Halftime fire puts Dragons on hold
The Clinton Fire Department and the Clinton Utilities Board saved the evening for Dragon and William Blount football Friday after a transformer fire behind the press box led to a 52-minute delay at halftime.
The Dragons’ game against the Governors, earlier in the week, had its kickoff pushed back 30 minutes to 7:30 p.m. because of high heat in the forecast. The halftime clock had ticked down from 20 minutes to 3:18 when an announcement was made for fans to evacuate the stadium because of the transformer issue.
The stoppage occurred right at 9 p.m. Crews repaired the damage as the home-side stadium lights and electrical power to the press box were temporarily off, leaving much of the field in darkness. The crowd cheered at 9:50 p.m. as the lights came back on. Two minutes later, the teams returned to the field as a 20-minute warmup period was put on the scoreboard clock.
The game resumed and ended at 11:13 p.m., making it a late evening for fans, but the CUB workers kept the game from being canceled or suspended with their halftime heroics.
The Dragon marching band, having its halftime show nixed by the emergency situation, performed after the game.
