All is well in the world. Football is back. High school football is back.

And, so is the Newsletter. Here to give you a recap of Friday night and swing you around the state in a few other sports items as well. Best read with your favorite morning beverage or College GameDay. Whatever trips your trigger.

Thanks for coming along. We can’t wait to be with you this school year or sports season or whatever you want to call it. New here? You can also read our quick season preview for Nebraska Football in our series The Rear View Mirror.

Ok. Here we go. The Saturday letter, as always is powered by Tom Dinsdale Chevrolet in Grand Island.

Scottsbluff Runs (and throws) Past Vikings

Yeah, you read the headline right. Scottsbluff threw the ball against Northwest on Friday night. This isn’t a joke and we aren’t here to put Class B on notice that Jud Hall had a five-wide, no huddle epiphany either.

But, Hall and his Bearcat staff has seen enough football to know that you’ve got to be able to throw it effectively to keep an opponent off balance. So, their eight passes on Friday night in a 31-6 win over Northwest resulted in six Nate Kelley completions for 122 yards, five first downs and a touchdown.

Efficient. Just like the Bearcat faithful like it. And Coach Hall. It makes for easier bus rides home, too.

For Kelley, one of the state’s top basketball players, the opener was a bit up in the air. You know you worked hard all summer but you aren’t real sure if it will payoff or not.

“I think our guys put in a bunch of work into getting better (over the summer),” Kelley said. “It was nice to just get out there and see that our work paid off.”

It did in spades. The Bearcats ran for 261 yards (231 in the first half) while racking up 16 first downs in the contest but led 24-6 at half and the second half looked like both teams were trying to escape with no serious injuries.

“Extremely pleased with how we played for the most part,” Hall said. “Playing a great team program like Northwest always worries you a little bit. I thought we did a good job on the line of scrimmage and I think we’ll have some things we can clean up as well.”

Kelly had runs of 27 and 3 yards to get the Bearcats moving before new Northwest quarterback Gavin Haubold led a 3-play, 77-yard drive that ended with his one-yard run to cut the Scottsbluff lead to 14-6 in the opening minute of the second quarter.

But the Bearcats mostly controlled things from there putting the Vikings in a big hole when Des Smith scored on a 55-yard run — part of a 25-carry, 175-yard night — just before halftime.

It was pretty sloppy after that. But, the bus ride home? A little shorter.

Around the State

STILL ROLLING: New Omaha Westside quarterback Braylen Warren threw two touchdowns as the Warriors got defensive in a season opening 22-7 win over Omaha North on Thursday.

Westside, ranked first in the initial nebpreps.com Coaches Poll, got an early safety and then a pass from Warren to Kenyan Cotton for a 9-0 lead and controlled the game most of the way. Jacob Padilla Game Thread

NORFOLK CATHOLIC 28, BISHOP NEUMANN 21: Do this one again in November? An opening night thriller in Wahoo as Norfolk Catholic, top-ranked in Class C-2 held on for a 28-21 win over No. 2 Bishop Neumann. Leading 14-6 at the break, NC used a 14-play, 81-yard drive to take control in the third quarter.

Neumann twice cut the lead to a single score in the fourth quarter, but Catholic used some trickery to go up 28-14 and then after the Cavaliers scored again — on a Jake Rezac to Isaiah Nagle pass with 1:56 left — the Knights converted a late fourth-and-1 in the final minute. Nick Benes game thread | Mike Sautter post-game with Jeff Bellar

ASHLAND-GREENWOOD 7, DC WEST 3: In a game full of defense, really good defense, Thomas Spears broke loose in the final minute. It was all Ashland-Greenwood needed as they over a 3-0 deficit to DC West when Spears grabbed a touchdown pass from Derek Tonjes for the win.

TWO-MINUTE DRILL: Omaha Central scored late, after leading most of the game, but a two-point conversion to upset Bellevue West failed. Isaac Pamaran’s big kick return lifts Papio High past Papio South. This goal line stand for Millard North got the post-Fred Petito era off to a perfect start over rival Millard West. Big expectations in Arapahoe this year. And, they opened with a 44-14 win over Cambridge.

WE SEE YOU: Not many teams go to Ord and win. But it was an impressive 48-20 win for the Central City Bison on Friday night. The Highlights: 10/11 Sports Overtime

ALL THE SCORES

Nerding Out

With cross country in full swing your reminder is here to give the old follow button Prep Running Nerd. You can’t find a more dedicated group for the Nebraska high school (and college) running community than this group. So, here are the follows: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Their preseason rankings and previews are better than you can find on anywhere on the interwebs. This links: Class A Boys | Class A Girls | Class B Boys | Class B Girls | Class C Boys | Class C Girls | Class D Boys | Class D Girls

Also, in case you missed it. To all you runners out there, Turn It Loose.

Odds and Ends

You’ll get most of our volleyball, softball and other sports coverage in our Wednesday newsletter but we also hope to do some more “long-writing” on those days too. We will see what the fall brings.

SOFTBALL: Early in the season, we have seen some big wins for Millard North (3-2 over Millard West). Defending Class B champion Northwest is off to a hot start with the bats. On Tuesday, they got a 12-8 win over Class C, No. 3 St. Cecilia. For an encore, they beat defending Class A champion Papillion-LaVista 7-3 on Friday. Class A, No. 1 Gretna kicked off their season with a win at the Bellevue East tournament. ALL THE SCORES | PLAYOFF POINTS

VOLLEYBALL: Volleyball will really get in full swing today and next week, but one early season contest in the Heartland Athletic Conference lived up to it’s billing. In the preseason coaches poll, Lincoln East was just on the outside looking in, but made some early noise with a 5-set win at No. 8 Grand Island in the opener on Thursday. GISH came back from down 2-0 before the Spartans won set 5, 15-7. Game thread 

On Thursday night, Lincoln Lutheran dedicated “Sue Ziegler Court” at the school and Coach Ziegler’s Warriors responded with an all-timer against Waverly as they came back from down 2-0 to tie the match before the Vikings won 15-10 in the fifth. Game thread | ALL THE SCORES | PLAYOFF POINTS