High school football: Saturday morning quarterbacking

You really couldn't have asked for much more on the opening night of the 2008 high school football season.

There was an absolute thriller at Jordan High between the Beetdiggers and Northridge, a stunning upset at Skyline with the Eagles beating Bingham, history-making wins by Syracuse and Desert Hills, and statement victories by teams such as Weber, Pine View, North Sevier, Lone Peak, Hurricane, Logan, Kearns, East and Davis.

Personally, there is no place I would have rather been than Jordan. It was a fun game with the two teams going back and forth. It was obvious that the two offenses couldn't be stopped. When Jordan took a 37-34 lead with 1:19 remaining, I thought the Beetdiggers left the Knights too much time to score.

Northridge coach Erik Thompson said that anything can happen in the first week of high school football. On Friday, it pretty much did.

"High school football is really about having fun," he said. "No one cares about your record in 10 years. To have these types of memories is really radical."

Northridge-Jordan is one of the state's underrated rivalries. I was there in 2006 when Jordan's Alex Blaisdell kicked a game-winning field goal to send the Knights home in the first round of the playoffs. That was the last time Jordan had played at home prior to Friday afternoon.

That much was pointed out to Thompson prior to Friday's game by Jordan people. They even pointed to the end zone where Blaisdell's kick sailed through the uprights. And wouldn't you know it, this time it was Northridge that won on a last-second play — in the same end zone — when Junior Cole threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Chris Washington with 7.4 seconds remaining.

I don't think I'll forget about that game for a long time. I also think I'll be typing in names such as Cole, Peni Makaiafi, Washington, Blake Smithing and Alex Hart many times during the season.

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I caught a little bit of the Logan-Murray game following the three-hour Northridge-Jordan game. Boy, Logan is the real deal and Jeff Manning is the best quarterback in the state. I've been told that he's made unbelievable strides since the end of the 2007 season. He proved it on Friday.

The Grizzlies are the favorites to win the 3A title. They don't have the depth that the 2005 state champion team Logan had. But I bet Logan's ones can play with any team in the state.