Breaking down the best matchups of Week 0:

No. 12 Fountain Valley vs. No. 22 Foothill
Thursday, at Huntington Beach High, 7 p.m.

Outlook: Did you know this will be the third consecutive season that Fountain Valley will face quarterback Aaron Dupin? The Barons started the 2007 and ’08 seasons with games against Foothill of Henderson, Nev., and Dupin was the QB of those Foothill teams. After a move to California this past spring, he’s now the QB for Santa Ana’s Foothill.

The Barons are 2-0 vs. Dupin, having won big in 2007 (40-10) and ’08 (49-14). Now Dupin gets his shot at redemption. 

(By the way, thanks to Mr. Dan Albano for that note about Dupin. Albano knows all.)

Fountain Valley finished in a five-way tie for the Sunset League title last season and is picked by the league’s coaches to finish third this season.

Dominic Ragland returns at quarterback. He was moved into the position last season and performed well enough to get the Barons into the playoffs.

His development will be the key to getting defenses away from the line of scrimmage so that the Barons can open up running lanes for Kyle Middlebrooks.

The Knights are picked to finish second in the Sea View League. Foothill could be on a mission after losing to Pacifica in the first round of the Southwest Division playoffs last season. The Knights were the No. 1 seed.

Foothill opened last season against a team from the Pac-5, but lost, 36-14, to Dana Hills.

Will the Knights get ’09 off to a better start? Or will the Middlebrooks-Ragland duo get the Barons off and running?

*Rankings are based on the OCVarsity.com preseason poll

Check out the rest of this week’s Calhoun Six:

• No. 1 Servite vs. Long Beach Poly
•  No. 5 Mater Dei vs. Carson
• No. 17 Dana Hills vs. No. 14 Santa Margarita
• No. 10 Tustin vs. Kennedy
• No. 24 Fullerton vs. No. 19 Canyon

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.