High school football kicks off Friday

COLUMBUS — The 2025 football season kicks off this week for member schools of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Locally, there will be seven Week 1 games Friday night, though just two of those will be in Huron County. Norwalk will visit Toledo Start for a second straight year, and will take on the Spartans for a third consecutive season. The Truckers won, 27-0, in the 2023 opener in Norwalk. Last season, Norwalk claimed a 26-7 road win, one of two victories for the season. The Truckers lost in the first round of the Division III playoffs at Medina Buckeye. Start went on to win seven of its next nine games to finish the regular season at 7-3 before losing in the first round of the Div. II playoffs at North Ridgeville. South Central will visit Willard Friday night at Terry King Stadium. The game was slated to be played in Greenwich, but construction around the football stadium at South Central High School forced the relocation. The Trojans and Crimson Flashes first played in 2018. South Central won the first four meetings, while Willard has won two meetings, including 32-7 a year ago. Speaking of construction, Monroeville will host longtime Hancock County power McComb at renovated Marsh Field. The Eagles will be playing on a freshly-sodded field that also got new goalposts, and the home side fans will be watching underneath a new press box on brand new bleachers. McComb and Monroeville each reached the second round of the state playoffs in 2024. The Panthers were 8-4, while the Eagles finished 10-2. The only other local game in the area will see Edison host Firelands for the final time in the current series. The two teams began playing yearly in 2015 with the exception of 2020, which saw the Chargers win eight of the nine games. Edison is coming off an impressive 13-1 season that saw it win the SBC Bay Division championship; upset Div. IV state runner-up Perkins; and reached a regional title game in Div. V. Also Friday, Western Reserve will travel to Wellington; New London heads to Millersport — located about 30 miles east of downtown Columbus; and Plymouth will visit Lucas. On Saturday, the first game of the season on the turf at Contractors Stadium at the Warren Whitney Athletic Complex is at 7 p.m. when St. Paul entertains Port Clinton. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams. The Flyers had been playing Huron in the season opener for the past four years, after previously facing the Tigers from 2008-15. St. Paul is coming off a 6-5 season that saw it start 0-3 without an offensive touchdown to finishing 6-2 with a share of the Firelands Conference championship and a home playoff game in Div. VII. The Redskins were 3-7 last season, but that included four competitive losses to playoff teams by a combined 26 points against Ottawa Hills, Huron, Vermilion and Sandusky. The 10-week regular-season will end on Oct. 25, with playoff qualifiers announced Oct. 26. A total of 706 high schools will play 11-man football this season in Ohio. The top 12 schools in each region — a total of 336 statewide — will qualify for the playoffs in late October. The playoff field was reduced from 16 teams per region to 12 beginning this season. Spectrum television schedule Spectrum recently announced its regular-season television schedule. The Friday night OHSAA Game of the Week is available on Spectrum News 1 on channel 1, the Spectrum News App and at OHSAA.tv. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. The TV schedule includes: Week 1, Aug. 22: Austintown-Fitch vs. HudsonWeek 2, Aug. 29: Cleveland Glenville vs. Powell Olentangy LibertyWeek 3, Sept. 5: Cincinnati Elder vs. Springboro Week 4, Sept. 12: Westerville North vs. Cincinnati St. XavierWeek 5, Sept. 19: Cincinnati Anderson vs. Kings Mills KingsWeek 6, Sept. 26: Ironton vs. WheelersburgWeek 7, Oct. 3: Strongsville vs. MentorWeek 8, Oct.10: Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit vs. Youngstown UrsulineWeek 9, Oct. 17: Southwest and Northeast: Cincinnati La Salle vs. Louisville; Central: Hilliard Bradley vs. Lewis Center Olentangy OrangeWeek 10, Oct. 24: Northeast: Lakewood St. Edward vs. Akron Archbishop Hoban; Central: Pickerington North vs. Gahanna Lincoln; Southwest: West Chester Lakota West vs. Liberty Township Lakota East Postseason scheduleOct. 31: First round, hosted by higher seedNov. 7: Regional quarterfinals, hosted by higher seedNov. 14: Regional semifinals, hosted by higher seedNov. 21: Regional finals at neutral sitesNov. 27: Thanksgiving DayNov. 28: State semifinals at neutral sitesDec. 4-6: State championships, Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, Canton OPSMA weekly notebooks Each week during the season, the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association will compile and distribute a notebook of top accomplishments from around the state. The weekly notebooks will be posted at ohsaa.org/News-Media. Each Wednesday during the playoffs, the OHSAA Radio Network will send out the OHSAA playoff preview show, which is a 30-minute statewide show that previews the upcoming round of the playoffs. The OHSAA Radio Network will broadcast the football state championship games Dec. 4-6 from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The network broadcasts are available through Skyview Satellite or an online link. Radio stations can opt into affiliate status to have their fees waived throughout the playoffs.