It wasn’t a pretty start for Selma or Dallas County offensively Friday night as both teams struggled on their opening possessions. Before either team could make an adjustment, thunderstorms hit the Selma area and forced both teams off the field.

Unfortunately, they never got back on it.

Lightning in the area forced the game to be postponed until Saturday at 11 a.m. at Memorial Stadium. When it resumes, Selma will have a 7-0 lead thanks to a Marquell Moorer 30-yard interception return.

“It’s taxing on everybody. It’s frustrating for the fans, it’s frustrating for the administrators, it’s frustrating for the field crew, it’s frustrating for everybody,” said Dallas County head coach Marty Smith. “But, when you step back and you put in perspective that it’s for the safety of the children then you look at it totally different because of the value we place on kids.”

School administrators and coaches met around 8 p.m. and decided to make an official call at 8:30 p.m. about whether the game would be played Friday night. At that point, they’d already decided on plan B — Saturday’s game at 11 a.m.

At 8:30, the rain had cleared but lightning was still in the area.

“At 8:30 we still saw some lightning, so it was going to be another 30 minutes from that point,” said Selma head coach Leroy Miles. “Just walking to the bus there’s a little lightning going on and we can’t play with the lightning.”

Within 15 minutes of the game being postponed, a second storm brought heavy rain to the area.

The good news for both teams is that they’ll get a chance to regroup.

Dallas County had two possessions in Friday’s game and totaled 3 yards of offense on nine plays. The Hornets had three runs that were stuffed in the backfield and three others that went for no gain.

“We’ve got to block,” Smith said. “That’s where were at and that’s what we’ve got to fix at this point right now.”

When Dallas County went to the air, Lane Wallace’s pass on third-and-17 was intercepted by Moorer, who ran it back down the visitors’ sidelines and dove to reach the end zone for a touchdown. Broderick Tripp made the extra point to give Selma a 7-0 lead.

The Saints only had one possession, but it wasn’t a positive one either.  In three plays, Selma had 6 yards. The Saints’ longest play was a run by Moorer for 5 yards because a longer run by Brandon Hatcher was called back due to a holding penalty.

When the game resumes Friday, there will be 4:22 remaining in the first quarter. Dallas County will be facing a fourth-and-2 at its own 20-yard-line.