Westbound traffic will pick up on Escondido’s Valley Parkway Friday night.
A neighborhood bragging rights game is scheduled when revitalized Orange Glen motors West from the eastern edge of town on the old thoroughfare to visit big brother Escondido High.
They’re only 4.5 miles apart, but the visiting Patriots and host Cougars haven’t met since 2015.
Fortunes have ebbed and flowed for both teams in a rivalry that once annually drew crowds of up to 10,000.
Orange Glen is in the midst of a renewal, following the lead of coach Gary Patterson and his son, Cael, who scored 35 touchdowns a season ago and helped the Patriots win four straight playoffs games before they bowed to San Francisco Lincoln, 24-13 in the state VI-AA finals.
Orange Glen’s 10-5 standing marked its first winning season since Rob Gilster coached it to a 9-3 record in 1997 and then moved on to open Valley Center.
Escondido has not been above .500 since 2009 and opened last week with a 45-42 loss to Hilltop, while the Patriots were on the island of Kauai and defeating Waimea, 41-16.
The Cougars lead the series, 28-18, and own a 15-game winning streak, dating to 1998. Orange Glen had won the 13 previous crosstown matchups, from 1985-97 and the teams’ first meeting, 14-7, in 1967, but Escondido held a 13-5 advantage through 1984.
CALIFORNIA’S BEST
Cal-Hi Sports‘ weekly state top 50 lists Cathedral No. 6, which is where the San Diego Section No. 1 club was in the newsletter’s first ranking last week.
St. Augustine is 19th, up from 21st. Torrey Pines, off a 36-10 win over Orange County toughie Los Alamitos, jumped a whopping 16 spots, from 41st to 25th. Helix is 31st and Lincoln joined the group at 48th.
Mission Hills, 31st last week, dropped out and Carlsbad is on the bubble, which consists of teams near the top 50.
Cathedral, 42-9 over La Costa Canyon last week, gets it first big test in the Honor Bowl extravaganza Saturday. Three different matchups on the same day: Sherman Oaks Notre Dame versus Phoenix Desert Vista at noon, followed by Capistrano JSerra and St. Joseph’s Regional of Montvale, New Jersey, at 3:30 p.m., and the host Dons and Arizona’s Scottsdale Saguaro at 7.
QUICK KICKS
Kearny’s 65-16 rout of Calexico required a visit to the Komets’ list of all-time scores…the victory ranks third to a 66-0 win over Patrick Henry last season and a 70-0 win over Crawford in 1969…Army-Navy prepared to meet Clairemont for the first time since 1993, but the Chieftains were forced to bail when only 14 players were available… Valhalla snapped an 0-18 slump with a 35-21 win over University City and El Cajon Valley won its first after 16 losses in a row, 13-7 over Francis Parker…the San Pasqual Academy Dragons have a new coach, Tyrone Shelley, who played basketball for Steve Fisher at San Diego State and holds the San Diego Section single-game record with 76 points in 2005 for Crawford against a team from Canada….
San Diego Union-Tribune Week 1 poll:
Points on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
First-place votes in parenthesis.
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | PREVIOUS |
| 1. | Cathedral (22) | 1-0 | 303 | 1 |
| 2. | St. Augustine (8) | 1-0 | 281 | 2 |
| 3. | Helix (1) | 1-0 | 247 | 3 |
| 4. | Torrey Pines | 1-0 | 206 | 4 |
| 5. | Lincoln | 1-0 | 182 | 5 |
| 6. | Carlsbad | 1-0 | 160 | 7 |
| 7. | Steele Canyon | 1-0 | 106 | 10 |
| 8. | Mission Hills | 0-1 | 106 | 6 |
| 9. | Madison | 1-0 | 41 | NR |
| 10. | Otay Ranch | 1-0 | 32 | NR |
Others receiving votes: La Costa Canyon (0-1, 29 points), Granite Hills (1-0, 12), Oceanside (0-1, 8), Eastlake (0-1, 6), San Marcos (0-1, 4), San Diego (1-0, 4), Grossmont (1-0, 4), El Camino (1-0, 1), Olympian (1-0, 1), Vista (1-0, 1).
Voting panel, 31 sportswriters, sportscasters, various County football honchos:
- John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune
- Jim Lindgren, Rick Hoff, Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Union-Tribune correspondents
- Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone,Ted Mendenhall, KUSI Chl. 51
- Adam Paul, ECpreps.com
- Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com
- Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com
- Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090
- Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions
- Troy Hirsch, Kaylyn McMakin, Tabitha Lipkin, Fox 5, San Diego
- Rick Smith, PartletonSports.com
- Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, Ron Marquez, CIF San Diego Section
- Joe Heinz, Coordinator, Athletics, Sweetwater School District
- Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net
- Bob Petinak, Freelance
- John Kentera, Brandon Suprenant, 97.3 FM The Fan
- Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM
- Mike Dolan, John Carroll, San Diego Section Tournament Directors.
- Christian Pederson, SoCal Prep Insider
- Eric Williams, WBK Sports/San Dego Friday Night Lights Magazine
- Thomas Gutierrez, Cal-Hi Sports
