MaxPreps Top 10 High School Football Games of the Week

As the first weekend of October spreads cooler temperatures across much of the nation, conference action in high school football is just starting to heat up.

Nine of this week's MaxPreps Top 10 Games of the Week are previews of key intraleague contests. But we'll start off with a look at the only nonleague game in this week's lineup. Sixth-ranked Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) has one final tune-up before starting play in the highly competitive Trinity League next week. The Monarchs will be hard-pressed to improve to 5-0 when they travel to Marmonte League power Westlake (Westlake Village) on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, No. 13 Colquitt County (Moultrie, Ga.) begins a tough trudge through 6A-Region 1 play hosting fellow unbeaten Lowndes (Valdosta); Defending 3A state champion No. 19 Archbishop Wood (Warminster, Pa.) has a Catholic League crossover game with 4A power La Salle College (Wyndmoor), and No. 20 Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati) can take a major stride toward another Greater Catholic League South crown with a win Friday against undefeated La Salle (Cincinnati).

As we enter the midpoint of the season, Stephen Spiewak and Leland Gordon are tied for the lead in our season-long prediction contest. Both pickers went 6-4 last week to improve to 40-20 for the season. After back-to-back 5-5 weeks, Jamie DeMoney has fallen out of the lead for the first time since week one. He currently shares third place with Kevin Askeland with an overall record of 39-21. Fifth place belongs to Mitch Stephens (37-23) and Colin Ward-Henninger remains in last place with a 33-27 record.

Here's a look at this week's Top 10 games along with predictions by MaxPreps staff writers and contributors Mitch Stephens, Stephen Spiewak, Kevin Askeland, Leland Gordon, Colin Ward-Henninger and Jamie DeMoney.


Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) at Westlake (Westlake Village, Calif.)

What to watch: Sixth-ranked Mater Dei has won all four of its games by a least 14 points, including a 34-12 road triumph against Edison (Huntington Beach) last week in which it allowed just 1 rushing yard for the entire game, according to the Orange County Register. Senior linebacker Gerran Brown leads the Monarchs' front seven with 20 tackles, including five for losses. Westlake (3-1) bounced back from a Sept. 12 defeat to state-ranked Long Beach Poly with a 41-14 blowout of Dominguez (Compton). Junior quarterback Malik Henry – rated a five-star prospect by 247Sports – threw for 303 yards and four touchdowns, both season highs.

Follow live scoring of this game on Qwixcore

Just the facts: According to Mater Dei's football website, this will be the first meeting between these programs, which collectively have nine CIF Southern Section titles since 1991. … Mater Dei and Westlake are ranked Nos. 2 and 9, respectively, in the latest Pac-5 Division poll. Pac-5 teams occupy 17 of the top 35 spots in the MaxPreps California Computer Rankings.

Mitch Stephens: Mater Dei 35, Westlake 28
Kevin Askeland: Mater Dei 40, Westlake 25
Jamie DeMoney: Mater Dei 31, Westlake 24
Stephen Spiewak: Mater Dei 28, Westlake 17
Leland Gordon: Mater Dei 28, Westlake 20
Colin Ward-Henninger: Mater Dei 28, Westlake 21