Friday, September 17, 2010

The storm that hit most if not all of Ocean County pretty hard last night wiped out what was supposed to be a big night of High School football in the shore area with games re-scheduled from today through Sunday.

The Shore Sports Network was at Jackson Liberty getting ready to broadcast the Lions game with Wall but from the moment we arrived at the football field we knew this one was in jeopardy. Dark clouds on the horizon and lightning bolts made it an easy decision for school officials with the game called off around 5:45pm, more than an hour before kickoff. The teams will now play Saturday night but unfortunately we will not be able to broadcast the game. Thanks anyway to Liberty coach Tim Osborne and the Lions, who always go out of their way to make us feel welcome.

Once that game was postponed I called to see the status of the Middletown North-Toms River North game and it was still on so I figured I’d drive to the home of the Mariners and at least watch a game. I was heading east on Cross Street when all of a sudden the wind started whipping and rain came down in buckets. I looked ahead and saw brake lights and realized a large tree had fallen across the roadway. Not knowing where to go I pulled over to the side of the road and within a couple of minutes a very large tanker truck came and basically just drove over the tree. That enabled cars heading in my direction to continue but within a half-mile there were other trees clogging up the road and I had to take a detour on James Street. Eventually I got to Route 9 and while on my way to Toms River found out the North game was on hold and like everything else it was later postponed. That game will now be played Sunday at 1pm as will the Colts Neck at Southern Regional game. The long delay is due to Yom Kippur which was the reason there were games scheduled on Thursday in the first place. As for other postponed games, both Brick Memorial at Jackson Memorial and Holmdel at Point Boro have bee re-scheduled for Saturday night. We will be broadcasting tonight’s Lacey at Brick game on 105.7FM.

The Lakewood BlueClaws had game #3 of the South Atlantic League Championship series against Greenville rained out as well. The teams will play tonight at First Energy Park with game #4 Saturday at 4pm. A fifth and deciding game if necessary would be played later Saturday night in Lakewood.