High School

Central Section Week 0 high school football roundup, scores

SBLive Fab 15 teams go unbeaten during wild first night of games of 2024 season

Mitch Stephens

Clovis West players were all smiles Friday as they were here during a 2023 opener at St. Mary's .
Clovis West players were all smiles Friday as they were here during a 2023 opener at St. Mary's . / File photo: Dennis Lee

A fantastic start for the Central Section's top-ranked team ended abruptly and ugly to both highlight and lowlight the first week of play on Friday.

Central played a nearly flawless game for less than three quarters before its 40-0 win at Garza ended with an ugly skirmish.

A remarkable last-season victory ignited by Clovis West's remarkable freshman, a huge out-of-state win from Clovis East and a couple more wins for first-year coaches highlighted a perfect Friday for SBLive Top 15 Central Section teams.

Check the short roundup below:

No. 1 Central 40, Garza 0: Sophomore Jelani Dippel gave quite a debut as the quarterback completed 20 of 26 for 293 yards and two touchdowns and Brandon Smith, arguably the section's top junior, rushed 13 times for 187 yards and three touchdowns in an impressive road win. Dippel completed passes to seven different receivers, including sophomore Bayon Harris, who hauled in six passes for 125 yards and both touchdowns. As impressive as the win was, the result lost its luster due to an ugly fracus that ended the game during the third quarter.

MORE: California high school football game called after fight

No. 2 Clovis North 24, San Joaquin Memorial 0: The Broncos started their CS season where they left off in 2023 as first-year starting quarterback Lucas Smith threw TD passes to Tyree Sams and Nehamia Taylor and McKay Madsen ripped off a 56-yard touchdown, and the defense did the rest against the Panthers.

No. 3 Clovis East 24, West (Utah) 21: Francisco Damas kicked the game-winning field goal in the final seconds. Taemell Horton scored on a 28-yard run and Tyus Miller completed a 36-yard TD pass to Blake Mathieu to give the Timberwolves a 21-14 lead.

No. 4 Liberty-Bakersfield 19, Highland 14: The Patriots fought back from a 14-0 deficit behind two touchdown runs from Jalen Murphy, and the go-ahead score from Wade Brogdon on a 3-yard run with six minutes to play.

No. 5 Clovis 27, No. 7 Central Valley Christian 12: Deagan Rose fired three touchdown passes and Maddox Merrill add a 5-yard touchdown run to give the Cougars the opening home win over the defending state Division 2-A championship.

No. 6 Fronter plays at one of Sac-Joaquin Section's top teams Oak Ridge on Saturday

No. 8 Hanford 45, Kennedy 29: Daniel Gomez threw for 157 yards and two scores and rushed 10 times for 105 yards and another touchdowns, leading the visiting Bullpups to victory. Highliy touted Kourdey Glass had three catches for 97 yards and rushed eight times for 76 yards for the winners, offsetting 294 yards rushing by Kennedy.

No. 9 Clovis West 29, Edison-Huntington Beach 28: Remember this name: Jamar Howard. The 14-year-old freshman quarterback was as good as advertised throughout the game and led a game-winning drive and two-point conversion late. His first pass attempt on the first play of the game was a 71-yard touchdown to Jonavon Darrington off a flea-flicker. A 13-yard TD pass from Howard, his third of the game, to Michael Espinose closed the gap to 28-27 and instead of going for the tie, coach Eric Brown went for the win and Tytus Dimmer ran it home from the 3.

No. 10 Lemoore 41, Monache 15: Scoop and scores by Jaimeir Campbell and Keegan Silva gave the host Tigers command w,hile Aiden McDaniel rushed and passed for touchdowns and Josh Hernandez rushed for scores of 10 and 7 yards.

No. 14 Tehachapi 26, Burroughs 14: Adriana Pina and Wade Brooks rushed for touchdowns, Colton Michael threw a TD pass to Andrew Aguirre and the defense contributed six sacks, leading the visiting Warriors to a tough win, fighting back from a 14-3 halftime deficit.

No. 15 Bullard 35, Golden Valley 0: Junior quarterback Tyler Franklin passed for 222 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, two passing to Israel Castaneda in a convincing win. First-year coach Louis Franklin won his debut after the Knights went a combined 5-15 the last two seasons.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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