Jonathan Alder running back Will Heisler (26) is brought down by a London defender during a game played on Oct. 2. The Pioneers won that contest, 30-13, to conclude the regular season. The two teams were scheduled to meet during a Division III playoff game at Alder on Friday. Stormy weather postponed the contest until 7 p.m. today at JA’s Volunteer Field. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Clayton Northmont – team that beat MHS – forfeits Friday’s Springfield battle due to coronavirus
Mother Nature played a huge role in Friday night games involving a trio of local high school football teams.
COVID-19 played havoc with a squad that ended another local team’s season last week.
The Jonathan Alder Pioneers (7-0) were scheduled to host Madison County rival London (6-1) during a Division III state playoff game.
The Fairbanks Panthers (4-3) were slated to host Grove City Christian (4-3) for a post-playoff contest.
Triad’s football team (3-5) was also set to host Buck- eye Central (2-6) in another post-playoff game.
Each of those games was called due to inclement weather.
The Alder-London battle will be played today, 7 p.m., at JA’s Volunteer Field.
The Fairbanks contest won’t be rescheduled.
The Triad-Buckeye Central game was still termed as “postponed” as of the Journal-Tribune’s press time.
The coronavirus scored a knock-out punch against Clayton Northmont’s gridiron squad.
Northmont is the team that rallied for a 48-41 victory over Marysville last Friday night during the second round of the Division I playoffs.
The Thunderbolts were scheduled to host Spring- field on Friday.
Northmont had to forfeit the game a couple of hours prior to kickoff due to several of its players reportedly coming down with the virus.
The Alder and London teams were warming up on the field when the rain began to fall at approximately 6:35 p.m., ahead of the scheduled 7 p.m. kick- off.
Both squads beat a hasty retreat to their respective locker rooms as the rain pounded harder and bright flashes of lightning could be seen.
Every new installment of the light show brought on another 30-minute delay to the start of the game.
At approximately 7:15 p.m., the PA announcer informed everyone that Madison County was under a tornado warning until 7:45 p.m.
At that point, everyone who was still sitting in the stands was ordered to evacuate the stadium area.
Both teams were brought together in the Jonathan Alder High School gym as school officials decided what to do.
“The lighting just kept striking,” said Pioneer head coach Brett Glass. “We decided at approximately 8 p.m. that we weren’t going to wait until 10 p.m. to start the game.
“That’s when the schools mutually decided to hold off until Saturday evening.
“London’s just a few miles down Route 42, so it’s not like it was going to be a hardship for them to come back on Saturday.”
Fairbanks athletic director Larry Morris talked to the newspaper about the FHS-Grove City Christian cancellation.
“We had both teams leave the field at 6:35 p.m. because we heard tornado sirens in the distance,” he said.
After waiting for a while, it was decided the game was canceled and would not be rescheduled. “It’s just a tough way to end our season,” said Morris.