Published: 8/30/2016 2:13:10 AM

It feels good to be back covering high school football.

The opening weekend of the season is so much fun to watch, feel, and participate in. There is so much anticipation in the air, with everyone hoping that this is their year. The best part? There is always at least one upset or one team that, all of a sudden, everyone is talking about at the end of the week.

Every week during football season, my plan is to give you a rundown of what happened over the weekend in high school football in eastern Idaho while adding my own thoughts on each game.

Here we go with the first edition in 2016 of 'The Friday Night Flashback'.

Good start to the season for the Bees. Taycen Handy made his presence felt, collecting two touchdowns and two interceptions for Bonneville. The Bees' second quarter is what really helped them out, scoring 21 points in that frame alone. Idaho Falls quarterback is young but showed that he has great potential, passing for 175 yards. The Tigers are a young team overall and will take their lumps, but they are showing promise.

My jaw about hit the floor when I saw that score come through on Friday night. Not because I expected Madison to struggle this year, but replacing as many talented seniors from last season as they did is not an easy task. Madison ran right OVER the Timberwolves to the tune of 227 yards rushing. Devin Berry had a nice debut, notching 167 yards through the air and four passing TD's. Forcing turnovers early on certainly helped the Bobcats cause. As for Lake City... well, it's back to the drawing board.

The Grizzlies and Knights combined for 33 points in the first quarter in a dizzying flurry, with Hillcrest leading after the first frame. Skyline composed themselves and scored 32 unanswered after that. The trio of Bridger Taylor, Carson Lott, and David Ames III will be very fun to watch this season in the Grizzlies offense. Hillcrest has potential and they are just finding out their strengths and weaknesses. I wonder for how long they can play multiple quarterbacks throughout the course of a game - Dalton Clark had the most time under center for the Knights. Hillcrest is young, but the future looks good.

The one disadvantage that the Trojans had coming into this game is that Syracuse had already played a game and had an opportunity to correct mistakes. For Rigby, they were debuting new skill players on offense and defense... and it showed. The Trojans played much better in the second half against Syracuse and new quarterback Tanner Clayton was much more calm and poised in the pocket. Lots of work to do still, but they did show flashes of brilliance on Saturday afternoon.

If you weren't at Holt Arena on Saturday night to watch this one, boy you missed out. It was like watching two heavyweight prize fighters throwing haymakers in the 15th round. Lewiston has some incredible players and should definitely be voted into the Top 5 in the media poll this week. Colton Richardson went off for 543 yards passing and five touchdowns - against Highland's very talented and well coached defense. That's impressive. The Bengals had several players play both ways and they looked a bit tired down the stretch... I'm curious how that will affect them, if at all, during the rest of the season. As for Highland, all of the questions about the offense need to be put to bed. The offense is FINE. The offensive line was STELLAR on Saturday night. Payton McCarthy did a good job directing the offense (with 391 yards passing) and Jake Sorensen was a beast in the ground game. The defense sure could use Boise State commit Aisa Kelemete back in the lineup at defensive end... his absence was felt.

This rivalry hadn't been played since 2012, but the community sure enjoyed it. Blackfoot had ran away with the game by the third quarter and looked good overall, including Pacen Hayes and Jager Leavitt. Snake River fought hard until the end, but you can't fault them - smaller school, losing most everyone from last year, and only having had your new head coach in place for less than a month. The Panthers will get better as time goes on. I wonder how this game would have turned out had it been between the 2014 state runner-up Blackfoot squad and the 2014 state champion Snake River team... THAT would've been an intense game.

According to the Idaho State Journal, the Diamondbacks lost 86% of their offense from last season due to graduation. They then also lost starting quarterback Blaize Trulson to injury before this game. Not exactly how you want to start the season, but Century battled hard with the defense leading the way. There will be a lot of growing pains this season at Century with many new starters. Burley struggled and will need to regroup quickly.

The offense was there in abundance on Friday night in Hailey. Poky's Will Schumber had a fantastic performance, with nearly 300 yards passing and five touchdowns. The Indians went for the win in overtime by going for two, but came up short. Can't fault them for wanting to win it. Wood River should be the team that everyone in the Great Basin West Conference is worried about - they've got some excellent skill on their squad.

The Indians snapped their nearly 2-year long losing streak against Ogden. Junior quarterback Britten Atkinson played well, tossing three touchdowns in the second quarter alone. Ogden is by no means a strong team (they left their conference in Utah to become an independent in football), but Preston has to start somewhere. The only way for them to go is upward, but this game should help build their confidence.

If you like smash mouth football, this was the game for you as there were only seven completed passes total. Aberdeen's Rivin Mack showed he was ready to take on a large load in the run game, gaining 177 yards on 14 carries with three touchdowns. American Falls' Luis Cervantes had a nice night with 143 yards rushing on 17 carries. The Beavers are much improved from this time last season.

I don't want to hear anyone say that these two teams are 'down' or are 'unimpressive'. Why? Because these two teams stand a good chance to be in the mix deep into the playoffs. It was a classic first-game-get-the-jitters-out-and-struggle-against-a-quality-opponent contest. The trio of Dylan Pope, Colby Ingram, and Jaron Rose led the way for Sugar in the rushing attack, while Garrett Darrington, Wyatt Homer, and Keegan Duncan led out for Declo on the ground. You'll be hearing those names a lot more in the future.

