READFIELD — Sometimes disappointment is the right decision.

There was plenty of anticipation heading into Friday afternoon’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B boys lacrosse contest between undefeated Maranacook/Winthrop (10-0) and Gardiner Area High School (8-2).

“We came into this game super pumped,” Gardiner senior Josh Caldwell said. “We were looking forward to it.”

It’s excitement that will have to wait, however.

The two teams moved their 4 p.m. start up to 3:45 p.m. in an attempt to get the game in, but right at about the contest’s original start time it was delayed and later postponed due to thunder in the area.

At the time the game was stopped, the score was tied at 1-1 with 9:30 remaining in the opening quarter.

“We’re bummed,” Maranacook/Winthrop coach Zach Stewart said. “We want to play. That’s the fact of the matter. We look forward to playing Gardiner.

“Now we have to wait a day and it disrupts the entire flow of play. Gardiner’s not going to have the best game, we’re not going to have the best game after this. It gives what could be an amazing game kind of a negative connotation.”

The teams will play Saturday at noon.

Both Stewart and Gardiner coach K.C. Johnson agreed, however, that stopping the game when they did was the right decision.

“It’s safety first. It’s just like concussions or anything else like that,” Johnson said. “With the lightning back in the old days they didn’t treat it like this and now they do. It’s good and it’s important.”

Referees Alex Pleau and Kevin Averill wasted little time in suspending play following the first sound of thunder, per protocol.

“You have to wait at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder or flash of lightning until you can resume the game,” said Pleau, who is in his third year of officiating high school lacrosse. “If we have to wait 45 minutes or longer, then we can meet with the athletic director and head coaches and determine whether or not we’re going to continue the game or postpone the game to another date.

“…Both coaches already new the policy and they already had a place designated before because they new, odds are, that we were going to get hit with something. They already had their evacuation area set.”

Most of the time when games are canceled it happens ahead of time, but there is always the possibility for inclement weather to move in after the contest has started — as was the case Friday.

In addition to the lacrosse game, the Erskine and Maranacook baseball and softball teams were also playing games at the same time. Both contests were postponed to today at noon.

Among the other games stopped by rain on Friday afternoon was Cony versus Messalonskee baseball. The teams played into the top of the second inning and were tied at 1-1 when lightning, then rain, caused the game’s postponement.

Cony and Messalonskee will replay the game from scratch on Tuesday at 4 p.m. That means all the stats, including a solo home run by Cony’s Mitchell Caron, were wiped out.

Staff Writer Travis Lazarczyk contributed to this report.