It’s opening night around Southeast Iowa. The Sigourney-Keota Cobras host Pekin in a Keokuk county rivalry. The schools have been rivals dating back to the late 60’s, and they battled through the 70’s. They met four times in the 90’s with Pekin winning three of those matchps. The two teams have met the last two years in non-district games with the Cobras winning come from behind one point games.

Elsewhere the Highland Huskies and the Lone Tree Lions meet in Lone Tree. The two schools shared a program until 2006 and have played in the same district the last four seasons. This year the Huskies were moved up to 1A but the two still get to play in a non-district matchup.

Columbus will host Wapello to open their season. This is a county rivalry and while Columbus has some experienced returners in some key positions, Coach Jeff Martin says they will largely be inexperienced as a whole.

WACO takes on HLV in Wayland. These two schools battle for district titles when they played in the same district a few years ago and have seen quite a bit of each other. It was the WACO Warriors who ended HLV’s season last year in the sub-state round. The Warriors would reach the quarter-finals and lost to North Tama in the Dome.