Thursday Football Opener Should Be Just Smashing

What better way to kick off the high school football season than to watch a pair of ever-so-unfriendly rivals meet in what could be a City Section playoff preview?

Sylmar opens as The Times’ No. 2 team from the region. Taft, which is home team for Thursday night’s game beginning at 7, is ranked No. 9.

Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman and Taft Coach Troy Starr aren’t each other’s biggest fan, but they won’t be shaking hands anyway. Engilman is serving the first of a two-game suspension for what the City Section determined was improper contact with an opposing school’s player. He will be scouting Sylmar’s next opponent, Chatsworth, in a game at Reseda.

Running back Donald Carpenter, a transfer from Taft, will make his debut wearing Sylmar colors. Imagine the greeting he’ll get.

Other high school football games Thursday: At 4 p.m.: Burbank at Harvard-Westlake. At 6:45 p.m.: Van Nuys at Palisades. At 7 p.m.: North Hollywood vs. El Camino Real at Canoga Park; Westlake vs. Buena at Ventura High; Chatsworth at Reseda; Granada Hills vs. Hart at College of the Canyons; Crescenta Valley at Thousand Oaks; Agoura at Hueneme; Bell-Jeff at Calabasas; Hoover at Monroe; Canoga Park at Birmingham.

TODAY

Women’s Soccer: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at Pepperdine 3 p.m.