Season-opening victories are special for any football coach.

But when the opening game of the season is also the first game of a head coaching career, the win has a little added significance.Marian's Pat Morgans and Panther Valley's Scott Price both received that thrill last week.The Colts gave Morgans his victory by defeating Fairfield on Friday night in a game that went down to the wire. Panther Valley and Price had to wait an extra day as they traveled to Columbia Montour Vo-Tech on Saturday afternoon and routed the Rams.Morgans and Price not only got to experience the exhilaration of coaching their first high school football game, they also got to experience the excitement of winning their first game - something that doesn't always happen at the same time.Although both coaches had extremely different routes to their head coaching jobs, the victories were just as sweet.For Morgans, who has served as assistant coach for more than two decades at four different high schools, the opportunity and the win were worth the wait."It was really nice," said Morgans. "Obviously, getting your first win as a head coach is special."But I've been coaching a long time, and whether it's as an assistant coach or a head coach, or whether it's the first win or the 10th win or the 100th win, one thing I know is that wins are always nice."Price had just two years as a high school assistant coach before getting the head coaching job at Panther Valley. But that didn't make him any less anxious to take over a program, or any less excited to start with a win."It feels great," said Price. "What a great day for our kids and our program."It was a little nerve-wracking waiting for the game to finally get here, but I think once we started playing, it went about as well as I could have hoped."Once thing both coaches stressed was they didn't want the wins to be about them, crediting their players and assistant coaches instead."To see the excitement in our players' faces after the game is what it's all about," said Morgans. "That's what makes coaching so worthwhile. It wasn't about Pat Morgans' first game as coach. It was about a young team facing some adversity and finding a way to overcome it."I also need to point out my assistants. We have almost an entirely new staff, and they did a great job of staying organized and making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible for a first game."Price said, "I feel like I have the best coaching staff in the area. "They all have great football minds and are proven winners. They know the game, and they also keep me grounded."They prepared our players well, and then the kids went out and executed the game plan to perfection. I can't say enough about how our kids performed."Morgans and Price are well aware that football, like all sports, is about what you have done lately. So both quickly put the opening week wins behind them and set their focus on the future.Because one thing that's even better than starting your head coaching career 1-0 is starting it 2-0.************OFF TO A GOOD START ... Lehighton rolled to a big win over Fleetwood last Friday to open the season on a positive note.Starting the year 1-0 has become common for the Indians recently. The Tribe has won five straight opening-night games, the longest streak among Times News area teams. In those five games, Lehighton has defeated Fleetwood and Marian twice, Mahanoy Area once.The Indians have a little ways to go to catch the area's best streak during the past 30 years. Between 1999 and 2007, Northern Lehigh had a string of nine straight opening-day victories.************OFF TO A GOOD START PART 2 ... Marian stretched its opening-day win streak to four after a victory last week against Fairfield.Over the past 30 seasons, the Colts have the best record among Times News area teams on opening day.Marian sports a 23-7 mark in Week 1 (since 1988), with Northern Lehigh next best at 20-10. Others with winning records the first week of the season include Lehighton (18-12), Northwestern (18-12) and Palmerton (16-14).************OFF TO A GOOD START PART 3 ... Marian's Morgans and Panther Valley's Price both started their head coaching careers with victories this past weekend.Morgans, the seventh head coach in Colts history, became the first in school history to earn a victory in his first game. Stan Dakosty, Chuck Rocconi, Joe Bressi, and Joe Leonzi all registered their initial win during their second game, while Jack Malarkey got his in the third contest. It took "Wink" Gallagher five tries to get win No. 1, while Joe Rilo failed to get a victory during his one-year stint.Price, meanwhile, became just the third PV mentor over the last 14 tenures (since 1980) to open with a victory. The others with a win in their initial game were Frank Damian (2007) and Tom Bonner (1988).************OLYMPIAN COMEBACK ... Jim Thorpe trailed Schuylkill Haven 7-6 at the half last week, but the Olympians scored two third-quarter touchdowns to earn a comeback win.Since Mark Rosenberger became Jim Thorpe's head coach (in 1998), that was the ninth time the Olympians rallied to win when trailing at halftime. Before Friday's win against Haven, they had been 8-59 when entering the locker rooms facing a deficit.************POOR START, STRONG FINISH ... Palmerton failed to score in the first quarter of its game with Northwestern Friday, but tallied 42 points the rest of the way in cruising past the Tigers.That kind of production, after not posting points through the first 12 minutes and eventually winning, are rare.From 2000-2016, the Blue Bombers didn't score in the first quarter 96 times, and the most points they finished with in any of those games was 36. Their record in those game was just 16-80.************BIG DAY FOR BECKHAM ... Panther Valley's Derrick Beckham had a game to remember Saturday against Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech.The junior caught eight passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns.Since 1988, there have been only three other PV players to have that many receiving yards in a game. Fenton Black (252 and 179 yards in 1992) did it twice, while Tom Rosahac (237 in 1989) and Devon Dillard (165 in 2011) each did it once.Beckham's eight receptions are also the most by a Panther since Nick McArdle had eight on Nov. 4, 2011.