Lightning suspends class 1 Regional playoff

After winning the opening coin toss, Adrian quickly squandered their opportunity and went three-and-out on their first drive. The Tigers took over with good field position at their own 39 after the punt and quickly gave the ball back to Adrian on the game's first interception by Chris Schaller.

Adrian took over after the pick from the Rich Hill 17, but the Tiger defense was quickly able to shut them down. The Blackhawk offense was no match for a strong Rich Hill defense and finally ended up turning the ball over on downs deep in Tiger territory.

The game appeared to be a defensive struggle in the opening minutes as Adrian took over for their third possession just five minutes into the contest. The first time the two teams met this season in week five, Adrian came out on top at home as they took the victory, 27-14.

Wednesday night's regional contest proved to be a much different affair as the two teams failed to even move the chains for the first six minutes and each gave up the ball fairly quickly on their first three drives. It took the Tigers nearly nine minutes before they were able to move the chains and they were finally able to keep the momentum going to tack on the first points of the game on a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Rusty Thomas with 10:28 to go in the half to make it 6-0 after the missed PAT.

The Blackhawks' offense seemed to wake up on their next drive as they began taking yardage in large chunks before Rich Hill was finally able to come up with a strong red zone stop that kept Adrian off the board. The Tigers were unable to capitalize as they came up with no net gain on the subsequent drive to give Adrian good field position at the Rich Hill 42 after the punt.

Adrian was yet again unable to take advantage of the opportunity as they were able to move the ball just inside the Rich Hill 15, but no further. Rich Hill's defense came up with another stop and took over on downs at their own 13, downing the ball on the final two plays of the half to take a 6-0 lead into the locker room for halftime.

Rich Hill had just 67 yards of total offense in the first half, but the defensive struggle that appeared to be the story of the game led the Tigers to a one score lead, despite being outgained on the ground and through the air by the Blackhawks.

Just before the second half kickoff, lightning sent the game into a weather delay and both teams headed back into the locker room with the Tigers still up 6-0. After a delay of nearly an hour and a half, officials announced that the game would be suspended until tonight at 7 p.m.