The regular season started the way too many preseason practices ended for Hilton Head Prep — interrupted by bad weather.

The Dolphins didn’t even make it through one quarter in their opener Friday against Dorchester Academy before streaks of lightning forced both teams off the field and eventually led officials to postpone the game, with the Raiders leading 14-7.

Prep athletics director Jim Brown was working Friday with SCISA officials to arrange to play the conclusion of the game Monday night at Thomas Heyward Academy, which would be a shorter trip for the Raiders.

Because the game is a non-region contest, the teams could have decided to cancel it entirely, but both coaches were eager to complete it. Prep has been plagued by afternoon thunderstorms the past couple of weeks, so coach Ron Peduzzi is itching to get some game experience for his young team.

“It’s been frustrating, because we had a scrimmage against Hilton Head (High) and it was canceled, and due to SCISA rules, we don’t have a lot of time to get scrimmages in,” Peduzzi said. “We had a scrimmage last Tuesday, and then we had a practice canceled Wednesday, and we had a practice canceled because it was lightning again (Thursday) and then we had the two quarters Friday (in the Beaufort County scrimmage). That’s not real good.”

It showed early on Friday, as the Dolphins’ spread offense sputtered in its first two possessions, managing only one first down. Meanwhile, the Raiders marched down the field twice, scoring on a 6-yard run by Nick McAlhany and a 42-yard pass from McAlhany to Jamie Collins for a 14-0 lead.

But Prep put together an 80-yard drive on its third possession, during which Matt Layman hit Patrick Andrews and Dimitri Lowry for 24-yard strikes, then capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

Dorchester was facing a third-and-3 at the Prep 34-yard line when play was stopped with 12.8 seconds left in the first quarter.

 

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