Week 3 of the high school football season is here.
This week’s lineup includes Pittsburg at Archbishop Riordan, Acalanes at St. Ignatius, Sacred Heart Prep at Half Moon Bay, San Ramon Valley at Clayton Valley Charter and more.
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Week 2: Where to find our complete coverage
Here are this week’s top matchups:
Thursday
No 23 Sacred Heart Prep (1-1) at Half Moon Bay (2-0), 7 p.m.: SHP bounced back from a season-opening one-sided loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral with a victory over El Capitan of Merced. In the win, Cooper Karros finished with three touchdowns and Maxime Morelle and Hunter Dolinka each ran for scores in the opening quarter. HMB opened the season with a 35-32 overtime victory over Burlingame and then rolled past Pacheco of Los Banos 49-21 last week. SHP and HMB have met 10 times since 2004, with each winning five. HMB won last season’s game between the teams 22-21. HSRatings.com’s computer picks HMB 42-35. – Darren Sabedra
Friday
No. 4 San Ramon Valley (1-1) at No. 12 Clayton Valley (1-1), 7 p.m.: Can SRV stop Jhadis Luckey? The Clayton Valley senior rushed 305 yards and five touchdowns in the Ugly Eagles’ 35-16 win over College Park last week. Through two games this season Luckey is averaging 229.5 rushing yards per game. SRV is coming off a close loss to Santa Cruz powerhouse Soquel last Friday in a game in which the Wolves turned the ball over three times. SRV junior receiver Xavier O’Guinn will be a key focus for Clayton Valley after he caught six passes for 86 yards last week. SRV has won four of seven of its matchups against Clayton Valley dating back to 2004 and has recently won the last two contests by an average of 22 points. HSratings.com has SRV winning this game 31-7. – Nathan Canilao
No. 9 Acalanes (2-0) at No. 11 St. Ignatius (1-1), 5 p.m.: Acalanes has opened the season with impressive victories over two Central Coast Section schools – Archbishop MItty and Menlo-Atherton. The Dons will face their toughest test to this point when they travel to San Francisco to play the reigning CCS Open Division champions. St. Ignatius had a bounce back win against Tamalpais last week after falling to North Bay powerhouse San Marin in Week 1. Junior Luke Tribolet rushed for 124 yards and three scores against Tamalpais in what turned out to be a 49-0 win for the Wildcats. Acalanes steamrolled past Menlo-Atheron 42-3 behind four rushing touchdowns. HSratings.com gives Acalanes a 71% chance to win this game with a score prediction of 31-22. – Nathan Canilao
Vanden-Fairfield (3-0) at No. 13 Campolindo (2-0), 7 p.m.: Campo might not have been completely satisfied with its 21-point win at Northgate last week, but the Cougars are still undefeated heading into their Week 3 home opener against Vanden. This is the third consecutive season in which Campo has played the Fairfield school. Vanden won 23-7 last season. Campo prevailed 29-23 two years ago. Micah Parker is averaging 12.2 yards per carry and has scored three TDs for Campo, which has also gotten three TD passes from Reid Habas. Vanden beat Dublin 14-10 and Amador Valley 21-14 the past two weeks. HSRatings projects Campo to win 28-19. – Darren Sabedra
No. 15 Menlo School (2-0) at Branham (2-0), 7 p.m.: This matchup pits potential against experience in an intriguing duel between teams from the top divisions of their respective leagues. Branham, hailing from the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division, is off to a strong start behind sophomore QB Andrew Ho, who saw action as a freshman before seizing the starting role this year after the departure of senior Jack Lewis. On the other side is Menlo senior signal-caller Jack Freehill, a dual-sport athlete committed to play baseball at Columbia. He has six TD passes and no interceptions so far this season. Ho has three TD passes and has thrown for 498 yards. Menlo has history with the Mt. Hamilton, having beat champion Christopher in last season’s CCS playoffs. HSRatings.com projects a 35-28 Branham win. — Christian Babcock
Saturday
No. 3 Pittsburg (2-0) at No. 2 Archbishop Riordan (2-0), 1:30 p.m.: Possibly the intersectional nonleague game of the year in the Bay Area. Both teams can put up a lot of points, but which will be able to stop the other? Senior QB Mike Mitchell Jr., a Vanderbilt commit, makes everything go for Riordan. The Crusaders have no shortage of targets for him – Harvard commit Judge Nash caught three TDs in Riordan’s season-opening win over McClymonds, and he and Cynai Thomas each had two in a 34-0 win over Monte Vista. Mitchell threw five TDs in both games. Pittsburg comes off a close win over Bishop Manogue-Reno, Nev., but the Pirates are an established program with a long track record of success. A win for Riordan would be a statement of how far the program has come. HSRatings.com projects a 31-22 Riordan win. — Christian Babcock
Schedule
Thursday, Sept. 11
Archbishop Mitty at Menlo-Atherton, 7 p.m.
