AUGUSTA — Already delayed nearly 45 minutes at the start by lightning, the Cony football team’s home opener against Skowhegan on Friday night at Fuller field was suspended when officials spied lightning with 4 minutes, 57 seconds left in the third quarter and the host Rams up 22-0. Later on Friday, both parties agreed to end the game, and the score was made final, according to Cony Athletic Director TJ Maines.

Officials originally decided to delay the game for a half hour after lightning struck at about 9:15 p.m., but with more stormy weather forecast for later Friday, they opted to simply halt the game.

Whether the game would even kick off at all was in flux as thunder, lightning and light rain hit the area late Friday afternoon. At 6 p.m., the playing field was empty save for a few footballs as the players and coaches waited the situation out inside the high school.

“At about 6 o’clock we thought we just weren’t going to play at all tonight. It seemed there was not a window to get anything in and all of a sudden we had a window,” Cony coach B.L. Lippert said. “Our kids remained focused and were pretty resilient. It’s their home opener, so you’ve got to be excited for that no matter what time you kick off. Seven o’clock, 7:30, they were ready to play.”

Only the weather could stop what had been a dominant performance by Cony. Conner Heidle ran for 71 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while quarterback Parker Morin connected with wideout Parker Sergent for two TDs on 9-for-17 passing for 110 yards and an interception. Sergent had five catches for 75 yards.

“We lost both those guys (Morin and Sergent) early last year, and they’re both really good athletes,” Lippert said. “We knew with both those guys coming back they’d be a pretty good connection and they showed it a little bit here tonight.

Cony’s Conner Heidle avoids a diving tackle by Skowhegan’s Darrin Gilman during a football game Friday in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“Connor’s run the ball really well, and played really well at linebacker,” Lippert added. “He’s a junior that we’re really counting on to step up and he’s played really, really hard the last two weeks for us.”

Defensively, Tyler Pelletier make five tackles and recovered a Skowhegan fumble late in the second quarter.

Skowhegan, which won the Class B state title last season but lost much of its core to graduation, went three-and-out on four drives, its last ending on a 67-yard punt by quarterback Jason Aubin on what turned out to be the final play before the game was halted. Aubin ran for 19 yards on five carries.

The River Hawks’ Kaden Pelletier picked off an interception, while fellow defenders Trevor Austin, Drake Tracy and Miller Foss played close to the Cony defenders and made the Rams work for their yards through the air.

Cony opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 14-play drive that was a mix of Heidle runs and Morin-to-Sergent completions. Facing 4th-and-goal at the River Hawks’ 4-yard line, the Rams eschewed the field goal attempt and Morin found a wide-open Sergent over the middle for the TD with 4:56 left in the quarter; Morin’s 2-point conversion to Kyle Olson gave the Rams an 8-0 lead. Cony finished the night 3-for-4 on fourth-down conversions.

The Rams struck again in the second after a tremendous Heidle punt return, in which he wove from the left sideline to the right while running downfield and averting River Hawk defenders, gave his team the ball at the Skowhegan 16. Six plays later, Heidle ran up the middle to make it 15-0 Cony with 2:59 left after the first of Landon Foster’s two extra points.

Cony’s final score of the night came with 7:10 left in the third, when Morin hit Sergent with a 10-yard flare pass, and Sergent snuck past the right pylon to make it 22-0.

Penalties were a bugaboo for both teams; Skowhegan committed seven for 55 yards, while Cony made five for 40.

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