It was an odd Friday night at Gerry Brown Stadium, the football home of St. Thomas Academy.

The football game started nearly two hours late and ended shockingly, when it was called with 11 minutes, 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter, leaving most fans bewildered and leaving St. Thomas Academy with a 28-13 victory.

The presence of lightning in the Mendota Heights area, where St. Thomas Academy is located, was the culprit.

In the three-plus quarters of play that actually occurred between St. Thomas Academy, No. 3 in Class 5A, and No. 2 Chanhassen, observers were treated to a game worthy of two of the top teams in Class 5A.

It had long runs — two of them, in fact — terrific catches, blocked punts and fumbles in the shadow of the goal line. In the end, St. Thomas Academy made more of the plays that mattered.

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When the teams were finally allowed to take the field for warmups 1 hour and 54 minutes after the original start time, they didn’t waste time throwing haymakers.

Chanhassen started the scoring, capping a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 15-yard scoring strike from quarterback Nathan Ramler to James Kopfmann for a 7-0 first-quarter advantage.

St. Thomas Academy struck back, putting together a 10-play drive of its own. The Cadets tied the score when running back Dominic Baez sidestepped a tackle at the line of scrimmage, then sprinted 42 yards to the end zone to tie the score.

Chanhassen took the lead the next time it had the ball. Ramler and Kopfmann hooked up again, this time for 51 yards and a 13-7 lead.

St. Thomas took the lead for good when tight end Luke Hudson leaped over Chanhassen defenders to haul in a pass from quarterback Tristan Karl. After the successful extra point, the Cadets led 14-13.

Then came the game’s biggest, and most impactful, play. St. Thomas Academy defensive back Todd Rogalski pulled out his special skill, blocking a Chanhassen punt. He recovered it at the 3-yard-line. The Cadets scored soon after on a short pass to Baez for a 21-13 halftime lead.

“Todd Rogalski is one of two players I’ve had in 21 years of coaching that’s faster on the field than he is in the 40-yard dash,” St. Thomas Academy coach Travis Walch said. “That’s the way he plays. People don’t know this, but that’s his ninth blocked punt in two years. And he’s blocked four or five PATs. He has a knack for it.”

St. Thomas came out after halftime and stood tall against the Chanhassen offense. In the meantime, Baez gave the Cadets a cushion, breaking off a 77-yard run for a 28-13 lead.

“This game is definitely going into the memory bank,” said Baez, who finished with 160 yards on 11 carries. “People ask me what I see when I run. I just run where there are no feet.”

The game ended when lightning was seen early in the fourth quarter. Walch said he was told that when a weather delay occurs in the fourth quarter, the game is automatically called.

“I didn’t know that,” he said. “I don’t blame Chanhassen for being upset. But we had a lot of focus on this game. This was one we really wanted.”