Friday Night Lights Part VII: Lightning rules the night

The Jaguars are shown gathered in the locker room shed adjacent to the football stadium...this photo was taken half-way through the lightning delay at 8:00.

The stadium is emptying, the game was called at 9:02 pm. It will restart at 2:00pm tomorrow at the same location. There was a great deal of genuine sorrow felt for the Pierz players and fans as we left the stadium tonight. They get an 82-mile drive back to Pierz, sleep...then back on the bus and 82 miles back to Belgrade. Not fun.

It will be a pretty wild Saturday with the Jaguars volleyball team competing in Alexandria and the football team playing at home. I planned on being in Alexandria for a good part of Saturday afternoon taking in some volleyball action. Now I have to sharpen my pencil and draw up a new schedule. One thing I know, at 2:00 I will be at the football game. Go Jaguars!!!

By the way, this has happened twice before in recent history. In 2000 for the season opener, the Jaguars traveled to Ortonville and had the game called due to lightning. They restarted it the next day, and they ultimately won 13-8 for a rare season-opening win. (FYI Ortonville is about a 80-mile drive)  Then in 2006, Maple Lake came to Belgrade and had the game called at some point in the first half. It restarted three days later on Monday night, September 18, and the Irish won 32-14. The Jaguars were trying to start the season 3-0 for the first time ever after they beat Ogilvie 36-22 and Rockford 27-0 in the first two games.

I haven't heard any scores except this one from the 4th quarter: Holdingford 40, Maple Lake 0.

Lightning interfered with numerous other games in the area. At Little Falls, their game against Mora was paused at halftime with the Flyers ahead 21-14 and will resume at 2:00pm tomorrow.

Here's how tonight played out:
7pm - kickoff and then Pierz ran three plays. I missed them, as I was fetching my umbrella due to the fairly heavy rain that started falling minutes before kickoff. They moved the ball and picked up at least one first down.
7:04pm - the players and coaches ran from the field as the referees promptly stopped the game due to a sudden burst of lightning strikes to the south. These lightning strikes would continue in steady fashion for at least the next hour.
7:30pm - I began looking at the radar and noticed the system was shaped in a narrow band following basically right along Highway 71 south of Redwood Falls. It appeared to be shifting to the northeast, so I was hoping at that point that the system would pass by 8:00 or a little after and we'd be playing the game by 8:30/8:45...
8:30pm - the referees and coaches began consulting, and then we saw all kinds of movement with players retaking the field. According to what I heard, the game was to restart at about 8:50.
8:47pm - suddenly the Pierz and B-B-E players left the field and returned to their respective "hunker down" areas. My optimism remained that the game would restart.
9:02pm - Mr. Huffman's voice rang out on the loudspeakers in the stadium, "The game is called. It will start again at 2:00pm tomorrow. Here. Spread the word."

On the way out, I spoke firsthand with a referee. I had to get to the bottom of what had just transpired. He explained that they were left with little choice but to stop the game and not allow it to restart. Lightning strikes continued to go off to the east...I am no weather expert, so I honestly can't say how far away they appeared.

Here's a crazy halftime score: Paynesville Area 38, Sauk Centre 0. Wow. That's ugly.

Central Minnesota Conference football scores on Oct. 11:
Eden Valley-Watkins 20, Kimball Area 6
Holdingford 46, Maple Lake 6
Rockford Area 29, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 26!

Area football scores on October 11:
Melrose Area 18, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 14
Holdingford 46, Maple Lake 6 (Irish scored on the game's very last play)
Minneapolis North 51, St. Paul Harding 22 (North is the likely #1 seed in Section 4A)
Upsala/Swanville Area 23, United North Central 8
New York Mills 22, West Central Area 0
Minnewaska Area 29, Benson 0
New London-Spicer 50, Holy Family Catholic 7
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 18, Osakis 12
BOLD 34, Montevideo 0
Watertown-Mayer 27, Mayer Lutheran 17 (an interesting final score! M-Luth. is 4-3, W-M is a very good 6-1 Class AAA team)
Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 34, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 14

With the cold, wind and wet conditions out there tonight, I am quite thankful to be home right now doing the dishes! I know it probably isn't good for the players to have to restart the game tomorrow...but it should help in our favor the way it's worked out.