On the calendar, it’s just the first regular-season football game of the new school year, but there’s a little extra on the line Friday night at Cape Coral High’s Dave Warkentin Field.

The Seahawks open the season against city archrival Mariner. It’s the 24th renewal of the Black-and-Blue Bowl series between the schools. Mariner leads the series overall 13-10, but the Seahawks are going for their sixth straight win.

By the way, the average margin of victory over the years – 24.3 points.

Other games on Friday’s opening slate include North Fort Myers at Island Coast, Lehigh at Ida Baker and Evangelical Christian at Bishop Verot. In the rest of Lee County Fort Myers visits Cypress Lake, Dunbar travels to Naples, Riverdale is at East Lee County, South Fort Myers invades Estero, Lemon Bay is at Gateway Charter and Southwest Florida Christian journeys to Bradenton Christian. Except for the last two, all games kick off at 7:30.

The Seahawks, coming off an 11-1 district championship season, and Tritons, who were just 1-9, have new head coaches at the controls. Brad Metheny took over Cape from Mike Goebbel, who stepped down for medical reasons, and Mariner graduate Chris Siner was plucked from the staff at Immokalee to take over for Chad O’Brien, who resigned a week before fall practice started to take a college job in Michigan