DALTON, Ga. — Through three quarters, Woodland High School’s Titus Jones was quiet.

Then, the lighting and rain started. Then, it kept falling and falling.

After a weather delay lasting about an hour and a half, Jones keyed a comeback by accounting for 10 points and an interception in the final 10 minutes and led Woodland to a 31-22 win over Southeast Whitfield at Raider Stadium Friday night.

“Bottom line is No. 5 was the difference in the fourth quarter,” Southeast Whitfield head coach Sean Gray said.

No. 5 — Jones — replaced starter Jakob Foss at quarterback in the fourth quarter. Jones scored the go-ahead two-point conversion, then accounted for a touchdown and another two-point conversion. For good measure, he added a key interception while playing linebacker.

While Jones was the talk of the game, so was the weather. What started out as a picturesque but warm late summer night devolved into a virtual monsoon. As fourth quarter was about to start, lighting in the area caused the game to be suspended tied at 15. Players were moved off the field and into the school. The entire stadium was evacuated.

But the lightning relented — the rain did not — and the teams resumed play after about an hour and a half. The fourth quarter was played under a steady drizzle.

Southeast Whitfield, which had possession of the ball when the game was delayed, shot down the field after the game was restarted. A three-play drive ended in running back Christian Gillespie’s 13-yard touchdown run, his second of the night. The extra point put Southeast Whitfield up 22-15.

After that, Woodland scored the next 16 points. Energized by Jones, who engineered two scoring drives in the fourth quarter (a seven-yard run by Justice Carter and a one-yard keeper by Jones), Woodland pulled away for the victory. Jones had 82 yards rushing on six carries in that quarter.

Despite the loss, Gray’s message to his team was a positive one. Woodland is a class 5-A team with 32 seniors, while Southeast Whitfield is a class 4-A team. Gray believed the Raiders improved greatly from their scrimmage to their first game. He urged his team to be prepared for Murray County next Friday, a team that always battles the Raiders “tooth and nail.”

Woodland got the scoring started late in the first quarter as Carter scored from eight yards out. After a two-point conversion, Woodland led 8-0. As the game entered the second quarter, Southeast Whitfield struggled to keep its offense going, often bogged down by penalties — quarterback Adam Sowder’s 72-yard touchdown run was called back for offensive holding.

Woodland pulled ahead 15-0 on a 36-yard touchdown pass and the ensuing extra point.

The Raiders answered with a quick scoring drive, as Sowder found senior tight end Zac Cole on a 14-yard jump ball in the end zone. The extra point brought the score to 15-7.

In the opening drive of the second half, Woodland was marching down the field. With Woodland inside the Raiders 5 yard line and threatening to score, Southeast Whitfield’s Justin Silva recovered a fumble at the 8 yard line.

Led by tough running from Gillespie and Sowder, Southeast Whitfield put together an eight-play scoring drive, culminating in Gillespie’s 32-yard touchdown run up the middle. The extra point knotted the game at 15 in the third quarter. Shortly after that, the game was delayed.

Gillespie, who finished with 147 yards on 22 carries, believed the layoff affected the Raiders.

“I think it did,” Gillespie said. “We just went in there and sat in there too long, not playing like we should have, like we were.”