Trending
The Hubbard Eagles soared to a convincing opening-week win over Norwayne and now the Eagles will look to make history when they host Youngstown Cardinal Mooney tonight.
Hubbard and Mooney have met 14 times on the gridiron. The Eagles are searching for their first-ever win over the Cardinals. In those 14 Mooney victories, the Cardinals have outscored Hubbard 366-72. The two teams first met in 1961 and they didn't meet again until 1968. Beginning in 1970, the Cardinals and Eagles played 10 straight years as members of the Steel Valley Conference.
The last regular season game was played in 1979 with Mooney winning 40-6. The two teams have since met twice in the playoffs. In 2009, Mooney shutout the Eagles 55-0 and in 2016 the Cardinals earned a 27-9 victory.
Following a two-year hiatus, the Battle of Belmont is back. Girard travels to Liberty to renew a backyard rivalry which began in 1969. The Indians and Leopards played annually until 2018, then the two school districts severed athletic ties because of an open enrollment dispute.
Girard, which lost its opener to Streetsboro, is looking to avoid its first 0-2 start since 2016. Meanwhile Liberty (1-0) hasn't started out a season with back-to-back wins since 2009.
Two of the longest-tenured coaches in the Mahoning Valley will meet up when Columbiana visits McDonald. The Clippers are guided by Bob Spaite, who owns a 183-103 record. He is in his 28th season with the Clippers. McDonald coach Dan Williams (153-72) is in his 22nd year with the Blue Devils.
The Clippers and Blue Devils will play at A.A. Burkey Stadium in what could be the final game at the field. McDonald was expected to start its 2021 season at the newly-constructed McDonald Sports Complex located just off Second Street. However a delay in construction has pushed back its opening to at least Sept. 17.
After tonight's game, McDonald is on the road for two straight weeks.
Howland had an extra day of rest after opening its season with a Thursday win over Niles. Now, the Tigers will look to go 2-0 for the first time since 2014 when they host Ravenna (0-1). The Tigers have won four straight regular season games.
Campbell Memorial High School and Lowellville High School are separated by just four miles. However, the Red Devils and Rockets have met just twice on the gridiron. Tonight the neighboring schools will meet for the first time in 89 years. Campbell defeated Lowellville in 1929 and 1932.
Youngstown East entered the season with the longest current losing streak (seven games) among area schools. The Golden Bears broke the streak last Friday with a home win over Shaw. They will now look to win two straight for the first time since 2019 when they opened the season with victories over Liberty and Perry Traditional Academy. The Golden Bears will visit Mollenkopf Stadium to play Warren G. Harding (0-1).
Both Garrettsville Garfield and South Range own 11-game regular season winning streaks. Garfield hosts Lakeview while South Range plays host to University School.
A trio of area games have been canceled due to COVID. They include; Edison at Wellsville, Windham at East Palestine and Mineral Ridge at Lisbon.
Because Mineral Ridge and East Palestine were not directly affected by COVID, the Rams and the Bulldogs will now meet tonight in East Palestine.
As of Thursday, 15 games statewide have been canceled this weekend.
On Thursday, the Ohio High School Athletic Association modified its regulation regarding the number of regular season games a school must play in order to be eligible for the tournament. Originally schools needed to play a minimum of eight games to be tournament-eligible. Because of the large number of possible cancellations this season, the OHSAA reduced the number of games to five.
Several schools in the state have already had back-to-back cancelations to start the season.