Thunderstorms disrupted several area high school football games on Friday night, forcing postponements and disappointing some homecoming courts.

Garner, undefeated and the top-ranked team in the area, built a 34-0 halftime lead on Smithfield-Selma and game officials stopped the game at the half. The results are final.

East Chapel Hill never got started and postponed its game against undefeated Orange until 7 p.m. Monday.

Middle Creek grabbed a quick 7-0 lead on Panther Creek before the game was suspended until 1 p.m. Saturday. The teams played less than two minutes.

Wake Forest-Rolesville and Broughton almost got to the half, but the game was stopped with 1:57 left in the second period with Wake Forest leading 14-7. The game will be resumed at 4 p.m. Monday. The afternoon start was chosen because of other scheduled school activities.

The storm, with drenching rains and lightning, wiped out the homecoming festivities at several schools and forced games to be stopped and stadiums cleared.

High school teams must wait 30 minutes after the last sighted lightning before resuming play.

Cardinal Gibbons had played less than a minute when its game was stopped temporarily by lightning and did not resume until after 9 p.m. Gibbons has an artificial turf so footing wasn’t a problem there but was on many fields.

Many of the delays were for about 90 minutes.