After about 40 minutes of a lightning delay, Northern Virginia midfielder Adam Wilson jokingly walked through the press box, tapped a button on the scoreboard control panel and his team was up 2-1. Unfortunately for both the Reading Rage and the Northern Virginia Royals, scoring was not that easy at Exeter’s Don Thomas Stadium Saturday. Both teams had their chances, but lightning suspended play at the 62:28 mark. After a 2 1/2 hour delay, the match was called at 1-1 giving the Royals a point on the road.

 

Northern Virginia (1-3-1), which fell 2-0 at home to the Rage (3-1-1) last Saturday, made it 1-0 in the 15th minute when Oscar Berrios picked up a rebound and pushed it past Rage goalkeeper Jeremy Vuolo. Royals midfielder Irad Young took the initial shot from a sharp angle to his right of the goal. It deflected off of Vuolo and out to Berrios, who wasted no time making it 1-0.

With Reading’s unbeaten streak stands at four games since dropping the first game of the season, the Rage hoped to record their forth straight win. Alex Horwath had a lot to say about that, as the Royals keeper made 10 saves — nine in the first half — breaking up several golden chances for the Rage.

His most impressive save came in the 42nd minute, when he denied Rage leading scorer Adam Gazda, who took a cross from Tyrell Burgess and fired it on net. Horwath was there, just as he was less than 30 seconds later, stopping a shot from Burgess and the rebound opportunity by Gazda.

In first-half stoppage time, Burgess sent a bending free kick on goal and Howarth dived to his right to make the save and corral the rebound.

 

The only time the Rage managed to get one past him was in the 29th minute, when Jon Ports sent a pass across the box to Fleetwood grad Josh Sanders, who had plenty of net at which to shoot. Horwath was out of place as the pass from Ports went through a crowd of defenders and set up the equalizing goal.

The Rage was getting set up for their second corner kick of the game when the first lightning bolt struck in the vicinity. The referees immediately suspended play at 8:50 p.m. and waited to see if the lightning would clear. At 11:10 p.m., they decided to call the game a draw.