Lights Go Out on Bears-Huskies Game

HARRISON – Just call it the night the lights went out on the Brewster High School football team.

The entire second half of the Bears’ game against Harrison was wiped out when the lights went out at Harrison’s field. The game ended with the hometown Huskies winning 19-14, by agreement with both schools. That’s the way it will go into the books after it was determined at halftime that it was a Con Edison problem and the lights would not be restored.

All statistics from the game – which was the season opener for both schools – will remain.

AJ Accurso rushed for two touchdowns for the Bears.

“We were disappointed,” he said after the game. “I don’t want to sound cocky or anything, but that might have been one of the best halves we have played in a while. I mean, I think we were ready to come out firing in the second half. The guys were super-bummed. Ultimately, the game really happens in the second half.”

It was not the first time the lights went out at Harrison and disrupted a game. The same thing happened to the Huskies in the final game of last year.

Surprisingly, this was not the first time this has happened to Brewster, either. A similar situation happened to the Bears a few years ago when the lights went out at John Jay-Cross River. The lights were restored, however, and the game continued.

Needless to say, Bears Coach Ryan Cleary is familiar with unplanned natural events so he was disappointed but pragmatic about the situation, saying coaches and athletic directors from both schools met with officials and discussed options.

“Although we were frustrated we did not get the opportunity to finish the game, we decided the best option was to end the contest and move on to next week,” he said. “Our players handled the situation with maturity and class. We try to focus on things that we can control, and this was definitely a situation that we could not change… Since the Week Zero games have no bearing on post-season qualifications, it seemed like the smart thing to do was to take away these key learning opportunities and move on to focus on our next opponent.”