BRIDGEPORT — COVID-19 has struck again.

Due to some positive tests among students and football players, Bridgeport High School has been forced to cancel its homecoming game versus Conotton Valley set for Friday on Perkins Field inside Bill Jobko Stadium.

“We’ve canceled the game due to the quarantining of several players,” Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley said. “We’re still contacting families for contact tracing purposes, and we are recommending quarantining.”

Ripley said a high school volleyball match as well as a junior high football game have also been canceled this week.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Ripley mentioned. “We follow the flow chart from the Ohio Health Department.”

The superintendent also said that it is possible that the Friday, Sept. 25, contest with Federal Hocking could be moved to Saturday, Sept. 26.

“That is tentative so far,” he noted. “We have to see if that works for Federal Hocking.”

As far as the homecoming game and dance, Ripley said, “We are working on getting the game and dance switched to another date. We will let everyone know when that is set.”

Head coach Fred Ray said he couldn’t put a definite number on the number of players quarantined.

“We’ve got quite a few,” he said. “We’ve been playing short-handed for the past couple of weeks, but the numbers just kept increasing.

“The kids were bummed out today and were very disappointed,” Ray added. “They wanted another chance to play a home game at Perkins Field, and they also wanted to have homecoming at our place.”

Bridgeport hasn’t celebrated homecoming at Perkins Field since the 2017 season due to problems from flooding.