Football teams returning

Petaluma and St. Vincent high schools kick off the new football season Friday night.|

It is time to turn the Friday night lights on.

The high school football season kicks off Friday night with high hopes for local teams.

Petaluma’s Trojans start at “home,” playing on their borrowed field at Casa Grande High School against Montgomery’s Vikings. St. Vincent revisits one of its rare 2016 successes when it plays at Elsie Allen.

Casa Grande’s Gauchos wait a week before beginning the Denis Brunk era on Sept. 2 in Eureka against St. Bernard’s. Tomales’ Braves get an even later start, not opening until Sept. 8 when they host Laytonville.

Former rivals

Petaluma and Montgomery were formerly rivals in the North Bay League, but haven’t played one another since 2005 when Petaluma won, 41-7.

Once a North Bay powerhouse, Montgomery has fallen on hard times in recent years, and hasn’t had a winning season since 2013. The Vikings were 3-7 last year and lost all seven of their North Bay League games.

But enthusiasm is running high for a rebirth of the Viking program under new head coach Tony Keefer. He is rebuilding with a young team after the Vikings lost the majority of their skill players to graduation last season.

Petaluma hosts on its borrowed field with a more veteran team that went 7-4 last season after stumbling to an 0-4 start. One of those losses was later reversed when it was discovered that Rodriguez had used an ineligible player in its 42-27 win in the second game of the season.

After its bad beginning, Petaluma rolled off six straight wins before the streak was finally stopped by Encinal in the first round of the North Coast Section playoffs.

With several of the key players from that team returning, coach Rick Krist is hopeful for a better start this year, although it won’t be easy given another difficult pre-league schedule that includes NBL teams Santa Rosa and Casa Grande, along with Terra Linda following Friday’s opening.

Among those returning for the Trojans is senior quarterback Justin Wolbert. Also back are senior linemen Lucas Haggard and Xavier Crysdale. They will anchor both the offensive and defensive lines that are expected to be Trojan strong points.

Mustangs visit Lobos

Also on Friday night, St. Vincent’s young Mustangs kick off their season at Elsie Allen against a Lobo team that didn’t win a game last season.

St. Vincent won just twice, but one of those successes was a 43-18 win over the Lobos.

St. Vincent has had a dedicated nucleus of about 27 players for the varsity and junior varsity teams.

“They are good kids and they work hard, but there just aren’t a lot of them,” St. Vincent coach Gary Galloway said.

The Mustang coach knows very little about Elsie Allen other than what he saw in last season’s opening game. “They didn’t scrimmage, so we haven’t had a chance to really look at them,” he said.

Extra week for Casa

Casa Grande will use what is a bye week to continue to learn their new coach’s system before taking on small-school super power St. Bernard’s after a long trip to Eureka. Kickoff for the varsity game on Saturday, Sept. 2 is 2 p.m.

St. Bernard’s is a Division 4 team, while Casa Grande plays in Division 2, but the Crusaders are a powerhouse in any division. Last season they were 12-2, unbeaten (6-0) in the Humboldt-Del Norte Little Four League and a 42-28 winner over Casa Grande.

Braves vs. Warriors

Tomales, in the newly reformatted North Central League III, doesn’t start its eight-man schedule until Sept. 8 when it hosts Laytonville.

The NCL III this season has been divided into two sections, with Tomales in the South along with Branson, Calistoga, Potter Valley, Rincon Valley Christian and Stuart Hall.

Tomales is looking to improve on its 3-5 record of a year ago, but might have a difficult time against a Laytonvile team that went 4-4 last season and included among its wins a 44-24 victory over Tomales.

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