Joey Fernandez felt jinxed.

As he stood outside the entrance to the St. Michael’s football locker room, the coach couldn’t help but feel as if he’s been in this situation before. It was four years ago he and his Horsemen were a part of a no-contest in a city rivalry game against Capital because of lightning.

History repeated itself Saturday. Minutes after he and West Las Vegas head coach Patrick Rodriguez agreed to postpone Saturday’s District 2-3A opener after just 7 minutes of scoreless action, Fernandez expressed some frustration about seeing the weather affect a game.

But he also understood safety comes first.

“It’s something that has been happening around the state a lot,” Fernandez said. “With those new rules, we have to take precaution with having the kids out there.”

Friday night saw two games in southeast New Mexico postponed to Saturday, including Santa Fe High’s final nondistrict game, against Lovington, followed by the Dons-Horsemen delay.

The good news is there will be high school football in New Mexico on Sunday. The two teams will reconvene at 10 a.m. at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex to finish — hopefully — the last 41 minutes of the game. New Mex

ico Activities Association bylaws state only teams that complete their district schedule are eligible to compete in the postseason, so the game will come to a conclusion in some form.

It couldn’t happen Saturday because a series of thunderstorms blew through Santa Fe throughout the afternoon. The teams waited until 4 p.m. before agreeing to the Sunday date, hoping a two-hour window would appear to let the game finish.

Lightning was still within a 10-mile radius, which forces a stoppage of play for any outdoor sport, by that point, and yet another storm developed. Since the football field lacks lights, the teams were prisoners to getting the game in before sunset.

St. Michael’s senior running back/linebacker Matthias Duran, who was playing in his first game in four weeks, said he was excited about the prospect of playing twice in two days — and on a Sunday, too.

“It’s a blessing,” Duran said. “I love playing this sport. I’m happy; I’m healthy. Nothing’s wrong, and I feel stronger than ever.”

Rodriguez said this was the first time he dealt with a weather delay but he felt his team was ready to play up to the moment the game was postponed.

“My team deals with adversity really well,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve preached that since the first day . ... We’re just playing football. There’s no emotion to it. I don’t do rah-rah coaches’ speeches. We just play football.”

The Dons made that clear in the short time there was action. They drove 75 yards on the opening drive to reach the St. Michael’s 5-yard line before a bad snap forced quarterback CJ Perea to take a 14-yard loss.

Then, the junior threw an interception to Horsemen safety Sabiani Rios in the end zone.

Fernandez said his team did not respond well to West Las Vegas’ physicality to start the game and he hopes the delay is a reset for his team.

“Hopefully we can get that refocus in and come out with more energy and be ready to play,” Fernandez said. “They came ready to play, and it’s going to be big tomorrow.”

The Dons were about to force the Horsemen to punt when the game came to a halt, but Rodriguez said the key for his team Sunday is to come out with the same intensity that it did in the first seven minutes.

“We just gotta reset; it’s the process that we go through all the time,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like you got to trick the brain to start the whole thing over again.”