By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

In the fall, Friday nights are reserved for high school football.

Except for the first Friday of the fall season, which is saved to spotlight high school soccer as part of Friday Night Futbol — a statewide opportunity for schools to open their seasons ahead of football that was initiated and remains supported by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

The highlighted event was the idea of former OHSAA Commissioner Jerry Snodgrass.

“We already had an event that we had been promoting for volleyball with ‘Volley for the Cure’ in October, so the idea was to create a showcase for soccer to endorse,” OHSAA Director of Media Relations Tim Stried said.

Included as part of Friday’s interesting matchups and excitement of kicking off a new season, is the unveiling of the new field turf at Field High School’s Kenneth Lohr Stadium.

The district’s turf installation was completed in July and Friday’s boys and girls soccer games, with the boys hosting Ellet and the girls welcoming Rootstown, will be the first competition events on the turf.

The district is planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony to take place between the 5 p.m. boys game and 7 p.m. girls game.

The Field football team opens its season on Aug. 23 at home on the new turf against Mogadore.

Other interesting matchup notes on the boys schedule for Friday is that there are two matchups that feature former league opponents from the Portage County League and Portage Trail Conference: Ravenna at Southeast and Streetsboro at Crestwood.

Through the wave of league alignment in recent years, Ravenna and Streetsboro are members of the Metro Athletic Conference, Southeast is a member of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference and Crestwood is a member of the Chagrin Valley Conference.

This year’s Portage County schedule includes:

BOYS SOCCER

Ellet at Field

Ravenna at Southeast

Streetsboro at Crestwood

Garfield Heights at Waterloo

Hudson at Kent Roosevelt

GIRLS SOCCER

Streetsboro at Crestwood

Rootstown at Field

Ravenna at Southeast

Marlington at Waterloo