After Week 1 last year, Washington had beaten Hedgesville. The Patriots lost their next nine games.

After Week 1 this season, Washington had easily dismantled Hedgesville . . . and then came Oakdale High from Frederick County, Maryland.

The opportunistic Bears smothered Washington before lightning danced in the sky and caused the game to be called with 8:50 left in the fourth quarter. By that time many in the crowd had sought cover, but only after the storm brought by Oakdale’s 60-3 win had unearthed memories of last year’s fading season of Patriot fortunes.

The Bears had a 47-3 lead by halftime and then added two quick scores to reach their final point total.

“Quick Strike” was the appropriate phrase for Oakdale’s first points. Percy Obese ran 44 yards and Ben Simonica caught a 27-yard scoring pass from Sean McGaughey even before some of the crowd had settled into their seats.

Once Stephen Groh had kicked a 33-yard field goal for the Patriots, Oakdale stormed to another 34 points before halftime to assume a comfortable 47-3 lead by intermission.

McGaughey and Simonica had two more pitch and catch scores. Simonica continued his unerring path to Washington’s end zone when he returned a punt 66 yards for more points and William Kent returned an interception 86 yards for another touchdown.

Malik Boyd had second-half scores on runs of 12 and 68 yards as the Bears continued to pull away and hide.

In the early minutes of the last quarter, lightning was seen and the game was ended. But not before the Bear defense had limited Washington to minus-28 rushing yards and their offense had an average of over 10 yards per running play.

Washington’s path gets no less troublesome this week when it faces Sherando, a team that defeated Martinsburg last week.