The oldest rivalry in Orange County football will be renewed Thursday night when Fullerton plays Anaheim at Glover Stadium.
The teams first met in 1900 and have played each other 66 times with Fullerton leading the series 39-24. Fullerton won the last game between the two teams 48-7 in 2013.
Anaheim coach Gus Martinez previously was the head coach at Fullerton, from 2013-2018, and led the Indians to a 10-3 record in his first season and a CIF-SS semifinals appearance. He was the coach at Fullerton the last time the Indians played Anaheim.
Martinez led Anaheim to a Tango League championship in his first season as the team’s head coach in 2024 and reached the Division 13 semifinals, but the team graduated 26 seniors.
Junior quarterback Jacob Campos started that semifinal game and is back as the team’s starting quarterback. Two-way lineman Joshua Meza was all-league last season and is expected to be a top player this season.
(Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)
Fullerton was winless in 2024 and hired former OC Register Coach of the Year Pete Karavedas as its head coach. Karavedas led Sunny Hills to a CIF-SS Division 8 championship in 2019.
Linebacker Wilson Aldana led the team in tackles last season and is back with two-way starter Caden Wise. Fullerton has two big tackles bookending the offensive line: Maeson Washington (6-5, 285) and Logan Vasquez (6-6, 290).
Fullerton plays in the Lambda League, which is a higher-ranked league than the Tango League that Anaheim won last season. Anaheim beat two teams from higher-ranked leagues last season and doesn’t shy away from playing tough competition.
Crosstown rivalry
For years, all of the Irvine schools played together in the Pacific Coast Conference and were almost guaranteed to play each other each season.
Northwood and Irvine have been two of the top Irvine area schools over the past 10 years and have played each other at least once every season since 2006. Irvine is 12-7 against Northwood during that span, but the Timberwolves beat Irvine 20-8 last season.
The Timberwolves have a new coach, Erik Terry, who was the head coach at Irvine for nine seasons, from 2010-2018. Terry was an assistant coach at Nipomo High and Mission College Prep for five years before becoming the athletic director at Northwood in 2024.
Northwood won back-to-back CIF championships in 2022-23, and then head coach JC Clarke decided to step back to become an assistant coach after last season. That opened the door for Terry to become a head coach again.
Irvine head coach Tom Ricci has taken the Vaqueros to the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and has won three league championships since arriving at Irvine in 2019.
The Vaqueros ran for 1,672 yards last season and junior Seamus Hoffman is expected to be the featured running back this season. Quarterback and linebacker Sina Saferzadeh was all-league last season as a linebacker and Smith Spivey also earned all-league honors.
Northwood has a lot of new faces on offense, including sophomore quarterback Dylan D’Epifanio who was a standout at Crean Lutheran last season. The Timberwolves return six starters on defense and lineman Jacob Harper earned first-team All-Foxtrot League honors as a sophomore last season.
Youth movement
Two of the younger head coaches in Orange County will face each other Friday night when Woodbridge plays Calvary Chapel.
Woodbridge hired its former star running back, Connor McBride, as its new head coach. He is 27 years old and the youngest head coach in Orange County.
McBride in his own words said he is as Woodbridge as it gets. “This is truly my dream job,” McBride said. “Both of my parents went to Woodbridge along with almost all of my relatives. I am as Woodbridge as one can be.”
The coaching staff at Woodbridge is entirely made up of either former Woodbridge players, or coaches who have been with the program for over 30 years.
Calvary Chapel coach Jack McInally is 30 years old and one of the younger coaches in the county. Last season, McInally led the Eagles to their first playoff appearance since 2019.
The Eagles feature Jorge Brito as their leading receiver and Waldo Castrejon, who plays running back and linebacker.
Woodbridge will rely on running back Kayjahn Pitts to be the workhorse of the offense and linebacker David Bosley leads the defense.
Another fun wrinkle in this matchup is a reunion of sorts between the two young coaches. McInally was the offensive coordinator for the South team in the OC All Star game in 2017 when he was a coach at Brethren Christian. One of the running backs on that all-star team was McBride.
Fryer on Football: Previews and predictions for Week 0’s top games
Video: Steve Fryer and Dan Albano make their Week 0 football predictions