The Van Buren Pointers and Alma Airedales will be among the first teams to kickoff the football season.

On a special Tuesday night edition, the Battle of Crawford County resumes its place on the opening night of the season.

“That’s what I like about playing this one on Tuesday,” Alma head coach Doug Loughridge said. “With everything you do during the summer, you’re ready. We’re ready, and we’re ready early.”

Van Buren and Alma spent the last two seasons aligned in the same conference for the first time in almost a quarter of a century, and played on week nine.

Now, they’re renewing their longstanding rivalry in a manner they’re more accustomed to as nonconference opponents in the traditional season opener.

Alma hosts the 70th annual Battle of Crawford County. Kickoff will be 7 p.m.

While Van Buren holds a 36-28-5 edge in the all-time series, Alma has narrowed the gap considerably the last 14 years. In addition to winning conference games as members of the 7A/6A-Central the last two years, the Airedales are 11-2-1 in the county feud since 2001.

Last season’s openers weren’t indicative of how the two teams’ seasons would fare.

Alma lost to Southside, 35-19, at Reynolds Stadium at the University of Arkansas. The Airedales wilted in the second half after leading 19-0.

“We got tired,” Loughridge said. “At that point last year, we had six guys going both ways. We made some changes after that. I made that vow that we would be the most in-shape team going into week one. I really think we will be.”

The Airedales went on to earn a berth in the Class 6A playoffs and beat Texarkana before losing at Jonesboro in the second round.

Van Buren had its best offensive night of the season, romping past White Hall, 51-6.

The Pointers managed only a win against Farmington, also in nonconference action, and went 0-7 in the 7A/6A-Central.

Both teams had good outings in preseason benefit scrimmage games last week; Alma against Southside, and Van Buren at Prairie Grove.

“We got out of it what we wanted,” Loughridge said. “Defensively, we had some big question marks with only two returning starters but the whole thing you look at, did we run to the football, did we force turnovers, were we lined up right, all of those things looked good in the scrimmage. We looked like we competed well.”

The Pointers scored four touchdowns in the scrimmage in the debut of their new offense.

“We had a lot of good drives,” Werner said. “There are so many things involved in our offense, we made some mistakes but overall we did a lot of good things.”

Alma will once again be guided by quarterback Noah Dotson, who threw 14 touchdown passes a year ago and ran for three more scores.

“He’s as good as anybody in the state,” Werner said. “He throws the ball so well and then he can run it. He’s a linebacker playing quarterback, and he does play linebacker. He’s hard to sack because he’s so big and strong. He’s like hitting a wall. He creates problems.”

Defensively, the Airedales are paced by linebacker Jaedon Mitchell.

‘They’re a real solid football team,” Werner said. “They’ve got a lot of seniors playing. They’ve got good players everywhere.”

Van Buren’s offense, on the other hand, will be vastly different than in recent years with an option-based attack and three running backs instead of the shotgun spread with a lone running back.

“They’ve totally sold out in their philosophy is going to the flexbone, churning out yardage, huddling and not being tempo,” Loughridge said. “To simulate that in practice is pretty tough. It takes a little bit to get ready for them.”

Quarterback Caleb Salisbury takes over the offense and will rely on fullback Josh Aden along with slotbacks Noah Turman and Walter Green, who had two touchdowns in the scrimmage.

Alex Espinosa and Jayden Mendez anchor the middle of Van Buren’s defensive line.