The “Border Wars” football contest between Wayland and Hopkins will be back for a second straight season own the Vikings’ turf Friday evening to open the season.
Martin, meanwhile, will begin the defense of its eight-man football state championship in its season opener at Colon.
The Vikings and Wildcats renewed the neighborhood rivalry in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, but then went their separate ways again. Hopkins won all four games in that series, but two of the games were close, 19-12 in 2013 and 34-28 in 2015.
Wayland gained a little revenge a year ago by winning a 42-25 shootout. The Wildcats won four of their first six games, but lost their last three to O-K Gold powerhouses.
Two neighboring schools, Hopkins and Wayland, used to pay each other quite often until 1970. At one time they both were members of the Bar-Ken-All Conference until the early 1960s. They met on the gridiron in the late 1960s and terminated their non-league contests after 1970 when Wayland joined the O-K Blue Conference. Today Wayland is in the O-K Gold Conference and Hopkins is in the O-K Silver.
Hopkins went on to post a 5-5 record overall, losing its last game in the post-season playoffs.
Martin concluded its season by taking all the marbles at the championship finals at the Superior Dome in Marquette. The Clippers lost twice, to NorthPointe Christian and Bridgman, opponents that were ruled to have too high enrollments to compete in the post-season playoffs.
