The number of area high school football teams playing their games on turf fields continues to increase.

This year, five Mahoning Valley schools — Struthers, Liberty, Campbell, Howland and Wellsville — installed turf during the offseason at their respective stadiums. Of the 44 football programs in Trumbull, Columbiana and Mahoning Counties, 22 now play their home games on artificial turf.

Struthers christened its new field Friday night with a 36-12 win over Ashtabula Lakeside.

“Our new turf created a great deal of excitement for our fans and community, but more importantly it greatly changed the way we can prepare for games and such,” said Struthers coach Curt Kuntz. “During practice it used to be, ‘run down to the divot and cut left.’ Now we know we can work out on a safe and consistent surface, rain or shine.

“This isn’t just a situation where it benefits the football program for five nights a year. This benefits the band, this gives other sports programs a practice option. It gives us a reliable surface year-round.”

Kuntz noted that his practice schedule throughout the season is now much easier to plan than in years past.

“I won’t play the role of a weatherman as much as I used to,” Kuntz said. “I used to really have to monitor the weather so I knew exactly what I could and couldn’t do for the upcoming week. Especially late in the year, it’s very common to see these (natural grass) practice fields break down.”

When Struthers travels to West Branch on Sept. 13, it will mark the only time this season that the Wildcats will play a game on a grass field. Poland, Warren G. Harding, Hubbard, Niles, Lakeview and South Range are among the numerous area schools which will play all of their regular season games on turf.

Warren’s Mollenkopf Stadium was the first area high school stadium to be equipped with turf. The turf was originally installed in 2005. It was replaced in 2016.

HOW THEY FARED

McDonald entered the season with an 11-game regular season winning streak, tops in the Mahoning Valley. The Blue Devils’ loss to Brookfield, coupled with Girard’s win at East Palestine now gives Girard the longest current stretch of regular-season wins (nine) in the area. The Indians haven’t lost in the regular season since last Aug. 31 at Hubbard.

On the flipside, Sebring extended its losing streak to 23 games with a 28-6 loss at Leetonia. The Trojans last won on Oct. 14, 2016, when they defeated Lowellville 54-20.

Struthers won its season-opener for a ninth consecutive year. The Wildcats haven’t started out 0-1 since 2010 when they fell to Lakeview. Liberty, meanwhile, hasn’t won a season-opener since it defeated Salem in 2012.

In games not involving a pair of Trumbull County schools, Trumbull County teams went just 3-6 in week one. Mahoning County schools fared much better, going 8-3 in games played against non-county competition.