The all-important district football rivalries begin kicking off for some area teams Friday night.

This is so for Island Coast, Mariner, North Fort Myers and Bishop Verot, but the injury-riddled Cape Coral Seahawks are counting their blessings with non-district Port Charlotte visiting Dave Warkentin Field plus a bye week before their district slate gets going.

“We have a bunch of injuries,” said Seahawks coach Brad Metheny. “We just hope to get through without more injuries. That gives us two weeks to try and get healty.”

Cape’s offensive and defensive lines are all torn up. Three starters will not play Friday night, their spots being filled by freshman and sophomore callups, according to Metheny.

“They will get their first taste of varsity action,” he said. “We had two good days of practice and hope to get some momentum going offensively and defensively. Two of the seven linemen did not practice this week because of the stomach flu.”

The Seahawks (3-0) should not overlook Port Charlotte (1-2) because the Pirates are scoring 30-plus points a game. As far as another postseason playoff appearance goes, however, beating the Pirates is not as important as winning against district rivals.

“We’re still making way too many penalty mistakes,” said Metheny. “We have to cut back on the silly ones like unsportsmanlike and blocks in the back type penalties.”

In other non-district games Friday night: Ida Baker (0-3) hosts Lakewood Ranch (2-1), Estero (2-1) travels to Palmetto Ridge (0-3), Immokalee (1-2) hosts Gulf Coast (1-2), Southwest Florida Christian (1-2) invades First Baptist Academy of Naples and DeSoto County (2-1) entertains Charlotte (3-0).

District play begins Friday in District 2B-6 for Island Coast (2-1) hosting Clewiston (0-3) and Gateway Charter (0-3) hosting Dunbar (0-3); in District 3A-11 for Mariner (0-3) at Riverdale (0-3), Fort Myers (2-1) at North Fort Myers (1-2) and South Fort Myers (2-0) visiting Bishop Verot (3-0); in District 3A-12 for East Lee County (1-1) visiting Naples (3-0), Barron Collier (2-1) invading Lehigh (3-0) and Golden Gate (3-0) traveling to Lely (1-2); and in District 1B-6 for Moore Haven (1-1) visiting Evangelical Christian (1-1) and Out-of-Door Academy (1-1) hosting St. John Neumann (1-2).