Prep football: Mother Nature wreaks havoc with preseason games

Mother Nature again was in early season form, postponing, canceling or delaying almost every high school football preseason game Friday night.

Of the nine involving Daily News coverage area teams, only two full games were played and both of them were well up the west coast -- South Fort Myers lost at Largo, 10-0, and St. John Neumann beat Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota in a game that started an hour late.

Gulf Coast at Immokalee counted in the Collier County Athletic Conference standings -- the teams couldn't work a regular-season game into their respective schedules -- and both coaches wanted very much to get it in.

So much so that it was not canceled until about 10:15 p.m. after barely even starting.

Estero and First Baptist started just before 10 p.m. and played a half. Naples High and North Fort Myers started at 10 p.m. and played a full game that ended at 12:48 a.m. Barron Collier and Lely started, but only got four minutes in before Mother Nature intervened for the next three hours, and also played a full game, ending at 12:27 a.m.

At Immokalee, about a minute before kickoff, the game between two of last season's playoff teams was delayed by lightning. After the 30-minute delay, Gulf Coast took over on its 20 and picked up a first down on a 14-yard Kaden Frost to Luke Baker pass play. But Immokalee bucked up and the Sharks were preparing to punt when lightning struck again.

"I think both teams came out and played as hard as they could in the limited reps they had, so it's a shame we weren't able to finish," Gulf Coast coach Pete Fominaya said.

A monsoon blew through, leaving temporary lakes near the stadium and soaking the field. Finally, after a long wait by a rapidly dwindling number of fans, the game was canceled as lightning continued to strike in the distance and the field, surrounded by deep water, was deemed to be unfit for the night.

"The administrators met and they decided we weren't going to play and we listened to the administration and we're heading home," Fominaya said. 

Class 7A Gulf Coast opens its season at Lely next Friday night when Class 5A Immokalee will host Golden Gate.

At Naples High School, football games don’t kick off until 7:30 p.m., not 7 like most other Collier County schools. So when the lightning alarms went off at 7:13 p.m., the host Golden Eagles and visiting North Fort Myers still were in pregame warm-ups.

After two hours, the rain let up, and the lightning finally cleared at 9:36 p.m. Naples players took the field at 9:39, followed by the Red Knights at 9:42.

Following 15 minutes of warm-ups, the game finally kicked off at 9:59 p.m. A few hundred fans stayed from both teams, including at least a hundred Naples High students eager to watch their team for the first time this fall.

Daily News reporters Dana Caldwell and Adam Fisher contributed to this article.

Preseason football games

Friday, Aug. 18

Barron Collier 26, Lely 20 

First Baptist 14, Estero 7 (one half)

Golden Gate 21, LaBelle 6, ppd., just before half

Gulf Coast at Immokalee, ccd.

Boca Raton-St. Andrew’s 6, Marco Island Academy 6 (one half)

North Fort Myers 33, Naples 16

Palmetto Ridge 21, Ida Baker 7 (one half)

St. John Neumann 26, Sarasota-Out-of-Door 0

Largo 10, South Fort Myers 0

The Daily News' Kelli Krebs has started her Training Camp Video Tour. Go to naplesnews.com/prepzone.

STARTING SUNDAY

Check out our high school football team-by-team season previews beginning in Sunday's print edition.