Braden River gets area football season underway

Aug. 25 is the first Friday of the 2017 high school football season, and thus considered "opening night," but the season for area teams actually begins the previous night.

Braden River faces Chatfield High, based in Littleton, Colo., in a 6 p.m. game at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Kissimmee. It is the first time the Pirates have ever played an out-of-state opponent. 

Chatfield made the Colorado playoffs last year, going 9-1 in the regular season and reaching the state semifinals, but lost its top offensive player in 2016, Virginia Tech signee Dalton Keene, to graduation. 

This will be the regular-season debut for Pirates junior quarterback Bryan Gagg, a transfer from Sarasota High.