It seems mother nature has a vendetta against Doug Merkley and his squad — and it’s taking it out on all of Pocatello.

    The Pocatello High School girls soccer team has yet to play a home game, though two on the schedule have already come and gone.

    The Indians’ season-opener against Skyline Aug. 23 was canceled after a massive thunderstorm dumped four inches of unyielding rain on parts of Pocatello.

    Poky’s second home game against Highland, scheduled to be played Sept. 3, was also rained out. As lightning streaked across the sky and thunder shook the ground, players and coaches sat in their cars in the parking lot of Wilcox Field with a torrential downpour battering their windshields, waiting for either the storm to subside or the game to be called off.

    That was when Merkley got the call from Pocatello athletic director Robert Parker — the game was officially washed away.

    “In all my years of doing this, I’ve never had to cancel a soccer game,” Parker said as he drove toward Wilcox field to help his daughter, a Poky soccer player, start her car. “There’s lightning out here. The field is too wet to play on. It’s not safe in a lot of ways. ... It’s just not worth endangering the kids.”

    As he maneuvered through the streets-turned-streams of Pocatello trying to get to his stranded daughter, Parker battled various detours and rain-washed dips in the road as the water rose to nearly his bumper in some spots. He became apprehensive at one point as he drove through a waterlogged area.

    “I’m crossing about I’d say a foot of water on the road,” he said. “I got through it, though, without killing myself.”

    Pocatello’s girls have now played three of the five games so far on their schedule, and they were all away. They’ve yet to take the field at home. It’s a bizarre scene Merkley has never experienced, let alone twice in the same season.

    “I had a lightning delay in Preston once, and that was the closest I’ve come to a weather related cancellation,” he said while waiting for Parker to arrive. Merkley never leaves when a player is still waiting to be picked up. “Now I’ve had two back-to-back home games. It’s kind of crazy.”

    So barring another act of God, Pocatello’s next match at Bonneville Sept. 5 is still a go — for now. But the weather might have other plans. According to weather.gov, the forecast in Idaho Falls that day calls for a slight chance of thunderstorms.

    But we all know how inaccurate those forecasts can be. After all, there was only a 50 percent chance of precipitation before the city suffered its second abrupt, head-scratching flood in less than two weeks.

    “With any luck, we’ll actually be able to play that game,” Merkley said.

    While player safety is a top priority, the players still wish they could take the field. A bad defeat is still better than not getting the opportunity to compete.

    “They’d rather lose than not play,” Merkley said.  “Only thing that makes them madder than losing is not playing.”