Storms force changes to football schedule in DuPage County
Sunday will not be a day of rest for the Lisle and Wilmington football teams.
At 5:17 p.m. Friday play was suspended due to lightning while still in the first quarter at Benedictine University in Lisle. Wilmington led the Illinois Central Eight contest 7-6.
Play will resume at either 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. Sunday at Benedictine. Initially scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, the game had been moved up two hours.
“We took a chance,” said Lisle coach Paul Parpet Sr. “I support our administration, especially our athletic director, Tom Marcum. We thought we had a window that could give us about an hour and a half. And the window closed.”
Lisle (3-1, 1-1) forced a punt on Wilmington's first possession and used a 29-yard pass play from Aidan Lombardo to Connor Nigro — fresh off the Lions' homecoming court — to reach Wilmington's 5-yard line.
Three plays later Brett Weber scored on a 1-yard blast inside right tackle Josh Pereira. Lisle led 6-0 at 4:31 of the first quarter after Wilmington stopped a 2-point conversion attempt.
After a penalty on its kickoff return Wilmington (4-0, 2-0) needed two plays to answer. A.J. Meyers ran 35 yards, and Trey Shaw ran 44 yards for a touchdown. Allan Richards' kick gave the Wildcats a 7-6 lead at 3:45 of the first quarter.
“We've got a lot of football to play,” Parpet said.
Metea Valley (1-3, 0-1) and DeKalb (2-2, 0-1) won't have as much football to play, but they'll need to get in another half after lightning postponed the DuPage Valley Conference contest at halftime in Aurora. The game also featured a 30-minute lightning delay just two plays in.
With the score tied 14-14, the game will resume at 11 a.m. Saturday at the start of the third quarter.
“I don't look at it as a positive or a negative,” said Metea Valley coach John Parpet. “It's the next task at hand.”
Metea Valley looked good for two quarters while jumping to leads to 7-0 and 14-7. Elijah Wright scored on a 2-yard run while Ryan Bingham picked off a pass and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown.
After allowing a combined 110 rushing yards to DeKalb's Jalon Redmond and Trenton McCollum, Metea Valley will have its hands full stopping the run when play resumes.
“We'll get our plan together,” John Parpet said. “We've been emphasizing with them to learn to be uncomfortable and learn how to deal with adversity. They're handling it really well right now.”
Nobody got as much of their game in as Larkin and Glenbard South did in Glen Ellyn. The Upstate Eight Conference teams played into the fourth quarter when the game was suspended in a second lightning delay.
The game is tied 6-6 with 10:24 to play. It will resume at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Aurora Christian and IC Catholic Prep had their game suspended at halftime with the Knights leading 21-3. They will resume at 1 p.m. Saturday at Plunkett Park in Elmhurst.
Kevin Schmit contributed.