THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott Sept. 18, 2013

There's nothing that bothers me more than to have the weather spoil a competitive game.

And for sports fans in the Northwest, it played a huge role in the outcome of Sunday's game between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers in Seattle.

AT THE beginning of the game, it seemed like everything was going right for San Francisco, they were moving the ball, making plays and keeping Seattle from doing anything right.

As a fan, sitting in front of the television watching, it felt like it was going to be a long night for the Seahawks, with a blocked punt on a mistake by the offensive line - at home - but they were bailed out by an interception as San Francisco was about to take the lead.

Then, the lightning started to flash around the stadium, followed by an hour-long wait for the teams to get back to playing.

Once they did, whatever momentum was gone from San Francisco.

Seattle got on the scoreboard first and led the game 5-0 at halftime.

For a time, I wondered if that was going to be the final score, but eventually Seattle got it going and found a way to win the game.

Had the weather remained the way it was before kickoff, with only light rain in the area, who knows, it could have been a lot closer of a game than a 29-3 outcome.

When they meet again in December in San Francisco, it might determine a lot more than a game in Week 2 of the season.

IN SOME of the high school games I've seen in person, I can remember a football game getting called off due to weather maybe twice.

One case was between the Wallace Miners visiting the rival Kellogg Wildcats.

That particular Friday night, the weather started out fine, but once the rain started, it was game over.

First, it got delayed and both teams cleared off to their respective locker rooms across the street.

The longer the rain came, with a little bit of lightning sprinkled in, the longer the delay was, and the less likely the game was going to get played.

It hasn't been since.

Since that night in 2007, neither Wallace or Kellogg have played football against the each other as the Miners moved to a full 8-man schedule the following season.

WATCHING THE Lake City High offense go to work on Friday night against Hillcrest High of Idaho Falls, it might take some bad weather to slow them down.

They've got speed at the skill positions of receiver, running back and quarterback, and the Timberwolves almost scored at will at times during Friday's 40-20 win.

The quarterback and running back - brothers Tucker and Jerry Louie-McGee - almost seemed as if they were playing in their back yard, scoring on four of the team's seven touchdowns in the game.

"They're both really good athletes," Lake City coach Van Troxel said. "They work extremely hard and do a good job. Tucker has done a great job with all the receivers and the strength of our team is our speed at the skill positions."

Should they be able to keep up that speed on a slick track in October remains to be seen.

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 jelliott@cdapress.com.