Coaches, players, officials and fans got more prep football than they bargained for Friday as rain, thunder and lightning -- including one bolt captured by Wisconsin State Journal photographer Craig Schreiner on the front page of your Saturday sports section -- extended the evening fairly close to midnight in many locations.

Here are my choices for top games and top performers from Friday's action during Week 1:

Biggest monkey off the back: The one that had made like a backpack since 2004 for the football players in Elroy where the Royall Panthers this morning are probably still celebrating the end of a 39-game losing streak with a 20-14 win over Riverdale at Muscoda. Royall last won a football game Oct. 1, 2004 when it beat Cashton 6-0 in a Scenic Bluffs Conference game.

Most exciting duo: Wide receiver Jared Wiese and quarterback Joe Carl of Fennimore, who connected for two touchdown strikes, including an 85-yarder in the first quarter of the Golden Eagles' 42-6 win over Dodgeville. That came after Wiese had returned the opening kickoff 76 yards for a touchdown and before Carl returned a punt 70 yards for another.

Most exciting game: Madison Memorial's 28-27 win over Madison West showcased a fast start by West, followed by a swift comeback by Memorial and a big goal-line stand by the Spartans on a two-point conversion run from the one by West's Leighton Settle, who had a big night. Speaking of game-breakers, I'm hard-pressed to remember a more impressive return specialist in our area than Memorial's Lechein Neblett, who had several chances to take one to the house before he finally uncorked a 89-yard kickoff return, which prompted West to squib-kick the rest of the night.

Most exciting finish: Westfield's 20-13 win over Montello-Princeton-Green Lake, where the Pioneers Nick Grant capped an 80-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run and then tacked on the 2-point conversion run with 1 second remaining as his team rallied for the victory.

Biggest upset: Belmont's 20-18 win over Benton-Scales Mound (Ill.) at the Six Rivers Conference Jamboree at UW-Platteville. You'll be able to read about it Tuesday in my Prep Huddle column, but just three weeks ago the Braves had nine healthy players, cancelled practice amid the threat of dropping the varsity program and went door-to-door to scare up players to pad the roster to 22 players.

Strangest trend: Teams winning games despite being on the short end on number of plays from scrimmage. It happened in New Glarus where New Glarus-Monticello (28) ran 27 fewer plays than Iowa-Grant (55) yet still cruised to a 26-7 victory. It happened at Lodi where McFarland (35) ran 20 fewer plays than the Blue Devils (55), but came away with a 7-0 win. It happened at Middleton where Mount Horeb-Barneveld (43) ran 17 fewer plays than Madison Edgewood (60) and still hung on for a 17-13 victory. And it happened in Waterloo where the Pirates (35) ran 10 fewer plays than Pardeeville (45) and managed to pull out a 10-6 victory.

Best conference showing: Northern Rock Valley Conference teams went 4-2 during Week 1, but the conference that might have opened some eyes with its overall play was the Scenic Bluff Conference. Scenic Bluffs teams went 5-3 to open the season in a weekend that started Thursday with Necedah's 21-14 road win over perennial power Eleva-Strum.

Most intriguing Week 2 match-ups: Week 1 outcomes made this week's Verona-Madison Memorial and Black Hawk-Belmont games a little more meaningful, but we like the high-octane potential of Fennimore's game at Lancaster. Both teams reached the WIAA state semifinals last year -- Lancaster in Division 5 and Fennimore in Division 6 -- and had no trouble putting points on the scoreboard during Week 1 against Cuba City and Dodgeville, respectively.