East Hamilton's Ted Gatewood has been at this coaching business for 27 years. There's very little he hasn't experienced over the course of his long career.
But Friday night's three-part sequence of oddities even had the Hurricanes mentor befuddled.
In a game that ended at 12:22 a.m., East Hamilton defeated Signal Mountain for a fourth straight year, downing the Eagles 15-6 to close the curtain on the five-hour saga.
The season opener for both schools featured a clean half of football, a two-hour rain delay and then another 30-minute hiatus when the timer controlling the stadium lights at Larry Henry Stadium triggered, bringing about darkness heading into the fourth period.
The plague of frogs and locusts certainly couldn't have been far behind. The good news for the Hurricanes is that the timer worked perfectly.
"Never in my life have I gone though a game as bizarre as that one. You try to maintain your focus, but after that long even my ADD starts to kick in," Gatewood said.
The first half was played with the ominous weather bearing down, but the Hurricanes were able to take a 9-0 lead thanks to a pair of big plays from quarterback Kyler Johnson late in the second quarter.
Johnson's 48-yard keeper set up Mason Lafollette's 28-yard field goal with 4:20 remaining in the half.
Cade Meeks intercepted a tipped pass to give East Hamilton possession in Signal territory, and the Hurricanes' Jaxon Knight completed a 45-yard catch-and-run from Johnson on the next play from scrimmage.
"I thought we played fairly decent in the first half," Gatewood said. "But when you come out after that long delay, we're just trying to squeeze the air out of the clock. Then the darkness hits, and you've got to get them to dial in again."
The Eagles emerged from the darkness with their best drive of the night, marching 52 yards in 10 plays to cut the margin to 9-6 when Terrance Russell scored on fourth down from a yard out.
With a last chance to earn an unlikely win, Signal Mountain drove to East Hamilton's 44 in the final minute before a 65-yard interception score by Sam Randolph brought the strange night to a close.
Contact Paul Payne at sports@timesfreepress.com