When you play a football season, teams focus on one game at a time.
But, as focused as a team can be, it's impossible not to look ahead at times and circle the calendar.
For local high school football fans, it is easy for us to jump ahead and circle the calendars for certain games.
I had one last week with the De La Salle at San Ramon Valley game and it didn't disappoint, with the Wolves taking the Spartans to the limit before falling 33-27 in overtime.
This week had another circle on the calendar as Amador Valley travels to Granada.
Before the season started, I had the Mats and the Dons as the top two teams in the East Bay Athletic League Valley Division. And through the first two weeks of the league season, it certainly has shaken out that way.
Granada sits 6-2 overall and 2-0 in league. Amador is 5-2 and 2-0. They have the two most explosive offenses, with the winner all but locking up the Valley title midway through the league.
But there is one more thing that makes this an explosive game: The Granada transfers that went to Amador.
The Matadors have highly touted quarterback senior Quinn Boyd leading the way. He's got a great arm and has gotten a lot of deserving looks from Division I college football programs.
But there was another pretty good quarterback at Granada in junior Tristan Tia. With Boyd entrenched as the starter, Tia had two options -- play behind Boyd this season and then take the starting job as a senior, or transfer.
Tia, along with his cousin Paul Tia, took the latter and enrolled at Amador last spring. Due to horribly inconsistent transfer rules, the duo had to sit the first five games of the season.
Even with a sophomore at quarterback, the Dons played well enough to go 3-2 -- including a 41-34 win over Monte Vista, a team that beat Granada 42-3.
Since the Tias have been eligible, it's been full steam ahead as a dynamic passing game has emerged. The Dons have beaten Dougherty Valley 70-0 and Livermore 42-7.
Granada beat a good Dublin side 21-14, then Dougherty Valley 42-7.
This all takes us to Friday night (Oct. 20). How does it shake out? That remains to be seen, but be sure of one thing: footballs will be filling the skies!
Foothill girls' volleyball
The Falcons ran off two more wins, clinching no less than a co-title and the No. 1 seed of the Valley Division for the EBAL playoffs.
The first game of the week -- Foothill Senior Night -- saw a 25-20, 25-14, 25-15 win over Granada.
All six of the Foothill seniors started, and all six had an impact on the game.
The highlights came from Paige Bennett (co-captain), Katie Salonga (co-captain), Nisa Kincaid, Maisha Sharma, Maddy Snodgress and Ema Vukojevic.
The second match of the week was a 25-14, 25-17, 25-11 win over Dougherty Valley as the Falcons ran their record to 30-1 on the season.
Highlights were provided by Kaycie Burdick (8 service points, 7 kills), Lulu Hoenninger (5 blocks, 2 kills) and Kait Vogel (7 digs, 6 service points).
Amador Valley girls' water polo
The Dons got seven goals from Susan Swyers on the way to a 14-5 win over Dublin last week. Abigail Jones had three goals, with Kate Hopkins, Olivia Vollgraf, Zahra Alami and Clare Kunich adding one each.
Goalie Deepika Suresh had seven saves for the Dons.
Amador girls' tennis
The Dons pulled out a pair of wins last week, shutting out Granada 9-0 and then easily scooting by San Ramon by a 7-2 final.
In the win over San Ramon Valley the wins came from Montana Parkinson-Lubold, Vedika Gowda, Neha Reddy, Aashvi Geddam and Megha Reddy in singles.
Alayna West and Bella Cheng took their doubles match, as did the team of Avital Belau and Rhea Anand.
Against Granada the Dons were perfect, winning all nine matches.
Parkinson-Lubold, Gowda, Geddam, Megha Reddy, Chloe Fan and Lanie Win swept the singles. In doubles, the teams of Neha Reddy/Deshpande, Ella Kuipers/Cheng and Belau/Priscilla Lam won their matches.
Editor's note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
