Weather interferes with SGA-Tattnall season opener

MACON — Rain is one thing. Lightning is quite another.

Southwest Georgia Academy’s first football game of the season against Tattnall Square was cut short Friday after lightning caused an hour and a half delay.

“The rain’s still coming down,” said SGA assistant coach Bo Johnson as his team was traveling back to Damascus. “It’s still pretty bad (outside).”

The game was suspended with 4:16 left in the second quarter and Tattnall Square leading, 14-0, but it was officially canceled because it didn’t even last until intermission and won’t affect either team’s record.

“It’s a non-game because we didn’t make it to halftime,” Tattnall Square head coach Barney Hester told the Macon Telegraph. “According to the lightning detector and the interpretation of the head official, he felt like it was in the best interests of both teams not to go out in those conditions. It is something that we just can’t control, and obviously our first concern was to keep our players safe.”

Despite not getting in the red zone, SGA felt pretty good about its play against the always-tough Trojans.

“Our kids played really hard,” Johnson said. “We saw a lot of good things. The only thing that concerned us was the pace of the game. (Tattnall players) were getting out of the huddle quick and wanted to speed the pace up. We felt like our kids were in good shape, but that’s a tough place to be in (when the other team dictates the timing of the game).”

The Warriors took the opening kickoff and ran eight minutes off the clock, but turned the ball over after a 48-yard drive. Tattnall went up 7-0 with two minutes left in the first quarter, then struck again with about eight minutes left in the second quarter to go up 14-0.

Taylor Tabb had nine carries for 45 yards and Dillon Driver had five carries for 24 yards when the lightning storm hit.

SGA now shifts their attention to their next game Thursday against Westwood.

“We’re just trying to focus on Westwood,” Johnson said. “We’re selling T-shirts, calling it the “Flint River Rivalry. … It’s a non-region contest, but it sure is about bragging rights. We ‘re going to focus (on a win) for sure.”