“I think it’s the best idea I’ve had in months.”- Rosmary

“Rosemary’s Baby”

What a week. Fall temperatures graced the nation as fall football kicked off in fantastic fashion. South Florida kicked it off with a blowout win over visiting Boise St and Utah ended it with blowout win over UCLA. Still a couple of college games to go before Week One officially concludes, but the sports weekend is for the most part–wrapped.

We’ve got High School football, Soccer updates from across Europe and a brief update on College Football.

Friday Night Lights

• Corner Canyon 67 @ Fremont 21
  • QB Casuga Rushed for two and passed for four (4) touchdowns
  • ATH Moa caught one TD for Fremont
  • Corner Canyon hosts #1 in Arizona Liberty next friday 9/5 at 7PM
    • ChargersTV will have the live stream if you can’t make this game live.
• Mountain Ridge 34 @ Davis 49
  • QB Tradon Bessinger tossed 7 touchdowns
    • The Boise St commit tossed 5 in week one, 4 in week two and rushed in one, and threw another seven (7) Friday night.
  • Juniors Bode Sparrow and Jaxton Itaaheau caught a combined five td’s. Both will be high ranking recruits for 2027. Bode is #3 in the state for his class
  • Davis hosts Alta 9/5 at 7PM
• Lone Peak 42 @ Timpview 10
  • Kepa tossed three and ran in one touchdown in his first game of the season after serving his two game suspension
  • Kennan Pula caught one
  • Lone Peak travel to #1 in Nevada Bishop Gorman next Friday 9/5 at 7PM
    • Bishop Gorman has one of my favorite players in the country on their squad
      • Safety Jett Washington: 6’5, 200 Oregon commit
      • #2 Safety in the country behind Hartfield Academy’s (MS) Bralan Womack
        • #1 Player in Nevada

Friday night football is beginning to heat up with the cooling temps. Corner Canyon’s matchup with Lone Peak is only a few weeks away.

• A National High School Football Nugget

Iowa City High hosted Iowa City West in their 57th meeting over the weekend. IC High had a four game winning streak coming into the game with their rivals from the West side, but winning a 5th in a row was not on the table. On the shoulders of ATH Julien Manson and the defense IC West won on the road 30-0. Julien plays Mike Linebacker and Running Back.

At 6’4/215 Senior Julien “JuJu” Manson is a top five recruit in Iowa and committed to helping the Hawkeyes next fall. Along with being a varsity starter on the football, basketball, and track and field teams, he sports a 4.0 GPA and considers both of his parents to be his mentors. “I can talk to them about anything” he said to the student paper “West Side Story” in March of 2024. An all around excellent young man. Iowa beat out Miami, Minnesota, Kansas St and eight other schools to get him. Only up JuJu. Only up.

Premier League

Arsenal

Arsenal 0 @ 1 Liverpool 9:30 on 8/31

Arsenal Lineup:

• GK Raya
• RB Timber
• CB Saliba
• CB Gabriel
• LB Calafiori
• CM Zubimendi
• CM Rice
• CM Merino
• RW Madueke
• ST Gyokeres
• LW Martinelli
  • Bench:
    • Skelly
    • Mosquera
    • Dowman
    • Trossard
    • White
    • Odegaard
    • Nwaneri
    • EZE
    • Annious
    • Kepa

It was slow. You can’t win them all. By golly there will be more fun games to watch than that one. One of the best struck free kicks in a decade won the game for Liverpool.

• Arsenal host Nottingham Forest 9/13 at 5:30

Sunderland

• Sunderland hosted Brentford and scored two goals in the final ten minutes to win 2-1 inside the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats conceded in the 77th to go down 1-0 but responded just five minutes later by scoring from the penalty spot. The winner was scored dramatically in stoppage time.
• Through three games Sunderland is tied with Everton for 5th in the PL Standings behind Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, and Liverpool
• Sunderland travel to Crystal Palace 9/13 at 8:00AM

Other Soccer:

Como @ Bologna

• Bologna defended their soggy home turf well, winning 1-0 handing Como their first loss of this campaign.
• Cesc will see the areas that his squad can improve in this one. His young, energetic team seemed to not be up for the adversity they faced. It was a physical game that was played on a waterlogged pitch due to the poor weather conditions in Italy the past few days. The gametime weather was quite pleasant and precipitation free.
• Como host Genoa 9/15 at 12:45

Wrexham @ Millwall

• After winning the League Cup match at Preston midweek behind the ‘Big Lug’ Kieffer Moore’s 89th minute winner to continue their run in the Cup, Wrexham blanked Millwall 2-0 to earn their first win in the Championship League behind the head of 6’5 Moore again.
  • The Big Lug nodded home a cross just as the goalie threw an errant fist into the bridge of his nose. He celebrated with his teammates as the blood spewed down his face. With a few cotton balls jammed up his nostrils, he finished the game as strong as he’s started the season. Four goals in three games thus far.
    • Big Lug is an endearing term that one has to earn both by their appearance and their performance. Kieffer fits the bill perfectly.
• Wrexham host QPR 9/13 at 8:00A.M

College Football:

• Army Lost to Tarleton St
• Alabama Lost its season opener for the first time since 2001
• Bryce Underwood is ahead of his time and turning elite
• Arizona is an underdog worth checking out this season
• Cal DOMINATES on the road: 34-15 over Oregon St in Corvallis
• Penn St DE Danis Dennis-Sutton is a Dominant force
• UGA QB Gunner Stockton recorded four total TD’s
• The Hometown Tigers won by 30+
• USC QB Jordan Maiava had over 300 total yards and 3 total TD’s
• Vols QB Joey Aguilar threw three TD’s in their dominant win over Syracuse
• The Mountain West is wide open
  • Air Force, Nevada, and New Mexico all impressed this weekend. Air Force is going to be a problem for every team in this conference this season. The Falcons are built for a conference title. UNLV is 2-0 but hasn’t looked good yet. Oh yeah, and Boise. Predicted for 8-4, but after how poor they looked in Tampa, perhaps eight wins is too many. The Broncos will rebound against the Fighting Cowherds of Eastern Washington this weekend before a much-needed bye week. Broncos play the Falcons Week 4.
• Utah and BYU both won in blowout fashion. The UTES impressed in a major way.

What else? Well, more took place, but I’m not going to say it was all fun. LSU won at Clemson and Texas lost at Ohio St.

And just now, Miami finished off Notre Dame on this calm August 31st evening in the desert with a half moon in the Southern sky. College football week one is officially complete. So much to unfold over the next 14-15 weeks. Let’s hope the football both round and oblong gets better as the season progresses.

It’ll be Labor Day once this gets posted, so enjoy the time off. Get into the forest, get lost in an adventure, take the pontoon to the lake, or sit hunkered down on a bucket blasting a scatter gun at a 4oz grey/tan bird with a 15″ wingspan flying 50-55MPH across a rural West TN sunflower field. It’s Labor Day. I guess I’m saying, it’s a day to get outside. Forget about sports. Be with the one(s) you love most. Have an adventure. Or…go to work and hope your boss allows holiday pay. Either way, have a great Labor Day.

Oh, and Texas Christian plays inside Kenan Stadium tonight. I’ll take the Frogs over the Heels.

Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’

Whit W.