Lightening lit up the night ski into an eerie bright white and bluish hue.
A frantic announcer warned the remaining spectator at a quickly emptying Bulldog Stadium of the impending storm and advised people to leave the metal stands and head for safety.
Brighton Athletic Director John Thompson was on edge. He didn’t want to see anyone get injured because a game that was well out of hand went too long.
Most people were safely in their cars when the biggest storm of the summer hit, downing trees and launching tornado warnings and mayhem.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs Tropical storm Saline hit well before Mother Nature landed her body blow as its All World quarterback C.J. Carr passed for 309 yards and a touchdown in Saline’s 42-3 mashing of Brighton before a game that packed the stadium and packed downtown Brighton.
Brighton (0-1) has faced three of the top quarterbacks in the state its last three games, dating back to last season, and been outscored 122-9 in losing all three games.
Carr said his team became fired up for the game when he heard Brighton planned to shut down the town to focus on playing Saline. Carr, a Notre Dame commit, is everything as advertised. He put a rope a dope on the Bulldogs defense with short passes, then stung them with long tosses over the top.
The only trouble for Saline happened after the game when one of the team busses careened off the highways during our summer blitz.
He also wore down linemen with his feet. Carr bought time in the pocket, scrambled and fired accurate passes to his wide outs. The Bulldogs could not keep up.
“He (Carr) did a great job of getting it out to his receivers,” Lemons said. “He obviously is a very special talent.”
Sometimes the talent is so overwhelming on the other side there is nothing you can do. That was the trap the Bulldogs found themselves in. They wanted to play with grit and shut Carr down, but he plays the game at an entire different level. All the Brighton players could do is shake their heads in amazement and frustration.
“I expect a lot of our guys in defensive situations,” Lemons said. “But I don’t think it was because of a lack of effort. This was a perfect opportunity for us to get out here and see exactly where we are.”
Coaches hate to lose but this is a perfect storm for Lemons who can lay down the hammer before their game against Plumouth Salem. No one can argue because losing with a running clock should not be acceptable for a program like Brighton.
One guy who stood out for Brighton was senior cornerback Brady Carruthers. Carr tested him a few times, but decided to look elsewhere to do his damage.
“With the guys we have we definitely have different variations of experience,” Lemons said. “Definitely we’ll get it going. I am pretty confident of that.”