Two East teams will open on Thursday

ECS staff report

SAN DIEGO —– How about this for an obscure trivia question:  How many high school referee crews are in San Diego this season?

Unfortunately, because of COVID-19 and natural attrition due to retirement, there won’t be enough to cover all of the season-opening games in the San Diego Section this Friday. Thus, two contests were switched to Thursday night, both games involving East County schools.

Now slated for 7 p.m. on Thursday will be Mount Miguel traveling to San Carlos to take on Patrick Henry.

Meanwhile, Grossmont will host one of their ancient rivals from the Foothillers’ debut season of 1920 by hosting Sweetwater at 6:30 p.m.

There will be 46 CIFSDS contests on Friday, with the lone Saturday night game slated shows Christian High hosting Rancho Christian of Temecula at Valley Stadium. For the visiting Eagles, the game starts the school’s 10th season of interscholastic sports.

Among Friday’s action, three are day games.

The season kicks of at 1 p.m. with the Borrego Springs Rams traveling to meet San Diego Jewish Academy. Then at 3 p.m, the Julian Eagles will return to the field after skipping the 2020-21 pandemic season by hosting West Shores High from Salton City in the Imperial Valley.

The 4 p.m. game is also close to East County, as Mabel O’Farrell Charter (one block from Morse) hosts Hoover.