There isn't a better opening-weekend game between CIF Southern Section football teams than the one played between the Poly Jackrabbits and Servite Friars Thursday night (7 o'clock) at Veterans Stadium.
The Jackrabbits have been tagged as the preseason No. 1 Southern Section team by several media outlets.
As Bob Keisser wrote in today's Press-Telegram, that's more out of respect for Coach Raul Lara's program and the kind of athletes who play for the school, year-in and year-out, than out of in-depth analysis of the team's roster.
It just seems unlikely that the Jackrabbits, with all of their personnel losses from the past season, can be playing at a "best in the Southern Section"-level in September.
Servite returns a lot of key players from a team that shared the Trinity League title before losing to Lakewood in the first round of the Pac-5 playoffs last November.
The presence of all that veteran personnel is why I think the Friars should be an ever-so-slight favorite tonight.
That being said . . . this is one of the games that will tell us a lot about the way playoffs might shape up in three months.
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