Neither rain, sleet, hail nor snow will ever stop football from being played. But lightning, well now that’s another story.

It was late in the first quarter when a stretch of dark clouds approached Scheumann Stadium from the north. As the clouds rolled in a sudden gust of wind ripped through the stadium.

At once, loose paper fell down like confetti from the press box onto the field. A few moments later the stadium was cleared as lightning had been detected within three miles.

It was eerie to look down at an empty stadium. No fans, no players. There wasn’t even a marching band.

It was weird.

But the game was even weirder.

Garrett Wolfe scored five touchdowns. Oh wait, I’m sorry, three touchdowns. Two of his five were called back on holding calls.

Yes, not once, but twice, Wolfe ran for a touchdown only to have it brought back because of a hold. Well at least we know he can run for 400-plus yards in a game.

Wolfe shouldn’t get all the love in the world though. He did make a mistake: one fumble. You know what, though, I’ll let him use a get-out-of-jail-free card this once. I mean he’s averaging one fumble for every 1,181 yards.

NIU made some other mistakes during the games, as it was called for nine penalties that resulted in a loss of 70 yards. Quite possibly the weirdest of these penalties was a false start call on center Eddie Adamski.

But not all the penalties were bad.

Example: Ball State accepted a holding penalty when NIU would have been facing fourth and goal.

Instead, Phil Horvath used his second chance to throw a touchdown pass to Marcus Perez.

But it wasn’t all good news for players from Naperville Central High School. Chris Nendick witnessed the end of an era.

The kicker had connected with 108 consecutive extra points, a NIU school record and four short of Miami’s John Scott’s MAC record.

Nendick was going for 109 when something horrible happened. No, the ball wasn’t snapped over the head of the place holder, the ball wasn’t fumbled, it wasn’t dropped, Nendick just missed a kick.

But not to worry. He got his revenge on the next kick off by leveling kick returner Dante Love. Oh, and he’s got a new streak started — it’s at one.

Ben Gross is a NIU football beat reporter for the Northern Star.