Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. High 86F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Scattered thunderstorms, especially late. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.

Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. High 86F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Scattered thunderstorms, especially late. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.

Fairland head coach Melvin Cunningham talks with Steeler Leep during the Dragons’ 7-on-7 football scrimmage with Wayne on June 30.

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Fairland head coach Melvin Cunningham talks with Steeler Leep during the Dragons’ 7-on-7 football scrimmage with Wayne on June 30.

ROME TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Portsmouth West eagerly anticipates the opening of its new artificial turf football field in two weeks, but first must deal with the grass at Fairland.

The Dragons entertain the Senators at 7 p.m. Friday at Jim Mayo Memorial Stadium in the season opener for both teams. Portsmouth West quarterback Mitchell Irwin said he’s excited for the new playing surface, but he and his teammates are focused squarely on the task at hand.

“We’re preparing for that first week at Fairland,” said Irwin, who completed 7 of 12 passes for 132 yards last season in a 28-27 loss to the Dragons. Irwin is one of 11 seniors on the Senators’ 44-man roster.

Fairland rallied from a 27-14 deficit with 5:33 left in the game to edge West in 2021 on its way to a 10-2 record that included a three-game playoff run. Dragons quarterback Michael Jackson, who returns for his junior season, completed 7 of 15 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns, one to Brycen Hunt, who also returns.

Fairland benefited greatly from the play of J.D. Brumfield and Zander Schmidt in that victory. Both those players are now freshmen at Marshall University.

“We’re going to be young,” Dragons coach Melvin Cunningham said. “We have to make some adjustments of how we coach and how we go about our business.”

Senior Steeler Leep leads a veteran Fairland secondary that hopes it has to make few tackles Friday against a Senators squad led by 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior running back Ryan Sissell, one of the better backs in Southeast Ohio. Sissell ran for 1,518 yards as a junior, picking up 112 on 23 carries against Fairland.

Cunningham said he likes his team’s talent, if not its experience.

“You walk inside the locker room, and you get a smile on your face because you know what is there,” he said. “It’s a lot different, though, when you have 14-year-old kids against 18, 19-year-old kids. There are some limitations. We’ll be prepared. We’ll go out there and play hard and do the things it takes to win football games and give ourselves a chance to win games.”

Tim Stephens is a sports writer with The Herald-Dispatch.

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