PORTSMOUTH — No doubt, the clear-cut winner for Friday night’s non-league football games involving the Southern Ohio Conference and Ohio Valley Conference teams was Mother Nature.

As fierce lightning, loud thunder and driving downpour rain invaded Scioto County and almost all of Southeastern Ohio on Friday night, that meant a plethora of games getting started —then unfortunately and untimely stopped —all around the region.

Some didn’t start altogether, such as Northwest at Huntington.

That will be played on Saturday (Sept. 7) night at 7 p.m.

Two contests of serious interest and consequence started on Friday night, but were suspended until Saturday.

The first was 2-0 Portsmouth at 2-0 Greenup County in Kentucky, where with 5:51 remaining in the opening quarter the scoreless tilt was halted.

It was set to resume at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The second was 1-1 Jackson at 0-2 Wheelersburg, which made it a minute into the second stanza —before it too stood scoreless, and ended with a suspension until Saturday at 5 p.m.

The 1-1 Notre Dame Titans hosted the 1-1 Fisher Catholic Irish for Friday night inside historic Spartan Municipal Stadium, but like several others, didn’t make it out of the first quarter.

Fisher Catholic, with five-and-a-half minutes left in the opening canto, took a 7-0 lead —on a 55-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Grant Keefer to wideout Hyde O’Rielly.

Nick Sanford made the extra point, but at the 4:46 mark, the game was stopped at 7:22 p.m. for a weather delay.

Exactly two hours later — and amid more lightning, thunder and rainfall — the decision was made to suspend the game until Saturday, and at 4 p.m. at Spartan Stadium.

The host Titans will have the football at their own 38-yard-line, and face a 3rd-down-and-7.

Their first two drives ended with a turnover and turnover on downs —the latter a seven-play, two-minute and five-second march to midfield.

The first lasted just three plays, as O’Rielly intercepted NDHS quarterback Bryce McGraw at the Titan 30-yard-line.

Notre Dame’s defense did make a serious stand, holding the Irish to four plays and a turnover on downs right after that interception.

There were four confirmed final scores involving Scioto County clubs on Friday night —West won at Hillsboro 27-21, Piketon defeated Valley 25-14, Wellston turned back Minford 37-14, and Manchester beat Green 28-21.

West is 2-1, Green is 1-2 and the Indians and Falcons are both now 0-3.

The only other game was Miller at East, as a final score of 20-0 in favor of Miller could not be immediately confirmed.