Less than 20 minutes into Tuesday’s season-opening girls high school soccer matchup between district foes Daviess County and Owensboro at Shifley Park, a series of lightning flashes forced officials to postpone the remainder of the contest.
The game, which saw DC go up 1-0 in the 14th minute following a goal by Lily Hoagland on Reagan Chinn’s assist, will resume at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, with 23:14 left in the first half.
The first lightning strike at 7:50 p.m. led to a mandatory 30-minute delay, sending players inside and spectators to their vehicles, but when it was clear that the weather wouldn’t let up at a decent time, officials decided to hold off on finishing the matchup.
“We made the judgement call,” OHS coach Michael Lovett said, “especially with school starting tomorrow and everybody trying to get in a groove. It was going to be at least 9 o’clock or after until we’d be able to start again. We still had 63 game minutes left, plus a 15-minute warm-up, so it makes more sense to call it tonight and retry tomorrow. We want both teams to get a good rest and have a good first day of school.”
Both squads faced a similar dilemma at the start of last season, Lovett added, but it doesn’t make the situation any less frustrating.
“This is two years in a row this has happened to us,” Lovett said, laughing. “Last year, it happened at their place. It’s one of those things where you get pumped up for it but you have to contain your energy and use it again tomorrow and get re-psyched up for it.
“This is kind of a brand new team. We’ll see their resolve tomorrow. If they come out and they’re sore from only playing 17 minutes, then obviously we have some things to work on. If they come and they’re prepared and they’ve hydrated and taken care of themselves like I asked, then I think we can come in and compete again like we did tonight.”
DC coach David Sandifer agreed with Lovett’s assessment.
“It’s always frustrating,” he said. “All the kids are excited, but the thing is tomorrow being the first day of school, we’re still seeing lightning and wouldn’t even be back on the field for 50 minutes. You can’t keep the kids out here with the first day of school tomorrow.”
