ALL IN THE FAMILY — Indian Creek head coach Andrew Connor, center, is flanked by his son, Zach, and father, Marty, during the team’s media day in August. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

CAMBRIDGE — For the fifth-consecutive season, Indian Creek opens the season with Cambridge on Friday night.

The Redskins have won each of the last two meetings — including a 35-28 triumph in last year’s season opener — and every game between the clubs has been a close battle. Veteran coach Andrew Connor expects more of the same this time.

“If you look at the games we’ve played, it’s been a nice rivalry game for us,” Connor said. “They are very similar to us in their size and classification and probably their history. Coach (Josh) Lowery does a really good job. They are well-prepared and play hard. It is kind of like looking in the mirror for us.”

Connor did note that the Bobcats are sporting a little different look this year on offense, though what they like to do remains the same.

“From their scrimmages and seeing them on film, they’ve switched some stuff on us,” he said. “They are a little more Wing-T offensively. That has changed our preparation a little bit. It seems, like they have in the past, they are going to concentrate on running the football. We just have to prepare for some different formations and different plays.”

Having been around as long as Connor has, he knows what it takes to have success early.

“Any time you play game one, it is going to be who doesn’t have the mental mistakes,” he said. “Obviously, the first game of the year not turning the ball over and not giving the other team extra plays is important.”

Brooke at Wheeling Park

WHEELING — Brooke has turned the page from a rough 2018 season, and its first chance to show its improvement comes against perhaps its toughest opponent on Friday night when it takes on Wheeling Park at Wheeling Island Stadium.

“I would have to consider Wheeling Park the biggest challenge on our schedule right now,” Brooke head coach Mac McLean said. “That is nothing against anyone else on our schedule. It’s Week 1, so that makes it a little bit more difficult. It’s on the Island, so that makes it a little bit more difficult. We’ve got our work cut out for us on Friday night.

“I’ve got the utmost respect for Wheeling Park and its program. (Wheeling Park coach Chris Daugherty) is a class act. He has one of the best programs in the valley running.”

Though he knows the challenge that lies ahead is daunting, that doesn’t mean he does not expect his team to think it can win.

“Some people don’t give us a chance, and you might want to take pressure off ourselves, but I wouldn’t take a football team anywhere that I didn’t think we had the possibility of winning,” McLean said. “We’re going to go down there, give it our best shot and see how we measure up with one of the best schools in the state. It’ll be a good barometer for where we are at as a football team.”

Last season, the Patriots pulled away for a 66-12 win at Brooke Memorial. McLean, though, pointed out that his team had chances to have a better showing than what the score ended up.

“A lot of teams are going to beat themselves in Week 1. We had opportunities last year in the first half before the game got away from us to stop them, and we let them convert big third and longs,” he said. “We let them catch a ball in the endzone when he had them on fourth down.

“I’m not into moral victories. I want to go down there and win. But, I want to go down there and have a good showing, look like we’re operating smoothly and playing mistake free.”

Southern Local at Edison

RICHMOND — Edison begins the season Friday night, hosting Southern Local, and the Wildcats are excited to start in front of the home crowd.

“Starting at home with home field advantage is exciting,” Edison head coach Shane O’Brien said. “The school is really excited, the student section is excited, the community is ready to go. I think it adds even more excitement to Week 1 knowing that our first game is going to be on our home turf.

“I’m excited. I know the guys are excited to get back on the field. There is a lot of energy and hype right now around the game.”

The Indians defeated the Wildcats, 39-13, in last season’s opener, eventually going 9-2 and reaching the postseason. Getting to start against a team that got to the playoffs gives Edison a big test.

“We know Southern had a pretty successful season last year, and they are going to have high expectations for this year,” O’Brien said. “We’re trying to use some of that as motivation for us to get off to a good start. We’ve had a really good week of prep and a really good summer. I really like where we are, and I think our guys have high expectations, as well. I look for a very competitive game.

“We know it is a really solid test right off the bat, which is good for us because it lets us see where we are at as a team. It gives us a chance to see how we play against a playoff team.”

In order to pass that test, O’Brien is focused on two things — discipline and consistency.

“I think the most important thing is going to be staying disciplined. We have to make sure we keep penalties down,” he said. “We have to make sure we are doing our jobs. We know they are going to take deep shots, so we have to stay disciplined on the back end and make sure we don’t give up big plays.

