The Ponca City Wildcats have a week off from the 2020 football wars. There will be no game on Friday night.

The vacation came about when the scheduled opponent, Ardmore, went into COVID-19 quarantine because a player had tested positive. Ardmore had to cancel games with Shawnee a week ago and Ponca City this week.

When news of the cancellation first hit, Ponca City Coach Scott Harmon and his staff were looking at possible teams to fill the void. But after last week’s 23-22 victory at Tulsa McLain, the search lost some of its intensity.

“We’re a little banged up,” Harmon said after the McLain game. “It may be good just to let our kids heal and get ready to open district play.”

The schedule calls for district play to get going on Sept. 25 when Sand Springs invades Sullins Stadium.

The week off would also allow coaches to take a firsthand look at some future opponents who will be in action. District opponents Bartlesville will be at Collinsville, Bixby will be at Stigler, Booker T. Washington will be at Bishop McGuinness, Choctaw will be at Greenwood, Ark., Muskogee at Coweta and Putnam West will be at Putnam North,

A contest between Kay County rivals Blackwell and Tonkawa will be a featured area contest. Other games involving area schools include Oklahoma Bible at Newkirk, Mooreland at Woodland and Deer Creek-Lamont at Covington-Douglas. Morrison and Pawnee have the week off.

BLACKWELL at TONKAWA

The Blackwell Maroons come to this game unbeaten. They had an easy time in defeating the Oklahoma City Patriots 51-0 in their opener and then topped Oklahoma Bible 26-19 last week. Tonkawa will be looking to turn things around after losing last week’s game to Perry 39-26. The Bucs won their opener over Newkirk 49-14. Blackwell undoubtedly would like to avenge last year’s loss to the Buccaneers when they led most of the game only to lose in the final quarter.

OKLAHOMA BIBLE at NEWKIRK

The Newkirk Tigers have gotten off to a rough start, losing their opener to Tonkawa 49-14 and then being swamped 50-0 by Woodland last week. This week’s opponent, Oklahoma Bible, is 1-1 having beaten Casady 8-0 in its opener and then losing 26-19 last week to Blackwell. It will be the home opener for the Tigers.

MOORELAND at WOODLAND

The Woodland Cougars have opened their season on a high note, earning victories in the first two games. The Cougars edged Oklahoma Union 34-30 in the opener and then crushed Newkirk 50-0 last week. Playing against Mooreland might give Woodland an idea of how things will go in the district competition as the Bearcats’ only game so far has been a 38-14 loss to Pawnee.

DEER CREEK-LAMONT at COVINGTON-DOUGLAS

The Deer Creek-Lamont Eagles are scheduled to play for the first time this season when they travel to old rival Covington-Douglas. Games with Kremlin-Hillsdale and Pond Creek-Hunter were cancelled. Covington-Douglas, meanwhile, has three games under its belt. The Wildcats lost 554-48 to TImberlake in Zero Week and then bounced back in a big way to thump Medford 58-12 and Ringwood 46-0 the last two weeks.