Lightning struck in the area, and the Madera South Stallions induced a 30-minute lightning delay in last week’s battle with the Sanger West Hornets, trailing 21-14 in the third quarter.
With about 10 minutes left in the delay, lightning struck again. According to rules, a game must be without lightning for 30 minutes. Any time lightning strikes in the area, a new 30-minute clock starts. After the second delay, there wasn’t more than about five minutes between strikes, and the game was called with about five minutes left in the third quarter.
On paper, it looked like Sanger West dominated the game on the ground with 292 yards on 32 carries.
However, of the 32 carries, six went for negative yards, and 12 went for two or less yards. The Hornets had a 78-yard run to boost the stats.
Meanwhile, the Stallions managed only 128 yards of total offense, including a 57-yard touchdown run by Diego Reyna Navarro.
The Stallions took the early lead in the game when the Madera South defense, led by a quarterback sack, forced a punt. The punt only went three yards to the Sanger West 35-yard line.
Quarterback John Ledesma ran for two on third-and-two. Two plays later, on third-and-five, Ledesma got the carry off right tackle. He made five Sanger West defenders miss tackles, and got a down field block from Jonathan Buendia for a 20-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead three minutes into the game.
Sanger West returned the ensuing kick-off 56 yards, but a penalty moved them back, and threw incomplete on its own 15-yard line to turn the ball over on downs.
The Stallions had to punt, and Orlando Flores got off a 51-yard punt to the Sanger West 23.
The Hornets got runs of 25, 19 and 10 yards to get inside Stallions’ territory. The Hornets scored on a quarterback sneak to take a 7-6 lead with 1:58 left in the first quarter.
The Stallions had to punt, and Flores got off a 43-yardkick. The Hornets went on a six-play drive to get into Stallions’ territory. On a 17-yard run, Jesus Sepeda stripped the Sanger West ball carrier of the ball, and came up with the recovery.
Two plays later, Reyna-Navarro, on a counter to the left, outran the Hornets’ defense for a 57-yard touchdown run. Ledesma ran in the conversion for a 14-7 lead with nine minutes left in the half.
The Hornets came back with a 71-yard, six-play drive, culminating in a 13-yard run to tie the score at 14.
The Stallions fumbled the ensuing kick, but the defense forced a punt after a tackle for a five-yard loss by Adam Sandez. The Sanger West punt only went seven yards.
But, the Stallions went three-and-out, and had to punt.
The Hornets scored on an end around from 78-yards out for a 21-14 lead with 2:20 left in the half.
After the Stallions went three-and-out, Flores got off a 48-yard put inside the Sanger West 20.
Three plays later, Sandez picked off Sanger West at the half.
The Stallion had their longest sustained drive to open the second half. Reyna-Navarro gained 11 to the Sanger West 37. Ledesma hit Buendia for 10 yards on fourth-and-nine.
However, on fourth-and-13 from the 29, Ledesma was sacked on what would be the final play of the game.