SOUTH PORTLAND — A first half of missed opportunities cost South Portland in a Class A football game Friday night against Lewiston at Martin Memorial Field, but the good news for the Red Riots is that their failure to score didn’t result in a loss. 

At least for now. 

That’s because the contest was stopped with 36 seconds to go in the first half, as lightning was seen in the area. When lightning persisted, the game was suspended. It will resume at 1 p.m. Saturday. 

“Hopefully we’ll play tomorrow, with Monday as a backup,” South Portland Coach Aaron Filieo said before the decision was made. “We just don’t know. We’ll pick up where we left off whenever we can play. This is unprecedented for me as a coach.” 

The game was halted just after the Blue Devils took an 8-0 lead on a 2-yard run by Jeffrey Randall and a 2-point conversion pass from quarterback Lonnie Thomas to Joseph Dube. 

South Portland had a couple great chances to take the lead in the first quarter. Alex Horton returned the opening kickoff to the 44 before the Red Riots went three-and-out. Then South Portland ran 15 plays and used up over seven minutes on a drive that got to the Lewiston 10 before quarterback Easton Healy threw an interception to Randall on fourth down. 

The Blue Devils, who mustered just 5 yards on their first two drives, finally got untracked in the second quarter, marching 80 yards in 10 minutes, 46 seconds to take the lead. Thomas hit Randall for 15 yards to get things started, then connected with Tafari Corson-James for 28 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 9. After Randall bulled in from the 2, Thomas rolled right and hit Dube in the back corner of the end zone for the conversion. 

Thomas was 3 of 5 for 43 yards and an interception.  

Healy completed just 1 of 9 attempts for 11 yards. Matthew Frey ran seven times for 26 yards for the Red Riots. 

“I just told the guys I know it felt like we got (beat) for 20 plays, but I want them to remember the first quarter when we were leaning on them and we kind of controlled things,” Filieo said. “We had them on the ropes, but we couldn’t punch it in. They had us on the ropes and they did punch it in. The scoreboard doesn’t reflect that it’s even, but it’s even. We just have to come out and clean some stuff up.”