POCATELLO – Friday was senior night for Pocatello, which meant every fourth-year football player walked with their parents through a tunnel of teammates and cheer members that stretched 40 yards across the Holt Arena turf.

And as each waltzed down the 50-yard line before the Thunder’s eventual 17-14 win over Preston, the PA announcer bellowed out each player’s response to a pair of questions: What’s your favorite thing about playing football for Poky? What are you most proud of?

For myriad reasons, the answers were often short. But a couple keywords kept coming up. Family. Brotherhood. Love. All these clichés of tight-knit teams that the Pocatello Thunder football program has been built on.

Yet minutes after the pageantry of senior night, it seemed the Thunder had forgotten all those keywords, all their answers to the pair of simple questions.

“I’ve never seen our team react the way we reacted in the first half,” Poky coach Dave Spillett said. “We were battling with each other. We were getting down on each other. That’s not who we are. That’s never who we have been.”

The Thunder spent the first half on Friday beating themselves. Quarterback Ryan Payne was picked off. Running back Ryken Echo Hawk fumbled twice. The Poky defense was giving up first down after first down to a pass-heavy Preston squad.

Pocatello ran into the locker room down 14-10 and it probably should have been a lot worse, but the Thunder defense stopped Preston on a goal-line stand and kicker Kade Jensen booted through a 34-yard field goal as time expired.

Still, the Thunder looked disjointed.

“We just got in our own heads and started blaming our teammates,” said senior Matt Christensen, who finished with 118 receiving yards and two interceptions. “Coach said, ‘We’ll either lose this game as a team or win this as a family.’”

“We had to remind them,” Spillett said, “we’re not a football team. Teams do that. We’re a football family.”

Friday should only strengthen that. The Thunder celebrated the win like it was a victory late in the playoffs. They gave long hugs and let our primal yells. They took immense pride in Friday – not because they won but because of how they won.

Pocatello hasn’t been tested much this season against 4A opponents. Its two losses were against 5A squads and no one had the Thunder on the ropes as much as Preston did on Friday.

Spillett praised the physicality of Preston. The Indians stymied Poky’s rushing attack. They weren’t afraid to air the ball out to an arsenal of pass-catcher – most notably Tyler Lindhardt, who caught eight passes for 65 yards and two scores. They seemed to be the only 4A team big enough to match up with Pocatello this year.

This was not a pretty game by any stretch – there were only 31 total points scored, eight combined turnovers and a pair of missed kicks – but the Thunder, at least, showed they can come out victorious if a game gets ugly.

“It’s important to have games like this, where your back is up against the wall and you either crumble or you grow as a football family,” Spillett said. “And I think our guys did that.”

Pocatello forced three interceptions of Preston quarterback Emery Thorson in the second half alone and still had to sweat out a victory. The game-winning score – a one-yard touchdown run from Payne – only came after an eight-play, four-minute drive in which Pocatello traveled a whopping 35 yards.

But, when they needed to, Pocatello found a way to score, to win. And now, the Thunder are in the driver’s seat in 4A.

With a win over Century next week, Pocatello will win the first district championship in Spillett’s seven-year tenure at his alma mater and likely be the No. 1 seed in the state tournament, which slots teams by their MaxPreps rankings.

All of that begs the question: Could Pocatello be the best 4A team in the state?

“We feel like that already,” Spillett said.

“Oh yeah, no doubt about it,” Christensen added. “We just have to go take care of business next week (then we’re) the No. 1 team in the state.”

As for Preston, Friday’s loss doesn’t take away any long-term goals. Indians’ coach Eric Thorson is already telling his team they’re entering the playoffs heading into next week’s game against 3A Snake River. Win, and they’re seeding will still be solid. Lose, and it’ll be a tough road through the bracket.

Perhaps Friday’s loss to Pocatello is what gets the Indians back on track.

“We can add that as motivation as we hopefully move into the playoffs, Thorson said.