Of all the football games in the county on Friday night, only the Saint Jo Panthers were able to continue their game after more than two hours of a lightning delay.
Unfortunately, the Panthers lost to state-ranked Crowell in a one-sided game 74-30, just barely avoiding losing due to mercy rule.
Saint Jo was getting its first big test against the Wildcats, hoping it could match up against this caliber of a team and see where it was in comparison.
The Panthers started out well with Lee Yeley scoring on a 23-yard run to put them up 8-0 before the lightning delay started.
It takes both teams agreeing it’s worth it to continue during an extended delay, especially once it nears hour two of a delay and the prospect of a game finishing around midnight becomes not appealing for anybody, but especially the visiting team with a drive back.
Three other games happening in Montague County were cancelled for that reason, but the game did continue and picked back up at about 9:40 p.m.
Crowell responded with a touchdown run from Austin Hernandez, who the Wildcats featured in a power running attack the Panthers had trouble stopping all night.
Yeley scored on another long run for the Saint Jo, from 34-yards away to up its lead to 16-6. It would be the Panthers biggest lead of the night.
Crowell answered with a long run from Hernandez to cut the lead to 16-14 before the momentum swung.
The Wildcats recovered the ensuing onside kick and quickly marched down the field to score on a short run to take their first lead 20-16 right as the first quarter was ending.
The first play of the second quarter saw Crowell recover the onside kick once again. The Wildcats would go on to score on another short run a few plays later to up their lead to 28-16.
The Panthers needed their offense to keep up their early pace in the game, but unfortunately they were stopped at Crowell’s 19-yard line. The Wildcats would then go on to score again to make it 34-16.
Saint Jo got one big play before halftime when Devin Stewart scooped up the onside kick in stride and took it 40 yards for a touchdown.
The Panthers trailed 34-24 at halftime.
Unfortunately, the kickoff return did not change the way the game was going once the second half started.
The Wildcats scored twice more on long runs in the third quarter and stopped Saint Jo on both of its drives to extend the lead to 48-24.
The Panther defense got their first big win of the game by staging a goal line stand, getting the ball back on their own three-yard line preventing Crowell from scoring another touchdown.
Unfortunately, that triumph was short-lived. Backed up near its own end zone, a miscommunication allowed the Wildcats to tackle Saint Jo in its own end zone for a safety.
Crowell led 50-24 and was getting the ball back heading into the fourth quarter.
It was more of the same in the final period. After the Wildcats scored once more to go up 58-24, the Panthers special teams came through with the team’s last big play of the game.
An onside kick was scooped up by Yeley and he returned it for a touchdown as well, the second of the game for Saint Jo, to cut the lead down to 56-30.
Unfortunately, all it would do was to force Crowell to kick it deep for the rest of the game on the ensuing kick-offs. The Wildcats scored twice more in the quarter and recovered two fumbles from the Panthers offense.
Saint Jo held on until the bitter end, fighting for its pride and to avoid going down by 45 points which would have ended the game early due to mercy rule.
The Panthers did by one point as Crowell won 74-30.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.