After more than three decades, Chris Andriano thought he’d seen it all.
Then the storms rolled down from Wisconsin Friday night and the veteran Montini football coach came across something new.
The No. 9 Broncos’ season opener against No. 15 Maine South in Lombard was postponed until 5 p.m. Saturday after a lightning delay of almost two hours.
“In 35 years we’ve never had a game moved to the next day,” Andriano said. “That’s pretty weird, huh?”
It was also a first for Maine South coach David Inserra, who has endured delays before. One came in his debut as the Hawks’ head coach when Maine South and Notre Dame waited for an hour at halftime while bad weather passed through.
That was nothing on what happened in Week 2 of the Class 8A playoffs at Warren.
“They were No. 1 at the time,” Inserra said. “We took the field, [then there was] lightning everywhere. We went inside for three hours. … It was a 1 o’clock game and we didn’t finish till close to 8 o’clock at night.”
That story had a happy ending for the Hawks, who won 24-23 en route to a state runner-up finish. Even so, Inserra had no desire to wait that long again.
“This is good,” he said of the decision to push the game back a day. “Let’s go home, kind of refocus, re-prepare.”
Andriano felt the same way, though he said, “We would have had a big crowd, it would have been a nice night.”
Instead, the Broncos and Hawks will have to hold onto that opening-night energy for another 24 hours or so. “They were antsy already because it was game day and they’re ready to play,” Andriano said.
The same was true at Glenbard South, whose opener against visiting Addison Trail was pushed back till 7 p.m. Saturday.
“I was talking to the staff and we can’t remember an opening night like this,” Glenbard South Jeremy Cordell said. “I’ve been coaching for 13 years and I haven’t seen anything like this.”
Like so many other teams, the Raiders will have to avoid an emotional letdown.
“The kids were prepared for today,” Cordell said. “They were going through the day at school on pins and needles, ready to play football.”
What happens next?
“We’re going to keep them in their regular routine,” Cordell said. “Everything will take care of itself.”
Other top games that were postponed to Saturday include No. 5 Glenbard North at No. 19 Batavia (rescheduled for 1 p.m.), Cary-Grove at No. 6 Wheaton North (6), No. 7 Glenbard West at No. 25 Wheaton Warrenville South (7), No. 8 Downers North at Lockport (6), No. 23 Bolingbrook at No. 11 Hinsdale Central (7:30), Naperville North at No. 13 Neuqua Valley (7), No. 14 Crete-Monee at T.F. South (7), No. 16 Waubonsie Valley at No. 24 Naperville Central (6:30), No. 17 Benet at Downers South (1) and No. 18 Providence vs. No. 22 Joliet Catholic at Memorial Stadium (6).
Contributing: Chris Pellizzari
