CLEVELAND, Ohio — One week remains in the high school football regular season, a full 10 weeks for most, after last year’s condensed effort while navigating a worldwide pandemic for the first time.

There are still seven weeks to go this season, but the first nine have provided big moments. Here are the 10 best so far of the 2021 season:

10. A stronger Senate?

No one moment, but it started with Glenville’s impressive spring showing and continued with Rhodes at Westlake, now in position for the playoffs.

The Senate League is in position to send three teams to the playoffs, including two as top-eight seeds — eligible for first-round home games, meaning they would have made the field under the old format of eight teams per region — with Glenville, Rhodes and John Hay.

No team within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District played football last year, when high school athletics resumed during the coronavirus pandemic. The Ohio High School Athletic Association permitted any school that didn’t play in the fall to conduct spring football, a series of practices concluding with a scrimmage in May.

Glenville was the only Senate League team to make the playoffs in 2019. The Senate has not sent multiple teams to the playoffs in a single season since 2013, when John Hay joined the Tarblooders in Week 11. Glenville made the Division II state finals that year.

9. Nothing is ‘Shore’ enough

Parity has been a theme of this season, and it began with Avon Lake’s 30-24 win at Avon in Week 4. The performance for the Shoremen avenged multiple close losses last year to their rivals, whom they pushed before a 33-30 double overtime loss in the 2020 season opener and again in a 20-17 regional championship loss.

The celebration proved to be short-lived, as injuries and a poised Berea-Midpark caught up to Avon Lake the next week. The Titans’ 23-17 win put them in position for a Southwestern Conference title, until Avon stormed back in Weeks 7 and 8 with victories against Olmsted Falls and Berea-Midpark to climb back into position to defend its title.

Avon is again atop the SWC entering Week 10, but Avon Lake’s early season victory became a sign of things to come across Northeast Ohio.

Expect anything.

8. Suburban League shakedown

Anything did happen in Week 7, when Nordonia left Hudson with a 29-28 upset win and Stow suffered its first loss in the Suburban League, 21-20 at Wadsworth.

The shakeup led to a four-way tie atop the Suburban’s National Division the following week, which Hudson and Stow broke up with victories against North Royalton and Nordonia.

But that previous week, the Knights knocked Hudson off from the company of unbeatens as senior quarterback Mark Wilson found Cooper Rusk in the end zone and Andrew Latskova booted the go-ahead extra point in the final minute.

Entering Week 10, there are six undefeated teams — Medina, Chardon, Norton, Kirtland, Garrettsville Garfield and Ravenna Southeast — left in the area. By comparison, in 2019, seven teams finished the regular season with perfect records.

Three fell Friday and Saturday in Week 8, including St. Edward and Benedictine.

7. The block at Byers

That parity continued with a wild finish in Week 5 at Byers Field in Parma, as St. Ignatius’ 33-27 win against Archbishop Hoban came on a blocked field goal by Griffin Taliak that Franklin Pike ran back to score.

Four touchdowns came via defense or special teams that night.

6. Eagles reign in the rain

Two weeks later, St. Edward halted St. Ignatius momentum in their annual rivalry game with a 19-14 win at the “Madhouse on Madison.”

The performance kept St. Edward undefeated and followed an impressive marquee matchup earlier in the year, 47-7 against Mentor.

The rivalry game in Week 7 included another stout performance by the Eagles’ defense that gave up just 191 yards and 89 on the ground, led by a bruising defensive front and senior middle linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown.

5. Cincinnati showdowns a mirror image

Bragging rights between Cleveland and Cincinnati are split.

Except for Archbishop Moeller, the Cincinnati school that took down St. Ignatius in Week 8 by a point in overtime and shocked St. Edward on Saturday with a 28-21 overtime in in Lakewood.

Fifteen miles south in Strongsville, St. Ignatius won by the same score in upset fashion vs. defending Division I state champion Cincinnati St. Xavier. The Wildcats’ win ended with an interception near the end zone, too, as Joe Norris capped a bend-but-don’t-break effort by their defense.

4. A pivotal moment for Aurora, Barberton

Aurora’s undefeated season came to a halt in Week 8, and its Division III state title hopes also took a hit during a 14-6 loss at Barberton in which senior quarterback Alex Moore suffered a left leg injury.

Moore, who started on Aurora’s state semifinal team, as a sophomore is one of numerous third-year starters on the Greenmen.

On the other side, Barberton established itself as the Suburban League’s champion in the American Division and formidable opponent for all in Division II, Region 6.

3. Kirtland’s streak continues

Neither Kirtland nor Perry had lost in the Chagrin Valley Conference since 2016. For Perry, that streak extended into 2015.

However, the CVC’s divisional reshuffling led to Kirtland finally meeting the Pirates. The Hornets’ 30-6 win not only extended their CVC dominance to 28 straight wins, but their overall win streak — with three straight state titles — to 47 games.

Kirtland’s winning streak now stands at 49 games, which became the country’s longest active streak Friday night with loss in Alabama by the only team with more wins.

Fyffe had 51 straight wins until a 20-19 loss to Geraldine.

Kirtland also is tied for third all-time in OHSAA history with Dayton Jefferson Township (1970-75). The Hornets have a chance to catch Versailles (1993-97) this year at 54 straight wins. Delphos St. John’s holds the record of 57 straight wins from 1996-2000.

2. Drew Allar breaks records

Penn State recruit Drew Allar is rewriting the record books in Medina County, and in Week 3 the Medina senior quarterback threw for a career-high 523 yards with five TD passes in a 38-27 win at Stow.

The teams were ranked second and third in the area at that time.

“It was really the receivers,” Allar said that night. “I was throwing it short, like the first touchdown to ‘Juan (Jajuan Jackson). And with (Brennen) Schramm it was after the catch, so that really benefited me.”

1. OHSAA expands the playoffs

As the regular season reaches its conclusion, 16 teams will qualify for the playoffs in each region.

The OHSAA announced in April its expansion plans to double the postseason field, drawing criticism from the state coaches association after an initially agreed upon decision to move from eight to 12 teams per region.

The OHSFCA appealed to the OHSAA to reduce the field, but was denied in June.

“The 12-team playoff model was reflective of nearly 70 percent of our member coaches,” the OHSFCA said in a statement at the time. “Despite this attempt, the OHSAA has voted to continue with the 16-team playoff system. We are all disappointed with this outcome.”

That outcome comes to fruition this weekend.

Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on Twitter (@mgoul) or email (mgoul@cleveland.com).