The 2025 Fall Prep football season is upon us, and the San Fernando Valley has no shortage of teams that come into the campaign full of championship aspirations. The defending East Valley League champs kick off their season on the road Thursday night against a West Valley foe that intends to bounce back in a major way this season. Friday night brings us a matchup between top 15 ranked teams doing battle in Granada Hills, while the recently dethroned powerhouse looks to get the season off with a bang hosting a familiar Southern Section foe. Here are some of the noteworthy matchups to kick off the football season this week:

North Hollywood Huskies @ #10 Granada Hills Highlanders – Thursday 8/21, 7pm at Granada Hills High School

The Huskies come into the season as the defending East Valley League champions. Despite losing a lot of the senior talent that carried the program to an undefeated regular season, there is still plenty of meat left on the bone to make a run at consecutive titles. To do that, they will want to get off to a good start in 2025. What better way to start than to go on the road and pull an upset on a West Valley foe?  The Huskies will be taking on a Granada Hills squad that suffered through the growing pains of leaning on younger talent last couple of seasons and are poised to take a leap back towards the top of the West Valley League. This game promises to be a physical matchup. Expect plenty of yards on the ground and a quick clock when these two teams get going.

Knight Hawks @ #20 El Camino Real Royals – 7 pm, at El Camino Real High School

It was a rollercoaster of a campaign for the Royals in 2024, starting the season with four straight  defeats. They team galvanized and righted the ship mid-season winning three out of four games at one point before two heart breaking losses to Cleveland and Chatsworth to end the regular season. The Royals had a dominant win in the first round of the postseason before falling to Sylmar to end the year. There is plenty of optimism surrounding the program with former Chatsworth head coach Marvin Street joining the staff and taking over the JV. They will want to get off to a fast start and show that the past is behind them and that the team is ready to get back to a consistent, winning brand of football with a victory over the Hawks to open the campaign.

Wilson Mules @ Grant Lancers – 7 pm, at Grant High School

 The Lancers have been one of the more befuddling teams in the Valley the last couple of seasons. Consistency has been elusive for this talented group. Led by senior quarterback Carson Rinka, good things could be on the horizon for the Lancers. A good indicator will be how this team performs when they open the season against a tough opponent in Wilson, who will make the journey to Van Nuys looking to launch their own campaign of promise with a quality road win. This game is a rematch of last years opener, in which the Lancers escaped with a narrow 29-25 victory

#14 Eagle Rock  @ #13 Kennedy Cougars – 7 pm, at Kennedy High School

If you are looking for a game with high stakes and long term ramifications for playoff dreams, look no further than Granada Hills Friday night. This matchup between preseason top-15 ranked teams in the Golden Cougars and the Eagles promises to be a fun game. In 2024 these two teams seasons mirrored each other so much so they ended up the top two seeds in the DI playoff bracket. Both teams won their first two playoff games before coming up empty-handed in the semifinals respectively. Kennedy’s leader and QB Diego Montes heads into his senior season bound and determined to recapture the city championship glory he last tasted as a freshman backup. His group is talented, but so are the Eagles. Expect whoever comes out on top to potentially land top ten in the next edition of the city rankings.

Hart Hawks @ #1 Birmingham Patriots – 7 pm, at Birmingham High School

Controversy aside, it was an unfamiliar site to see Birmingham not advance to play in the City Section Open Division championship game last November. The Patriots are determined to get back to their dominant ways in 2025 and leave the disappointment of their streak getting snapped in the past. As what has become the norm, Birmingham has scheduled the toughest non-league slate to prepare for what challenges might lie ahead in the latter half of the season. They start the year at home against an opponent in Hart that plays in the Southern Section. Its always a great litmus test for Birmingham to play these games. Depending on how competitive they are in the first couple of weeks with games lined up against St. Bonaventure, Moorpark and Calabasas, we should have a good barometer for exactly how competitive we excpect the city games to be.