MERIDEN — The lightning got bad enough Friday to halt the Platt-Bloomfield boys soccer game 10 minutes into the second half.
Good thing for the Panthers, Efrain Brown had already scored by then.
So had fellow junior Justin Basantes.
And sophomore Jeremy Martinez had scored twice.
Put it in the books: Platt had a 4-0 CCC interdivisional victory over the Warhawks in the season opener for both teams.
The Panthers will be back on their home turf field on Tuesday to host Lewis Mills in a CCC South matchup.
Lyman Hall 0, North Haven 0: The Trojans and Nighthawks opened the season playing to a SCC interdivisional draw in North Haven on Saturday night.
LH plays its home opener this coming Friday afternoon against East Haven.
Westhill 3, Southington 1: The Blue Knights fell in their season opener, a non-conference matchup hosted by Farmington Sports Arena on Saturday afternoon. (A subsequent game between Cheshire and Simsbury was rained out).
Southington hosts CCC West rival Avon on Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
CROSS COUNTRY
Wilton Invitational: The Cheshire girls placed second and the Southington boys finished third at Saturday’s race at Allen’s Meadow Park.
The Lady Rams, with 113 points, were runners-up to New Canaan (98). The Blue Knights, with 149 points, came in behind Staples (90) and New Canaan (107).
The top individual area runner was Cheshire senior Alexa Ciccone, who covered the 2½-mile girls course in 15:30. Southington senior Jessica Lombardo was 10th in 15:57.
Tops among the local boys was Billy Liebler of Southington. The junior, was 13th in the 3.1-mile boys race in 17:21.
The girls race was captured by Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss in 14:51. Amity’s Luke Cushing was the boys champ in 16:17.
Along with Lombardo’s performance, the Southington girls got strong showings from Katherine Cavanaugh (19th, 16:41) and Julia Donofrio (23rd, 16:48) to place seventh in the 20-team standings.
Along with Ciccone, Cheshire had six girls run sub-18-minute times: Mia Vientos (20th, 16:44), Emily D’Souza (28th, 17:08), Sage Falcon (29th, 17:17), Eva Curran (31st, 17:18) and Ava Ciccone (40th, 17:40).
In the boys race, Southington senior Tim Terry was 19th in 17:37 and sophomore Ethan Hoffman was 27th in 18:20. The Blue Knights also got scoring from seniors Brian Kalwat (40th, 18:43) and Chris Regalbuti (50th, 19:04).
The Cheshire boys placed ninth. Their scoring came courtesy of Daniel D'Souza (22nd, 17:54), Tyler Caron (34th, 18:29), Jack Lengyel (41st, 18:45), James Boyd (42nd, 18:45) and Brian Krzanowski (90th, 20:34).
FIELD HOCKEY
Southington 3, Lewis Mills 0: The next wave of Lady Knights is off to a 1-0 start with the CCC crossover victory over the Spartans in Southington.
Aniela Carlson, Brooke Bannon and Ella Huard scored the goals.
Addison Lasek, following in the goaltending footsteps of her older sister Morgan, one of 12 seniors to graduate from last year’s 14-1-1-2 team, made two saves.
North Haven 4, Lyman Hall 0: The Nighthawks blanked the Trojans in Wallingford in the season opener for both squads on Saturday morning.
To apply a cliche that actually rings true, it closer than the final indicates. The game was scoreless until North Haven broke through in the third quarter on goals by Grace Martin and Catherine Bignachi.
Sydney Pitcher and Libby DeAngelo added goals in the final two minutes of the fourth, with DeAngelo connecting with 1 second on the clock.
North Haven goalie Nola Coylz notched the shutout with 3 saves. Megan Klein collected 10 for LH.
Maddie Thomas played well on defense in front of Klein. Freshman Mattingly Andrews was solid in her varsity debut.
LH plays in Madison on Monday night against Daniel Hand.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Trumbull 3, Southington 0: In Southington’s volleyball season opener, the Blue Knights were dealt a non-conference sweep on their home floor by the Eagles of the FCIAC by game scores of 25-22, 26-24 and 25-22.
Alyssa Ferreira had 17 digs for Southington, while returning All-Stater Cami Wessels recorded eight kills and eight digs. Wessels also served three aces.
Trumbull was paced by Ariana Gjonbalaj’s 16 kills and 3 blocks. Ava Kunkel collected 12 digs, eight kills and a pair of acess. Carolyn Novia notched 17 digs and three aces.