The KHTS high school football Game of the Week broadcast brings you Saugus vs Hart in the Foothill League season opener at College of the Canyons, tonight. The Vargo Physical Therapy Pregame show begins at 7:15 with kickoff at 7:30.

The Centurions and Indians meet for their annual showdown, this time to start the league season (they closed the season in 2017). With new starting quarterbacks this season, this rivalry turns a new chapter, yet the same question has remained for the past nine years: which of these two teams will emerge as a serious challenger to Valencia in the Foothill League? Or is this match-up simply to determine second place? This is the first of five tests for these teams, and it is an incredibly important one.

What’s more, these two teams appear evenly matched on paper.

Related story: Foothill League Preview Show

Saugus comes into this game off its bye week with a 4-1 record, the lone loss on the road at Division 2 St. Francis, 17-13. The Centurions mounted a late comeback in that game but ran out of time. Confidence should be pretty high for head coach Jason Bornn’s team.

Offensively, senior quarterback Cole Gallagher leads the league with 18 total touchdowns. The Centurions were putting up a ton of points before the 13 at St. Francis, and average 44 per game. That’s good for a full three touchdowns more per game than at this point last season (23). Though the offense doesn’t have the feature running back it did last year with Quinn Sheaffer, it is improve with Gallagher under center; Reid Huseman has filled in with 4.7 yards per carry as the lead back in 2018.

Hart’s confidence will be all the way up as well after dominating Ventura last week, 38-7. Mike Herrington’s group is 3-2 but could easily be 4-1 had they not run out of time in a 39-36 loss to St. Bonaventure.

A bigger surprise than Gallagher’s success may be the rise of Hart junior quarterback Zach Johnson. Johnson had a rough game in his first career start, throwing for no touchdowns and an interception. In the four games since, he’s completing over 64% of his passes with 14 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He’s tied with West Ranch’s Ryan Camacho for second in total touchdowns with 16. Doing it on a team with a little under 30 players dressing every Friday is quite an accomplishment.

Both of these offenses are operating at a high level, and both defenses have question marks. Saugus has only seen a playmaker at QB once this season, and it didn’t pass the test. Hart has shown vulnerability in its run defense which has set up opposing offense’s passing attack.

This game has the makings of a shootout. The last team with the ball usually wins these ones.

Find out tonight and listen live on KHTS Radio FM 98.1 to Barry McKeever and Kyle Jellings on the call, with Justin Powell anchoring coverage from the KHTS Studios.

Friday’s schedule

Saugus (4-1) vs Hart (3-2) at 7:30

Valencia (2-3) vs Canyon (2-3) at 7:00

Golden Valley (1-4) vs West Ranch (5-0) at 7:00

Santa Clarita Christian (4-1) vs Rancho Christian (1-4) at 7:00

Calvary Chapel Christian (3-0) vs Trinity Classical Academy (2-3) at 7:00

KHTS Sports is your source for the 2017 Santa Clarita high school football season and your daily Dodgers update. If you have any news and notes about our teams and players to share please send them to jp@hometownstation.com, like us on facebook.com/khtssports and follow us @KHTSSports on Twitter and Instagram.