This is not the way you want to start football season.

On the scoreboard, South Fort Myers defeated North Fort Myers 28-18 on Thursday in a kickoff classic. A game that doesn’t count.

For both teams, however, things happened that they don’t want carrying into the regular season. And they just might.

After North’s Zaquandre White was tackled for a big loss on fourth down late in the third quarter, tempers flared and things got ugly along the North sideline.

Coaches and officials jumped in and eventually got things under control. Then both teams waited while the officials and coaches talked things over. After a lengthy delay, the game resumed with South on the North 20 – and with three fewer players involved.

The Red Knights’ White and Austin Knipper were ejected, as was Jacquez Thornton of the Wolfpack.

Knipper and White could be seen leaving Moody Field, while South Fort Myers athletic director Don Payne confirmed Thornton’s ejection.

Both sides will be looking toward Gainesville over the next few days to see if the Florida High School Athletic Association will take disciplinary action. It’s possible one or more of the ejected players could miss additional playing time.

Willie Johnson scored on a 1-yard run after the game resumed to give the Wolfpack a 28-6 advantage.

White’s cousin, South Fort Myers running back EQuan Dorris, said after the game that it was “a bit of raw emotion. All the hype.”

The game had been hyped as the best preseason matchup in Southwest Florida, a showdown of a powerhouse South Fort Myers team and a North Fort Myers squad on the upswing and with raised expectations.

“I’m embarrassed by what transpired,” North Fort Myers coach Earnest Graham said. “Despite winning or losing, what happened was a poor representation of the school, and it’ll be dealt with. I’m just not happy with it at all. That’s not what we preach to the kids. I’m embarrassed, for the person I am. If my mother was watching she’d be very disappointed.”

Graham added that, “We will get it fixed.”

Anthony Dixon was on the sidelines as the head coach of South Fort Myers for the first time Thursday. He wasn’t altogether proud of his team afterward.

“We try to instill discipline,” Dixon said. “But we can coach and coach and coach. We had a kid retaliate instead of walking away and leaving it to the officials. We’ll just keep preaching it and preaching it, and I can promise you it won’t happen again.”

Dixon said he and his staff took other Wolfpack players out of the game on their own after the melee.

“The good thing is that we’ve been preaching discipline and being young men, and most of our kids were coming away from it,” Dixon said.

The early 6:30 p.m. start in August heat was telling. North Fort Myers’ gray home uniforms were soaked with sweat before the opening kickoff.

Thursday’s game was dominated by defense – and penalties. North had 85 yards of penalties, and South 55, in the first half alone.

Each side got a touchdown from its defense. Andre Polk intercepted a Jared Rusnak pass and ran it back 48 yards for a Wolfpack score. The Red Knights’ Errick Dorsey took a South fumble 55 yards into the end zone.

A short Wolfpack punt put the North offense in position to get on the board first. The Red Knights drove it in from the 39, capped by an 8-yard J Ravien Andersen pass to White.

The Wolfpack drew even in the second quarter on a 54-yard drive, all on the ground, ending with Riley Ware’s 1-yard run. Ware added a second TD on a 6-yard run in the third quarter.

E’Quan Dorris added a two-point conversion after Ware’s first TD.

In the fourth quarter, Rusnak and Freddie Johnson combined on a 10-yard TD pass for North. one play after hooking up on a 60-yard gain.

An apparent North touchdown on a muffed punt early in the game was ruled a touchback.

North wound up with 120 yards in penalties and South totaled 90 penalty yards.

The game ended fittingly: An interception by South, turning into a fumble back to North as the buzzer sounded.

The two teams take the field for real next weekend. North is home against Riverdale while South travels to Island Coast.