Pigskin Picks: Three days of high school football highlights season kickoff

Remember when high school football was only played under the Friday night lights?

Kind of like when the NFL was only on Sundays and college football on Saturdays.

Those days are long gone. In the NFL, we have Monday Night Football, and now there is Thursday Night Football.

And in college, Saturday is the norm, but you will often find the Mid-American Conference on Tuesdays, dubbed MACtion.

Wednesday is sitting over here, wondering, "What about me?"

Well, if you enjoy watching football on a nightly basis, then the first week of the high school season is for you. City and area teams will open the 2022 campaign this week with games on Thursday, Friday and even Saturday − a delicious Pigskin feast to kick off the year.

Which means the Enquirer Pigskin Pickers are putting in some overtime this week after a lazy summer.

One of the best games of the year gets things started on Thursday with city rivals Lakeview and Harper Creek battling. C.W. Post Field will turn on the lights on Friday with Battle Creek Central hosting Byron Center. And the old field will be extra busy this week with a Saturday night affair with St. Philip hosting one of the top teams in 8-player football in Colon.

MORE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL:

2022 City/Area Football Schedules

Lakeview Football Season Preview

Area Football Preview: Marshall, Coldwater, Olivet and more

Harper Creek Football Season Preview

Battle Creek Central Football Season Preview

Pennfield Football Season Preview

St. Philip Football Season Preview

And we are here to tell readers who are going to win all of those games.

Now, can we predict that those predictions will be correct? Nope, but we are going to give it our best shot for another season with a column full of predictions that offer more than just the final score.

Which leads us to our first week of the Enquirer’s Pigskin Picks for 2022 as myself and Nick Buckley try to take all the info we have learned from the preseason and predict some winners for Week 1.

Lakeview at Harper Creek

Since we were thinking about this game really early, we started looking at the city matchup back in the spring. At that point, the master Michigan High School Athletic Association schedule had Lakeview hosting. But if you are sitting at Lakeview's field this week, waiting for a game, all you are going to see are bulldozers and dirt because the Spartans' new $2 million football facility is still being installed. With the game switched to Harper Creek for a second year in a row, Lakeview will be hoping for a second straight road win in the series. If you flip to the front of the Enquirer sports section today, you will also see that we think these are, arguably, the two best teams in the area − ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in our preseason E-10 poll. This Thursday night showcase will get the season off to a great start and it likely will go down to the fourth quarter before it is decided in this heated rivalry. The pick here by myself and Mr. Buckley could also set the tone for our Enquirer sports writer rivalry as well, as we don't take these predictions lightly.

Broderick: Lakeview 28, Harper Creek 22

Buckley: Lakeview 30, Harper Creek 28

Byron Center at Battle Creek Central

After, what we expect to be some fireworks on Thursday, the hope is that there will be even more excitement in the traditional Friday opener for Battle Creek Central. The Bearcats are going out of conference to face Byron Center, which hasn't played in the Battle Creek area since facing Harper Creek in the 2011 playoffs. However, don't expect Byron Center to get lost coming down South as the Bulldogs coach Marc Cisco knows all about Battle Creek and historic C.W. Post Field, as he coached at Lakeview in 2001-02. Your Enquirer Pigskin Pickers know all about how BCC often pulls off an early season upset as the Bearcats surprised with a win over Portage Northern a year ago. One of us thinks that could happen again as Buckley is calling this his "Upset Special." However, he might only be upset because he will be trailing yours truly in the standings after the first week of the picks.

Broderick: Byron Center 22, BCC 16

Buckley: BCC 21, Byron Center 14

Colon at St. Philip

A Saturday night special for high school football fans in the opening week, which is a rarity considering many teams will be playing the following Thursday ahead of Labor Day weekend. That short week for both St. Philip and Colon will come after a long summer, which just became longer as these two teams will watch the entire area play football Thursday and Friday as they wait for their kickoff. Maybe that long wait was set up to freeze Colon, get the Magi antsy waiting around to play (or more likely, the stadium wasn't available as BCC was playing Friday). St. Philip will need all the help it can get as the undermanned Tigers are facing a state championship-caliber team in their opener.

Another "Upset Special" for St. Philip grad, Mr. Buckley? I didn't think so.

Broderick: Colon 44, St. Philip 12

Buckley: Colon 50, St. Philip 30

Other Games:

Pennfield at Lakewood: Broderick - Lakewood 18, Pennfield 12; Buckley - Pennfield 24, Lakewood 20

Gull Lake at Marshall: Broderick - Marshall 23, Gull Lake 16; Buckley - Marshall 35, Gull Lake 28

2021 Record: Broderick - 41-14; Buckley - 33-22

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Picks: Three days of high school football highlights season kickoff