MERIDEN — Due to Monday’s weather, Platt football will not take the field again until Friday night against Tolland.
Last week’s suspended Rocky Hill contest is expected to be moved to next month — possibly Oct. 12, the bye week for both teams.
The Platt-Rocky Hill game began last Friday at Falcon Field. Due to lightning, the CCC Tier 3 contest was delayed for nearly two hours before the game began. The teams played a quarter and a half before the contest was halted for good.
The contest was rescheduled for Monday at 3:45 p.m., but more storms were forecasted for that time and ultimately the game will be moved to next month.
The Panthers were leading Rocky Hill 7-0 in the second quarter of the season opener when recurring lightning stopped the game.
Platt grabbed the lead on a 25-yard touchdown run by Joel Rey early in the second quarter. The junior running back hit a hole on the left side and took it home. Rey was sprung free by a big block by sophomore right guard Jahi Mitchell.
The Panthers did turn the ball over twice, once on offense and once on special teams during Friday’s action. Platt’s defense was shutting out Rocky Hill’s wildcat running game and the Panthers will hold a seven-point lead with 6:32 left in the second quarter.
Platt coach Jason Bruenn said they had no choice but to postpone again on Monday.
“We can’t go through another episode like we did last Friday,” Bruenn said. “We have a weather guy that the school system uses and he said the cells are going to be popping up like popcorn everywhere during the time we were supposed to play. There was only a slim chance we weren’t going to get stopped at some point. So why take the risk?
“Friday was terrible,” he added. “The kids were all pumped up and ready to play their first game of the year and we were in the locker room for two hours. It started two hours late and then you get stopped and you just sitting there. You can’t do anything about it. We were hoping to play Saturday morning, but everyone shifted and there were no officials. The Rocky Hill district doesn’t allow them to play on Sunday. That’s why we moved to Monday.”
Bruenn said the team is now going to prepare for Tolland at Falcon Field on Friday night. The weather again is no friend.
“This is going to be our first Tolland practice and it’s going to be thunder and lightning. We can’t go in the gym because of volleyball, so we are going to go outside as long as we can before the storms.”
Tolland enters Friday’s game at 1-0 with a 22-16 home win over Plainville.
“They look pretty good on film,” Bruenn said. “We came out a little rusty at the beginning against Rocky Hill. Our first snap went off of the fullback’s elbow. The two-hour delay didn’t help us at all.
“But there were some good things in that first quarter and a half. We were running the ball pretty well and looked pretty good defensively. We had a fourth-down stop. Our defense is going to get better and better.”