We knew that playing high school sports this fall was going to be a challenge in trying to provide competition for athletes while at the same time keeping everyone as safe as possible.

As we get set for Week #2 of the high school football season there are more than a dozen team in New Jersey that have been sidelined due to positive COVID-19 tests and Jackson Liberty joins Matawan as Shore Conference schools that have shut their programs down. Just 48 hours after a tremendous opening week win over Toms River East the Lions had to pause their season.

Unless a school decides to release complete information all you really know is it’s likely that at least two members members of the program tested positive or I guess it could be just one if they had multiple contacts with teammates.

Regardless Jackson Liberty has cancelled this week’s game with Point Boro and hopes to reschedule their October 16th matchup with Neptune until later in the season.  Meanwhile Point Boro went searching for a replacement game and found one against Ramsey on Tuesday at Al Saner Field.

As for games that are on the Friday night schedule, Lakewood will visit Toms River South in the 101st meeting between the schools and certainly the first that has not been played on Thanksgiving at least in a long time.  While that holiday rivalry has ended the Indians, coming off a season-opening upset of Toms River North, will look to go 2-0 against the visiting Piners.

The Mariners will try to bounce back from that disappointment with a visit to Brick against a Green Dragons squad that lost their opener to Southern who looks to make it a sweep of the Brick district when they travel to the other side of town to face the Memorial Mustangs.

In a pair of interesting Ocean versus Monmouth matchups pitting 1-0 teams against one another Jackson Memorial hosts Manasquan and Barnegat heads north to Shore Regional.

Central and Manchester gave new coaches Jarrett Pidgeon and Brian Wilkinson wins in their debuts last weekend but one of them will suffer a loss when the teams collide in Bayville tonight.

Lacey, coming off an upset loss to the Hawks, looks to bounce back when they visit Pinelands and Point Beach collides with Asbury Park with both teams searching for their first “W.”

The only Saturday game involving Ocean County schools finds Donovan Catholic visiting Toms River East.

The Jersey Mike’s Game of the Week on the Shore Sports Network finds us in Howell tonight as they host Manalapan.  Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.

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