UPDATED: Ponies Edge Royals 27-20

The Stillwater Ponies defeated the Woodbury Royals 27-20 in the Suburban East football opener on Friday night in Stillwater.

The Ponies and Royals traded touchdowns in the first quarter before Stillwater slowly pulled away for the win.

Leading 21-20 with only a few minutes to play, quarterback Nate Ricci connected on a touchdown pass with with wide reciever Josh Weess.

The play gave Stillwater a 7-point lead and all but secured a win for the Ponies in their home opener.

Offensively, Ricci ran for two touchdowns and threw for another two. The Ponies ran the ball well accumulating 229 yards.

Defensively, the Ponies surrendered 14 points by the halfway point of the first quarter, but only gave up six points the rest of the game, all of which were set up on a short field for Woodbury starting at around Stillwater's 40-yard line.

The game was delayed for about 20 minutes with 1:50 to play in the game when the lights at Pony Stadium shut off. Play resumed and the Ponies held on for the win.

"It was quite a strange moment with 1:57 left in a 27-20 game," Stillwater Head Coach Beau LaBore said. "I am glad to see that our guys played through some adversity and played hard for four quarters."

The Ponies were tough in the trenches as well, LaBore said.

"Woodbury was solid, so playing well and finding a way is a good start," he said. "We just have to get better this next week and each week thereafter."

When asked about coaching his first game for the Ponies, against his former team nonetheless, he said there is anticipation anytime you begin a new opportunity.

"This time it was magnified because we played Woodbury," the head coach said. "However, when the ball got kicked off it was about us and football. It was a blast and I look forward to working with these young men throughout the season."

Stillwater travels to White Bear Lake next Friday at 7 p.m.

The Band Plays On

When the lights went out, the band played on.

Lukah Wesloh reported the following from the Pep Band's persepective of the home opener:

"It was quite the interesting game for sure yesterday. I've been to probably 50 football games since 7th grade, and yesterday's game was like no other.

All business was usual until the 4th quarter ... the Ponies faced some good opposition by Woodbury, but by that time we had pulled out ahead, 27-20. A time out had been called by one of the teams, and while I was preparing to count off the band for another tune we heard a faint boom ...  then the first light rack went dim, then out. Followed in quick succession by the rest of the lights in the stadium.

Before we had time to do anything, we were plunged into complete darkness. There was much cheering and yelling, and general mayhem for a couple minutes as we tried to figure out if this was a bigger problem, or if we needed to leave or anything.

After being told over the loudspeaker to remain in our seats, we decided to play some music. Which is what we do best.

Although we have never rehearsed in the dark, we managed to pull it off. We played the school fight song, the old classic Hey Baby, our rendition of DJ Khaled's All I Do Is Win, and another classic, Louie Louie.

The "Pony Posse" (The hard core sports fans of our high school) joined right in and sang along and danced, and the at first confusing situation turned into a fun night.

Before too long, the lights slowly returned and the game got underway again. The Ponies pulled off the victory in short succession, and we all called it a good night."