This was a VERY anticipated matchup - mainly because of the controversy surrounding the ending last season. South got their revenge though, beating Gooding by 1. South's Reece Yancey had four touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns - a dang good varsity debut. The Cougars need to work on their run game overall as they had only 89 yards on 33 attempts. Gooding will be a force once again in District 4. They would have to meet in the state championship to play again this season... but wouldn't that be a blast?

After years of being the doormat in District 4, Filer came out swinging and won their opener albeit against a school much smaller than them. The Wildcats program is looking upward for sure. As for North Fremont, they had a chance to win but the clock ran out before they could deal the final blow. Bobby Bell had a nice outing with 88 rushing yards on 16 attempts for the Huskies. Some injuries to starters didn't help North's cause, but it's on to the next one now.

Good start for the Doug Armstrong era at Marsh Valley. Posting 30 points in the debut of a new offense is certainly encouraging (and on the road to boot). Malad is implementing a new defense under Rick Driessen and struggled in this one. Their offense will need to come together in practice this week - or it could be a long season.

This was a close game last season - a one-point win for Teton, in fact. This time around, Brody Birch's crew blew the doors off of this game and sent the Broncs sailing back across the Teton's. The Redskins break in a lot of new players this year, but seem to have gelled and are playing well early on - the key is to keep that up all season long, especially in the crazy-competitive Mountain Rivers Conference.

The start wasn't great, but the end result was good. Shelley's Bryon Leckington's pass on the first play on offense of the season went for an interception... then the Russets fumbled the ball away on a silly lateral attempt that never should have happened. But, from the second quarter on, Shelley established their dominance and took it to Snow Canyon. The Russets are back to passing more this season after running the ball quite a bit last year - we'll see if that balance helps propel them forward.

A win is a win and in a rebuilding program like Ririe, you'll take it even against a JV team. While the Bulldogs aren't projected to make it to state, they have a favorable enough schedule to help get some wins and build their confidence. 

This was a bit of a shocker. Most of the games between these two teams are close, drag-you-down and slug-it-out slobberknockers. Not this time - Firth took it to West Side early and beat them up and down the field. It's a good sign for Firth early on. West Side's coaches say that they typically start the season slow and that they are going to be down this year... well, they've said that before and still won their conference title. But this game really exposed the youth of West Side. They'll have to mature quickly.

The Panthers and their double wing offense mauled Soda Springs. West Jefferson has some of the biggest linemen at the 2A classification and that will be an asset for them down the stretch - especially if they can stay healthy. I wasn't sure where the offense was going to come from for Soda Springs prior to this game and I still don't have the answer to that afterwards. Could be a long season in Soda.

Soda Springs next game: vs. Firth on Sept. 2

Rich (UT) 2, Bear Lake 0
I had to do a double take on this score when it came through - normally when you see a 2-0 score, it means there was a forfeit. Not this time around however. The only score in this heavy-defensive battle was Rich sacking Bear Lake in the endzone for a safety. Rich is a traditional power in Utah 1A football. Bear Lake doesn't have much football success historically but watch out for the Bears - they could have a breakout year this season despite their unusual loss this weekend.
Bear Lake's next game: vs. South Fremont on Sept. 9 

Hamilton (MT) 49, Salmon 0
For four straight seasons, Salmon has played Hamilton to open up the season. And for four straight seasons, Salmon has been blown out by at least 22 points in those contests. Fortunately for the Savages, they get an extra week to regroup and figure out what went wrong.
Salmon's next game: vs. Cole Valley on Sept. 9

Great win for a great group of kids in Challis. After enduring a winless season last year, the Vikings open up with a good win at a solid 1AD2 team in Carey. Tristan Stillwaugh was the key cog in the offense, rushing for 180 yards in the win. Pete Bradshaw played well with 117 rushing yards. It's only one game, but the results of offseason work are paying off already in Challis. Carey is young and has some work to do themselves in the Sawtooth West Conference.

The Pirates rallied but ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. Brett Waymire had a solid outing with 108 yards rushing on 9 attempts and 148 yards passing too. Grace passed their early test and got used to not having last year's key guys in there. Consistency will be key for them in the extremely tough Snake River Conference.

Raft River is a presumptive favorite to win it all in 1A Division-I this year. North Gem is expected to compete for a playoff berth in 1A Division-II. I don't think anyone picked North Gem to beat Raft River, so this outcome isn't surprising at all.

The Blue Devils have had a good amount of success in football in recent seasons and that hasn't changed this year it appears. Rockland's losing streak has hit double-digits at 10, dating back to the last game of the 2014 season. New head coach Andy Nelson has a big rebuilding process ahead of him.

Rockland's next game: vs. Richfield on Sept. 2

Clark County 2, Richfield 0
This game was forfeited by Richfield as the only have 10 players total and didn't have enough healthy players to start the game. Disappointing if you're a Clark County fan or player - especially with the build up to opening week of the season. They originally weren't scheduled to have a game this weekend, but when Watersprings cancelled on Dietrich because of lack of healthy players, it just made sense for Clark County and Dietrich to square off in what should be a fun game on Thursday night.
Clark County's next game: vs. Dietrich on Sept. 1 (will be streamed live on IdahoSports.com)
Richfield's next game: at Rockland on Sept. 2