CARY -- Players from both the Carolina RailHawks and the Atlanta Silverbacks looked at referee Sorin Stoica with anger as he blew his whistle.
They wanted to keep playing soccer, no matter the weather. Nights like Saturday though made it impossible.
At 9:59 p.m., the match entered its third weather delay due to lightning at WakeMed Soccer Park. By 10:23 p.m., the two teams, along with officials of the North American Soccer League, agreed to abandon the match, which gave the RailHawks a 1-0 victory after 50 minutes of play.
"I've never really been involved in a game like this before," RailHawks coach Martin Rennie said. "It was disappointing even in the fact that it was just a lot of stopping and starting because we couldn't get a rhythm in the game."
It was the first match to be abandoned by the NASL this season.
As it turned out, the RailHawks (14-2-2) won by relying on a characteristic that has helped them all season. By being aggressive from the start of the match, the RailHawks were able to produce scoring chances before the first lightning bolt hit the area.
In the eighth minute, forward Nick Zimmerman made a sharp pass to teammate Etienne Barbara on the far side of the field. Barbara, a forward, dribbled between - and past - two Silverbacks and scored on a right-footed shot against Atlanta (3-12-3).
"We knew it was important to be winning after halftime with the way the weather was going," Rennie said. "This was a mental battle we had to win. We managed to do that, and on a night like tonight, having somebody who can put the ball in the net is key because when you're doing it in a short burst it's much harder."
The goal by Barbara, a forward, was his 16th of the season - a statistic he leads the NASL now by eight goals.
