The 2023 high school football season kicks off Friday night with just one game in the city limits, and two others at nearby stadiums.
While Turlock hits the road to take on Rocklin, Pitman will host Central Valley (Ceres) at Joe Debely Stadium.
Hilmar and Hughson will be on the road Friday night, but will remain inside Stanislaus County, as the Yellowjackets travel to face Patterson and the Huskies visit Ceres.
On Saturday, Big Valley Christian (Modesto) visits Jack Lytton Stadium to face Denair, while Turlock Christian travels to San Jose to take on Harker.
For more on Turlock, Pitman, Hilmar, Hughson, Denair and TC, be sure to check out the Journal’s Prep Football Preview special section included in today’s edition.
Central Valley at Pitman, 7 p.m. — Pride head coach Eric Reza has talked in the preseason about a culture change for the program, which has amassed just nine total wins since finishing 10-1 in 2018. That change begins this week as Pitman takes on a Central Valley team coming off a 2-8 campaign and a last-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference. Though the Pride will be hard-pressed to replace running back Joey Stout, quarterback Drew Walker, and wide receiver Dylan Freeman, they’re excited about the strength of their offensive and defensive lines.
Turlock at Rocklin, 7 p.m. — The Thunder are coming off an 8-4 season in which they reached the quarterfinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 2 playoffs — a season that started with a 14-7 loss to the Bulldogs at Joe Debely Stadium. Rocklin plays in the rugged Sierra Foothill League, with state powers Folsom, Del Oro (Loomis) and Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills). Bulldog fans will remember Oak Ridge as the team that ended their 2022 season in the Division I semifinals. The Thunder enters this season ranked No. 44 in the state by MaxPreps.com and No. 4 in the Sacramento region by the Sacramento Bee’s Joe Davidson.
Hilmar at Patterson, 7 p.m. — The Yellowjackets open with a tall order, taking on the two-time defending champions of the much larger Central California Conference. With an enrollment nearly three times that of Hilmar, the Tigers will present Hilmar coach Frank Marques an opportunity to see where his defending Trans-Valley League champions stand.
Hughson at Ceres, 7 p.m. — The Huskies became the fourth Trans-Valley League team in the past five seasons to win a state championship, joining the ranks of Hilmar, Escalon and Ripon (Modesto Christian did back in 2009) when they captured the CIF Division 5-AA title with a 9-6 win over Muir (Pasadena) last December. This year, they’ll look to become the first TVL squad to repeat as champions. With nine returning starters on the offensive side of the ball and seven on defense, they’ve got the experience to do. But first things first. They’re looking to win their first league title since 1998.
Saturday
Big Valley Christian at Denair 7:15 p.m. — There’s good news and bad news for the Coyotes this year.
The bad: Denair has just 14 players on its roster this season, which means at least eight players will be forced to play on both sides of the ball. This will no doubt take its toll on the team as the season rolls along.
The good: Twelve of the 14 players are underclassmen — two are sophomores — so these players will gain valuable experience and set the foundation for a program that won the state’s 7-AA championship in 2018.
Turlock Christian at Harker (San Jose), 6 p.m. — There was much excitement centering upon the return of football to the TC campus, but a sudden drop in enrollment led to the decision to play eight-man football. The Eagles will play just one game at home this season: Sept. 23 against Kern Resource Center of Bakersfield. The other six games (five more on Saturday, on They are Thursday) will put more than 1,000 miles on the TC bus, roughly 180 miles each week. That’s a brutal travel schedule.
