PHILIPSBURG -- The season-opening 8-Man West football game between Plains and Drummond-Philipsburg has been canceled after a Drummond-Philipsburg player recorded a positive COVID-19 test on Friday.
The athlete who tested positive had not been at recent practices after he started to show symptoms early in the week. During practices, Drummond-Philipsburg players have worked mostly in pairs to limit potential exposure. The athlete's practice partner had also been quarantined since the initial player started showing symptoms.
The Drummond-Philipsburg program consulted with health officials, who said the game could be played if the Plains program was comfortable with the available information. The Plains team was en route to Philipsburg when the positive test was discovered and ultimately decided to return home and cancel the game.
The game will go down as a "no contest" for both teams. The conference had previously determined that games canceled due to legitimate positive COVID-19 tests would not count as forfeits.
Drummond-Philipsburg is scheduled to play St. Ignatius at 7 p.m. on Sept. 4, while Plains is slated for its home opener against Troy the same date.
