There's a nice ongoing crossover series between Texas and Louisiana and that's a good thing for both states.

Texas and Louisiana

Texas, in case you haven't noticed, is big, really big. So it's not like it's easy to make all those trips every week. Sometimes, for teams based in Houston, looking east to New Orleans helps. 

Faith Family Academy visits NOLA Jesuit, which is part of the Varsity Cup; NOLA Jesuit is the only Louisiana team in that competition, and it includes Strake Jesuit, Dallas Jesuit, St. Thomas, St. Pius X, and Allen, to name a few. So NOLA Jesuit hosts FFA in that competition, and then plays rivals Brother Martin in the Louisiana Cup. According to Head Coach Adam Massey, they will field an entirely different squad of players for each.

"It will certainly be a challenge," said Massey, "but nothing great grows in conditions of comfort and ease."

Lake Travis faces Strake Jesuit in a clash of two teams that have started very well. We could say the same about Dallas Jesuit and St. Thomas. Dallas shut out Celina, which was a good opening showing.

"We are always happy with a clean sheet performance, but there was still a lot we need to work on," said Head Coach Matt Upton. "That’s why I scheduled a challenging side like Celina. Those boys come at you with everything they have. We have a lot of guys moving positions and transitioning from 2nd XV to 1st XV and it was good to get some things on film for the boys to see. Our offense still has a bit of ways to get back to where we need to be for some games coming up, and now we have hard evidence to track our efforts moving forward."

SoCal

The big game is a non-conference game with Torrey Pines playing Carlsbad. It's a little like San Diego Mustangs vs Thunder ... but not exactly. Still it's the best (we think) single-school team in SoCal's competition with the best not-quite-single-school team.

NorCal

Wounded a little bit after losing to Cathedral Catholic, Jesuit Sacramento enters into the NorCal Single-School league and plays St. Francis. Jesuit Head Coach Andrew Acosta was philosophical about the loss.

"It was a decent first game, but loads to work on," said Acosta. "We played OK, but we have to be more clinical in the 22. We had several line breaks that we didn't finish; gave them chances and they took them. The first 25 minutes was a battle, we let them get momentum for 15 minutes and they scored three times to pull away."

On the club side, Danville vs Marin is a Top-15 club clash.

Danville dropped out of the GRR Top 10 thanks to losses in the Storer Classic but we know that's just a small sample size and a preseason tournament. Head Coach Kort Schubert said the key about that tournament was meaningful match experience than winning. They got time for new players and built their depth. Wing Marco Romeo has already showed himself to be able to finish off tries.

Florida

Finally we've got the league starting. This seems like a very competitive season in the state and Okapi vs Jacksonville is a good opener as both of these teams look good early on.

North Carolina

Hough makes up their postponed game with Myers Park on Friday and if Hough (currently 5-0) wins they will be the #1 seed in the North Carolina School league semifinals, leaving South Meck at #2. A loss for Myers Park drops them to 5th behind Sun Valley.

Elsewhere

Brophy Prep has to be feeling good about their comeback win over Tempe. Brophy has expanded their numbers and now have a U16 team in the Arizona U16 league, too, which is good.

Brophy started slow vs Tempe and were 17-0 down after 10 minutes. Race Bates got their first try and it was his leadership that sparked the comeback. It was 24-5 at halftime but Brophy managed to leverage their speed in the second half. Their defense improved and debutant Eddie Martinez Estrada scored two long-range tries and Brandon Thompson Bueno scored another long-range run. Still it was 31-26 Tempe before a long period of phases ended with Evan Brady scored on a pick-and-go. 

Woodlands of the Houston area meets St. Martin's of Fort Scott, Kans. in Dallas. We'll have more on this game later today. Gregory the Great visits Vienna in an interesting early-season game. GGA is looking for more and more early games.

High-Rankings Clash as Woodlands Meets Up With St. Martin's