Youth football teams from Lake Dallas and Little Elm will skirmish for the first Battle of the Bridge bowl championship Saturday, which also benefits Toys for Tots.

More than 200 area youths are expected to play in the daylong tournament, organized by the Little Elm Area Youth Sports Association and the Lake Cities Football and Cheer Association. Admission to the event at Falcon Field at Lake Dallas High School is one unwrapped toy per family.

Todd Vedder, head of the football program in the Little Elm sports association, approached league leaders on the Lake Dallas side of the new Lewisville Lake Bridge to see whether they’d like to play a bowl game. He hoped it would help build more interest in their program.

Leaders of the Lake Dallas association were interested enough that plans snowballed from there, he said.

“They came up with the name and the Toys for Tots idea,” Vedder said.

A portion of the concession proceeds will also benefit the charity, said Randall Meeks, of the Lake Cities association.

Enrollment in the Lake Cities football leagues has jumped 47 percent this year, Meeks said. More than 350 youths in Corinth, Denton, Lake Dallas and Shady Shores participate.

Like organizers in Little Elm, the Lake Cities association is looking for other chances for the kids to play, Meeks said.

Both leagues offer flag football for children ages 5 and 6, but they won’t be included in Saturday’s tournaments. Teams for kids ages 7 and 8 will begin playing at 9 a.m.; the first games for the 9-year-old and 10-year-old teams begin at noon; the final game between the Little Elm Lobos and the Lake Cities Tigers, teams of 11- and 12-year-olds, will start at 3 p.m.

Vedder said while the kids have already played 10 games this fall and many have started thinking about basketball, they are excited to suit up one last time for the tournament.

“We’re going to kick some butt,” Vedder said.