Football Previews: Crescenta Valley gets familiar opening matchup with Verdugo Hills

While some local teams kicked off their seasons with zero week games, the Crescenta Valley High football team will kick off its season in week one.

Crescenta Valley will meet Foothill Boulevard rival Verdugo Hills at 7 p.m. Thursday at Glendale High’s Moyse Field in an intersectional contest. It will mark the fourth straight season the Falcons have begun their season against the Dons. Crescenta Valley has won the last three matchups, including a 37-17 triumph at Verdugo Hills last season.

“We’re excited to be able to play again,” said Crescenta Valley Coach Paul Schilling, whose team is ranked 10th in CIF Southern Section Division VI. “It’s like we’re finally there now.

“A lot of the players from each team know each other, so it’s always fun to play against a school close by.”

Last year, Crescenta Valley tied for second with Burbank in the Pacific League and reached the first round of the Southeast Division playoffs before falling to Cathedral. The Falcons won the division championship in 2014.

Crescenta Valley quarterback Cole Doyle will get the nod Thursday. He came up late in the season and engineered a late comeback victory against rival Arcadia and picked up some postseason experience the following week.

“To get that kind of experience late in the season will help him,” Schilling said. “We’ll see what he can take from that.”

Crescenta Valley has averaged 48.6 points per game against Verdugo Hills over the last three meetings.

Verdugo Hills of the L.A. City Section started its season Friday with a 28-16 nonleague home loss versus Torres. The teams were tied at 14 at halftime.

Hoover at Sotomayor, Thursday at 7 p.m.: For the fourth straight season, the Tornadoes will face their City Section foe.

A year ago, Hoover downed Sotomayor, 41-18, at home. Hoover has technically won all three previous meetings with a forfeit win in 2013. Consequently, that forfeit win marked the last time the Tornadoes had strung together consecutive victories until their season opener against Hacienda Heights Wilson in which Hoover romped, 28-13.

Not coincidentally, both of the Tornadoes’ wins have come via huge peformances from Quinton Smith.

As a quarterback in 2015’s season-closing 41-14 win over Glendale, he had a “Battle for the Victory Bell” school record 227 yards on 26 carries. In the win over Wilson, Smith, who’s now a running back, had all four of his team’s touchdowns and rushed for 210 yards in 25 carries.

Sotomayor lost its season opener at home, 63-0, to Village Christian. The Wolves were down, 28-0, after the first quarter and 49-0 at halftime.

A win for the Tornadoes would put them at 2-0 for the first time since 2005. Consequently, that was the last time Hoover won three straight games, coupling its 2-0 start with a season-ending win over Glendale in 2004.

St. Francis at West Covina, Friday at 7 p.m.: Fresh off a 9-4 season in which it marched to the CIF Southern Section Southeast Division, St. Francis begins the 2016 campaign with a new destination of the Division III playoffs.

For the first time in a long time, the Golden Knights kick off their year unranked, but are looking to win their ninth season opener in a row, a streak that dates back to a loss at Arcadia to begin the 2007 season.

Plenty of eyes will be upon senior quarterback Michael Bonds, the nephew of Golden Knights Coach Jim Bonds who transferred from Newport Harbor after throwing for 1,495 yards and 13 touchdowns.

The Golden Knights sport a healthy mix of experienced returners and promising newcomers, highlighted by the returns of All-Area standouts Maxx Jakeway, a senior linebacker who led the team with 113 tackles, junior defensive lineman Gabriel Grbavac (10 sacks last season) and senior receiver Daniel Scott (32 catches for 567 yards and four touchdowns).

West Covina opened its season in zero week with a 49-14 loss to Colony, the third-ranked team in Division IV. The Bulldogs lost on the road to St. Francis last season, 36-24, on their way to a 4-6 campaign, one that began with a much closer 28-21 loss to Colony.

Flintridge Prep on bye: Just a week after the era of coach Russell White and the return to eight-man football began with a resounding 53-6 win at Fulton Prep, the Rebels are on a bye week.

Originally, they were scheduled to host Westmark.

Now, they’ll return to action on Sept. 16 following a three-week hiatus when they’ll begin a new era of hosting home games on campus when they welcome Hillcrest Christian for a Friday afternoon game at 3 p.m.

Westmark canceled the game with no reschedule in the works, confirmed Flintridge Prep Athletic Director Garrett Ohara.

“[Westmark] told us they can’t play the game,” Flintridge Prep athletic director Garrett Ohara said. “They had hired a coach late in mid-August and said that they were sorry that they couldn’t honor the game.

“We tried to find a replacement and we were unsuccessful.”

Glendale on bye: Following a hard-fought 21-13 defeat against Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary to open the season in the zero week, the Nitros have a somewhat unconventional bye during week one.

The loss to begin the season was the 10th consecutive defeat for the Nitros dating back to the second game of last year.

On the other side of the bye, Glendale will remain on the road when it faces regular nonleague and area foe La Cañada at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9.