“We have to be consistent. We have to play aggressive and be consistent the entire game and give ourselves a chance in what I think might come down to a close game at the end.”

Wellsville at Toronto

TORONTO — The Red Knights open this season the way they ended it last season — hosting rival Wellsville.

Toronto defeated the Tigers, 37-0, to finish the season 4-6 and momentarily keep their hopes for a playoff spot alive. Now, with the rivalry game moved back to the opener, the Red Knights have a chance to pick up where they left off.

“Toronto has been playing Wellsville as long as I can remember,” Toronto head coach Josh Franke said. “For a while, they got away from playing them in the first week of the season. I have to give credit to Chelsea Fletcher, our athletic director, for getting them back in the Week 1 slot because that is tradition.

“This is Toronto’s all-school reunion, and it’s the festival of arts this weekend. We’re expecting a huge crowd. We’re introducing the new athletic hall of fame members, as well. It’s going to be a great atmosphere for football on Friday.”

Wellsville will look to bounce back from a 2-8 season a year ago.

“We expect them to be improved,” Franke said.

One big reason for that is Justin Wright, who won the Division III state titles in the long jump and 100-meter dash during the track season for the Tigers.

“Any time you introduce that kind of speed to an offense, it’s kind of like putting nitrous in a car,” Franke said. “We are going to have to find a way to contain that speed. We have to keep an eye on where Wright is at all times. They line him up at a lot of different spots. They put him in the slot, they try to get him one-on-one. We expect him to play wildcat quarterback, he’ll play tailback.

“We have to do what we can do and not try to play outside of ourselves.”

Garaway at

Harrison Central

CADIZ — Harrison Central opens the season with the same foe it opened with last year, but this time the Huskies have more experience and are on their home turf when they face Garaway Friday night.

In last season’s opener, the Pirates won 40-14. That score, however, was much closer until the fourth quarter.

“We were up 14-7, then they scored with about two minutes before halftime,” Harrison Central head coach Anthony Hayes said. “We drove down and got tackled on the 2-yard line. We felt pretty good about where we were at halftime last year. It was 20-14 going to the fourth quarter, and the wheels kind of fell off for us. We were a little dinged up and little tired.

“I don’t think we were mature enough to understand what it takes to finish the process. A lot of our kids played in that game last year, and we have worked on learning to finish our games. I look for us to finish it this week.”

As for what to expect from Garaway, which finished 8-2 last season, it is much of the same.

“They are a great football team that is extremely skilled,” Hayes said. “They have a returning quarterback that is a three-year starter for them. He is a big, strong kid with a big-time arm. This is probably some of the best skill they’ve had in recent memory.

“They kind of live and die by the big play, and they’re five-wide offense, so we have to keep everything in front of us defensively and make sure we don’t blow any assignments. If we do that, I think we’ll be fine. Offensively, we have to control the ball and control the clock. Grind it a little bit and make them impatient.”

Buckeye Local

at Barnesville

BARNESVILLE — Buckeye Local opens tonight with a new Week 1 opponent for the first time in a long time, as it makes a trip to Barnesville in search of a breakthrough win.

“It’s a new opponent and a new year,” Panthers head coach Roger Herbert said. “Week 1 is tough for everyone because you don’t have a lot of tape, and everyone changes their schemes from year to year. We’re excited to get going regardless of who we play.

“One of the main reasons we reached out to Barnesville was we have a good relationship with them. We play them in other sports, and we have scrimmaged them in the past. I think it will be an exciting atmosphere and a good crowd. It’s a good team to get on our schedule.”

The Shamrocks finished last season 5-5, winning the final three games.

“It is going to be a good test for us,” Herbert said. “They are coming off a winning streak at the end of the year last year, so we better come out ready to play. Their kids play hard. They line up and run the football, looking to control the clock. They have a couple of nice-looking backs. I feel like they are a mirror of us in the way that they are going to play hard whistle to whistle regardless of the score. That is exciting for us to try and match that.”

He knows the keys to getting that breakthrough win.

“For us the key is really slowing their running game down on defense and our offense moving the ball,” Herbert said. “I thought in scrimmages I’ve been real happy with our defense. I think in our scrimmages we’ve done well with moving the ball, so we have to continue that. We can’t have turnovers, and our defense has been opportunistic getting turnovers. It’s cliche, but turnovers usually win the game.”

(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@heraldstaronline.com)