

Whether the mid-80s temperatures or the early kickoff were factors, not likely.

In football, if you're able to force turnovers and keep the other offense off the field, things are going well for your team.

That's exactly what happened for the Vikings, forcing four turnovers in a lopsided win.

Coeur d'Alene will take the field for the third straight Saturday as the Vikings travel to the Kibbie Dome in Moscow to face Whitney High of Rocklin, Calif., in the finale of the four-game Idaho Football Classic on Saturday.

Lake City High will take on Rio Linda (Calif.) at 5 p.m. in Moscow.

Meanwhile in Rathdrum, the Lakeland Hawks found a way to get their offense going - they used a hook and lateral to surprise the East Valley Knights in the home opener at Corbit Field on Friday night.

With Lakeland leading 17-3 and East Valley driving the field, the sprinklers came on in Rathdrum, delaying the game a few minutes. East Valley bounced back on a couple big plays, but it wasn't enough as the Hawks found a way to win.

THE SEAHAWKS don’t return home until Sept. 25, when they host the Arizona Cardinals, but traveling to Pittsburgh this weekend — it doesn’t look promising for a first win on Sunday.

When the NFL announced that Bill Leavy (the referee from Super Bowl XL when Seattle lost to Pittsburgh 21-10) will be the ref on Sunday in Pittsburgh, I had to laugh a little.

At least the game won’t be in Seattle, before the 67,000 fans that still haven’t let that game go.

Instead the game will be played in Pittsburgh with a team coming off an embarrassing loss to open the season.

Do I believe the Steelers will be fired up?

Can Seattle win the game?

Maybe.

Will anything that happens this weekend surprise me when it comes to either Seattle losing or the way it might happen?

Not anymore.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].