Presbyterian-Stetson canceled by hurricane for second straight year

(STATS) - Stetson announced Thursday it has canceled Saturday night's season-opening game against Presbyterian due to Hurricane Dorian's approach toward Florida.

Dorian is forecasted to hit the coastline on Monday, possibly as a Category 4 hurricane. Stetson is located in DeLand, about 35 miles north of Orlando.

The two schools also had last year's scheduled game canceled by Hurricane Florence.

Stetson will close its campus at 1 p.m. ET Saturday.

"With the entire east coast of Florida in the potential impact zone for this storm, we felt it only prudent for the safety of our student-athletes, staff and fans, as well as the travel party from Presbyterian, to cancel the game," Stetson athletic director Jeff Altier said.

"It is also important for us to understand that tying up critical emergency resources by playing a football game in the face of an approaching storm is not the kind of thing we should be doing as members of this community."

Florida's three other FCS programs do not figure to have their first games impacted by Dorian. Thursday night, Jacksonville will play at Richmond and Florida A&M will travel to UCF. Bethune-Cookman will play Jackson State in Atlanta on Sunday.