Lightning Hits Light Pole; Game Postponed : * Prep football: Bolt strikes near teams, coaches and spectators at Westminster High School.

A lightning bolt hit a light standard at Westminster High School Thursday night, darkening the stadium and forcing the postponement of Westminster’s nonleague football game against Servite.

The lightning struck on the visitors’ side of the field at 7:02 p.m. while 90 players, 15 coaches and five officials were preparing for the game. About 150 spectators were sitting in the stands. Referee Jim Patterson called the game immediately as players, coaches, cheerleaders and boosters ran to two nearby locker rooms.

Athletic directors for both schools reported no injuries.

Servite was warming up near the west end zone when lightning struck. Some of the players fell to the ground and others raced off the field. Westminster players, who had been ordered back to the locker room by Coach Stan Clark, were jogging off the field near the east end zone when lightning hit.

“I was counting the time between the thunder and lightning and it was approaching fast,” said Servite Coach Larry Toner. “It went from eight seconds away (approaching from the west) to right on top of us. I told the players to get off the field and a moment later, the lightning struck. Then, I heard an exploding noise from one of the lamps above me.”

Leonard Overhulser was sitting on the home side in metal stands where he was nervously counting the seconds between the thunder and lighting.

“I was going, ‘One thousand one, one thousand two,’ between each strike,” he said. “A breeze was coming on and I told my kids, ‘We’re going to have lightning here.’ As soon as I said it, it hit.”

Clark told his players to leave the field about a minute before the strike. Clark was talking to game officials when lightning struck.

“We all hit the ground at the same time,” Clark said, as he gathered his players into a darkened locker room to tell them the game had been called.

Official Paul Siskowic said he felt the metal portion of his pencil burn his hand while standing near the light standard.

“In 24 years of living in Ohio, that was the closest I’ve ever come to being hit by lightning,” Siskowic said. “I heard it hit the light standard and then felt my pencil light up. It was really weird.”

Defensive lineman Robert Vasquez of Westminster said he was walking off the field when lightning hit and “I was on the grass the moment it hit.”

Teammate Billy Cathey, a middle linebacker for the Lions, said the thunder sounded “like a big lion roaring on the field.”

Power was restored on the Westminster campus at 7:20 p.m. but two of the four light standards on the visiting side failed to regain power. Administrators hoped to reschedule the game tonight, but Marina has a game scheduled with Foothill so another site will have to be located.

“We have a game next Thursday, so we don’t want to play Saturday night if we can avoid it,” Servite Athletic Director Tom Vitello said.