As lighting flashed across the sky at Dee Faircloth Viking Stadium on Saturday, officials determined the Vidalia High School Jamboree would have to be shortened.

After Block High School and Tensas Parish High School played their two 12-minute halves, the officiating crew cut the Vidalia and Ferriday games in half, deciding that each school would only play one 12-minute game.

“The weather put everything out of sync,” Vidalia head coach Dee Faircloth. “It’s frustrating.”

Block opened the jamboree by pounding its opponent Tensas Parish 42-6. Afterwards, it was Ferriday’s turn to take the field against Madison Parish.

Seemingly in sync with the weather, Ferriday struck like lighting on the first play of regulation. Quarterback Rodney Lawson connected with receiver Alfred Brown on a 55-yard pass downfield.

Several plays later, the Trojans were faced with 4th and 13, but caught a break when Madison Parish was flagged for pass interference. Two plays later, running back Bobby Madison scored on a 4-yard carry. The Trojans missed the extra point.

“That was big for us,” Ferriday head coach Freddie Harrison said. “It’s always important to start right and not mess around. You can’t ask for more than to start the way we did.”

On the ensuing possession, Madison Parish fumbled the ball on its own 32 yard line. The Trojans recovered and drove it all the way to the goal line before fumbling it themselves and giving the ball back to the Jaguars.

The Trojans defense would step up, however, and tally a safety with 2:36 left in the game.

Harrison said the safety after the fumble showed his team was playing with unity, but he was also disappointed that they fumbled in the first place.

“Those kinds of mistakes are unacceptable on this team,” Harrison said. “We’ll make sure to get that corrected.”

Ferriday scored one more time on a Julius White 18-yard run with 0:29 left in regulation. The Trojans missed the extra point again, making the final score 14-0.

After their game, Harrison expressed disappointment that they could only play for 12 minutes.

“You can’t control the weather, but I am disappointed that we won’t be able to play the second half,” Harrison said. “We have to play four quarters next week, and this puts us behind.”

Vidalia’s match up against Delhi Charter remained scoreless for most of the game before the Gators scored on a Ricci Ray 8-yard touchdown carry with about 5 minutes left. They added another touchdown with 2:50 left on a Randy Julian 20-yard run.

The Vikings’ only touchdown of the night came on a 75-yard pass from quarterback Caleb Vines to Quan Riley with 0:30 seconds left in regulation. The Vikings made the 2-point conversion, making the final score 12-8 in favor of Delhi Charter.

Afterwards, Faircloth said his team would have to show a lot of improvement for their first game next Friday.

“Our conditioning and fundamentals are poor,” Faircloth said. “I expected it to look like this because we didn’t get to scrimmage last Friday. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”