Castro Valley at Woodside, 7 p.m.
Harbor at Yerba Buena, 7:15 p.m.
Leland at Lincoln-San Jose, 7:15 p.m.
Lincoln-San Francisco at Jefferson, 7 p.m.
Live Oak at Mountain View, 7 p.m.
Milpitas at Fremont-Sunnyvale, 7 p.m.
Sacred Heart Prep at Half Moon Bay, 7 p.m.
San Jose at Silver Creek, 7:15 p.m.
Santa Teresa at Pioneer, 7:15 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 12
Acalanes at St. Ignatius, 5 p.m.
Albany at Mt. Eden, 7 p.m.
Antioch at Monte Vista, 7 p.m.
Aragon at San Mateo, 7 p.m.
Archie Williams at Northgate, 7 p.m.
Arroyo at Burlingame, 7 p.m.
Balboa at Hayward, 7 p.m.
Benicia at American Canyon, 7 p.m.
Berean Christian at Piedmont, 7 p.m.
Berkeley at Deer Valley, 7 p.m.
Bishop O’Dowd at Rancho Cotate, 7 p.m.
California at Monterey Trail, 7:15 p.m.
Calistoga at Swett, 4:30 p.m.
Casa Grande at Las Lomas, 7 p.m.
De Anza at Alhambra, 7 p.m.
De La Salle at St. Francis, 7 p.m.
Del Mar at Evergreen Valley, 7:15 p.m.
Dougherty Valley at Hercules, 7 p.m.
Downey at Amador Valley, 7 p.m.
Dublin at Heritage, 7 p.m.
El Cerrito at Vacaville, 7:30 p.m.
Encinal at Kennedy-Richmond, 7 p.m.
Fremont-Oakland at The King’s Academy, 7 p.m.
Gilroy at Delhi, 7 p.m.
Hill at Westmont, 7 p.m.
Hillsdale at Mt. Diablo, 7:30 p.m.
Hollister at Wilcox, 7 p.m.
James Logan at Newark Memorial, 7 p.m.
Kennedy-Fremont at Foothill, 7 p.m.
Livermore at Gregori, 7:15 p.m.
Los Altos vs. Bellarmine at San Jose City College, 7 p.m.
Lynbrook at Richmond, 5:30p
Menlo School at Branham, 7 p.m.
Montgomery at Miramonte, 7 p.m.
Monta Vista at Gunn, 7 p.m.
Mt. Pleasant at Marina, 7 p.m.
Washington-San Francisco at Sequoia, 7 p.m.
Los Gatos at Clovis, 7:30 p.m.
Oakland at Tennyson, 7 p.m.
Overfelt at Saratoga, 7 p.m.
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Palo Alto at Christopher, 7:15 p.m.
Patterson at Valley Christian, 7 p.m.
Prospect at Alameda, 7 p.m.
Redwood Christian at Mills, 7 p.m.
Sacred Heart Cathedral at Folsom, 7:30 p.m.
San Leandro at Granada, 7:15 p.m.
San Lorenzo at Concord, 7:30 p.m.
San Marin at Moreau Catholic, 7 p.m.
San Ramon Valley at Clayton Valley Charter, 7 p.m.
Serra at St. John Bosco, 7 p.m.
South San Francisco at Leigh, 7:15 p.m.
Terra Linda at St. Patrick-St. Vincent, 7 p.m.
Terra Nova at Capuchino, 7 p.m.
Vanden at Campolindo, 7 p.m.
Willow Glen at Piedmont Hills, 7:15 p.m.
Windsor at Independence, 7:15 p.m.
Ygnacio Valley at Freedom, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 13
College Park at Salesian, 1:30 p.m.
Elite at Vallejo, 6 p.m.
James Lick at Washington-Fremont, 7 p.m.
Monte Vista Christian at Carlmont, 6 p.m.
Pittsburg at Archbishop Riordan, 1:30 p.m.
Seaside at Sobrato, 1:30 p.m.
