During the halftime of the Woods Cross-Viewmont football game, I decided to take a look at all the scores from our local schools.
Bountiful was getting hurt pretty bad, while the Darts and Bengals were tied with no score at the half.
Then I got a message from one of our correspondents who was covering that game Friday night.
“Unreal,” it said. “Game just got called at halftime. Ends in 0-0 tie.”
Seriously? Was he pulling an April Fool’s joke on me four months too late?
I immediately called him rather than responding via text message. He confirmed the game was over and sent me the story with the wacky ending.
How could a game possibly end in a tie? There has to be something to this.
Turns out the stadium had issues with the lighting before the game even started. The scoreboard wasn’t operating properly and the referees kept track of the time, causing confusion among fans, coaches and players.
So the reason the game was called was due to having no lights, along with a quickly-waning sunlight that left players with little chance of seeing what was going on.
For safety concerns, the game was called at half and declared a tie.
While the players, coaches and fans were left in shock about the outcome, I couldn’t help feel that it was justified.
Darts coach Ryan Bishop was quoted as saying it was better to call the game at the half rather than risk an injury to a player on either side, and I agree with him.
First off, it’s really a preseason game. Preseason games allow for new players to get acclimated with teammates and playbooks and everything else involved with being on a football team.
Or any other team, for that fact.
Second, the preseason games don’t REALLY count when it comes down to who gets into the playoffs for 4A or 5A.
Region records are looked at with scrutiny. Ties in region records lead to more tiebreakers and so on, but overall record is far down the line when determining a tie-breaker for getting into the respective playoffs.
As far as I know.
I could add in a third point, but I think the first two should suffice as to why the game was called.
But ultimately, like Bishop said, the game was called for the players’ sake.
Imagine if you have a really good player that could literally carry your team into the postseason, only to have him out for the year because the coaches decided to keep playing through the darkness.
I’d be pretty bummed too. I know it wasn’t the ending that everybody thought it could have or should have been, but it was the proper call at the proper time.
And if coach Bishop or the other coach gets asked about the single tie on their record, they can both proudly say they ended the game for the players’ safety. It’ll make for a good story.
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