The first Friday of high school football is always a mixed bag.

With new offenses, coaches and players taking the gridiron, you never know how a team will perform under the lights.

For Week 1, I attended the Seymour opener against Silver Creek, and I didn’t know how the Owls would fare against the Mid-Southern Conference school with a relatively new program.

In my experiences, with Brownstown Central playing Silver Creek in various sports, the Dragons are on average freakishly athletic — especially for a smaller school of 804 students.

I attended numerous Owls practices and scrimmages in the summer; however, performances during mock games doesn’t always resonate to live-action play.

From the onset of the game, the atmosphere was more intense than any matchup I attended last season.

Bulleit Stadium boasted the largest crowd I’ve seen in my time here, as fans packed the stadium seating and fences cheering on their Owls.

That’s a nice change; hopefully the community will continue the enormous support the rest of the way.

Athletics has a magical way of bringing people from various backgrounds together and creates a sense of community pride.

The more community involvement with athletics, the better.

In the game I saw a much better Owls team from last season, despite the loss.

On both sides of the ball, the Owls were improved.

They look much sharper, with a sense of urgency and greater purpose.

Everyone’s sick of losing and wants to turn the corner.

Out of all the plays, though, one drive stuck out the most — the final series in the first half.

Following a nice interception by Chris Knight, the Owls marched to the 27-yard line with minimal time on the clock.

Quarterback Alan Perry spiked the ball with three ticks left to set up one last play.

With plenty of time in the pocket, Perry found Jordan Henry in the back of the end zone to go up 22-12 at halftime.

The Owls executed on both sides of the ball in crunch time and dominated the final possession.

I don’t know that you could have said that much last season about the Owls dominating on both sides of the ball.

Speaking with the coaches a couple days after the loss, one thing is clear: improvement is nice, but winning is better.

There’s a sour taste after the tough loss, especially since the Owls haven’t won a season-opener in 14 years.

The Owls have a tough schedule playing Jeffersonville this week, Columbus East after that and then Floyd Central.

No to mention Bedford North Lawrence, Brownstown, Jennings County, New Albany and Madison down the road.

Look to see how the Owls rebound this week against a monstrous Jeffersonville, who’s ranked No. 17 in Class 6A in this week’s The Associated Press poll.

Week 2 will give us a better indication of this 2015 Owls squad and where they’re going the rest of the season.