Fredonia held on to a first-half lead before a thunderstorm intervened Saturday afternoon, The Blue Devils emerged with a 2-1 lightning-shortened win over the Geneva Golden Tornadoes.
Fredonia broke on top on a goal by Jimmie Ritchie (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora). Following a counter out of their defensive end, Sam Greco (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) made a run through the midfield a slid a pass to Jeremy Bari (Niagara Falls, N.Y. / Niagara-Wheatfield). Bari -- who opened the season at goalkeeper before moving to forward -- fed Ritchie in front.
Ritchie turned on his defender and blasted a shot into the left side of the net. It was his second goal of the season.
Geneve knotted the score 1-1 off a corner kick. The initial header knocked down by a Fredonia defender went to Abel Carleton, whose tying goal came with 7:32 left in the first half.
The Blue Devils retook the lead, 2-1, in the 41st minute. A free kick from their defensive end was kicked around several times before Bryan Sibble (Liverpool, N.Y. / Cicero-North Syracuse) collected the ball and slid a pass between defenders to Ryan Keller (East Aurora, N.Y. / East Aurora), who made good with a hard shot from 10-yards out. It was his team-leading third goal.
The teams played a scoreless second half, although it was not without drama. Play was stopped with 18:53 remaining because of lightning. After a delay of 30 minutes and only two more minutes of play, the officials overhead distant thunder and stopped the game for good despite protests from the Geneva sideline. Minutes later, the skies opened up as a full-fledged thunderstorm rolled overhead.
The game was declared official since it had passed the 70-minute mark.
The Blue Devils take a 4-1-1 record into their non-conference game Tuesday at D'Youville.
