Six weeks before the start of the high school football season, Satsuma already has a victory.

Gators coach Rodney Jordan confirmed Thursday that his team’s scheduled opener at McIntosh will go down as a forfeit victory for Satsuma.

“McIntosh contacted me in the spring saying they didn’t want to play the game,” he said. “There was a contract obviously so that triggered the terms of that contract, which are basically the AHSAA bylaws, and it goes down as a forfeit win.”

AHSAA rules state the following:

“If a school has a contract for a game and breaks it (by paying the forfeiture fee) without mutual consent of the other school involved, this shall count as one of the offending school’s allowed games and will be officially a forfeited game. The school receiving the forfeit shall not count the game as a win if the game is replaced on the schedule.”

Jordan already has entered the 1-0 result in the AHSAA’s Dragonfly system, which keeps tracks of each team’s schedule, results and rosters. He said neither team would replace the game.

“I didn’t really get into the reason for cancelling the game because the end result is the same,” Jordan said. “We’ve moved on and will focus on our next game, which is Cottage Hill, and they have enough Power 4 talent to warrant our full attention.”

McIntosh second-year coach Josh Harris said he made the decision to cancel the game based on the Class 4A Gators’ depth advantage against 1A McIntosh. Satsuma won the game 43-6 a year ago.

“The schedule was made before I got here last year,” said Harris, the former Blount head coach. “When I took the job last year the schedule was already set. We played them and we only had about 20 players and they had 82 I think. It just wasn’t a smart decision for us to play a school that size. We lost three players in that game for the season due to injuries. I’m competitive and I want to play, but it’s just tough when you have 20 guys competing against a roster of 80.”

The Gators will now open the season at home against Georgia commit Shadarius Toodle, South Alabama commit Caleb Metzner and Cottage Hill on Aug. 29. McIntosh is scheduled to play at 2A Bayshore Christian on Aug. 29. That game will be played in Summerdale.

The Demons were 3-7 a year ago but won their final three games. Harris said his roster had increased to the mid-to-high 30s this summer.

“We feel like we are carrying some momentum into the season,” he said. “We only lost two seniors last year. We just need to get through the summer and keep everyone healthy.”

Jordan’s Gators went 5-5 in 2024, winning two of their final three games against Escambia County and Chickasaw.