Nederland’s home football opener against West Orange-Stark has been canceled, the Nederland ISD athletic department announced Monday.

The game was scheduled for Friday night.

It is the second known schedule change in local high school football due to the events of Tropical Storm Harvey. Port Neches-Groves announced Sunday that its opener at Silsbee has been rescheduled to 2 p.m. Saturday. Should Silsbee not be able to hold the game on its field, it will be moved to PNG.

The freshman and junior varsity games for Nederland and PNG have been canceled as well.

Nederland coach Monte Barrow said the UIL high school football schedules, in their entirety, will not be pushed back in an effort for each team to play all of its scheduled games.

“They can’t because of the way the district schedule is set up,” Barrow said. “Whoever can get theirs in will get theirs in.”

Nederland competes in District 22-5A, along with PNG and Port Arthur Memorial. Nine football teams compete in the district — Baytown Lee belongs to another district for other sports — meaning each football team plays eight district games. Nederland’s next game is at Dayton on Sept. 8, when PNG hosts Baytown Sterling.

Both PNG coach Brandon Faircloth and Barrow said their teams will not practice as long as school is closed due to the storm.

“They’re not having school because of the safety of the kids, so we’re not going to do anything different,” Barrow said.

There has been no word on any potential rescheduling for Memorial’s home opener against Dallas Bishop Dunne, scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday. That game is part of the Lone Star Classic, a series of three games all held at Memorial Stadium. The series was held at Beaumont ISD’s Thomas Center last year.

Memorial’s next game is at Houston Westside on Sept. 8.

Also, Sabine Pass announced that its season opener against Pasadena First Baptist has been moved to Deer Park High School. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews