The search for high school football games for 2024 began in November, said Julio Lopez, football coach at Eastwood High in El Paso.
“I talked to an agent and they wanted to get us a game against St. John Bosco or Mater Dei. But then the guy kind of ignored me,” Lopez said, laughing. “I started to get nervous because I was telling other schools that I had a game for (the weekend of Aug. 30).”
St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro was also looking for games.
“I thought, ‘You know what? What’s stopping me from reaching out to these schools myself?'” Lopez said.
And he did.
“I got an email in February from Eastwood High. A school I don’t know, but I called him,” Negro said. “We ended up talking for 30 minutes. Coach Lopez knew our program and wanted to challenge his players.”
“I love that mentality,” Negro added.
Eastwood, a 6A school from West Texas, will face national power St. John Bosco (1-0) on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Panish Family Stadium. Eastwood will play St. John Bosco again in 2025 to complete the two-year deal.
The Eastwood Troopers, who come from a school with an enrollment of 2,412 students, will board a bus at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night and travel about 800 miles overnight before arriving in Los Angeles around 11 a.m. Thursday, according to Lopez.
“We played at Southlake Carroll (a school in East Texas) last year, which is 600 miles away. This isn’t much different,” said Lopez, who expects 64 players to travel.
Lopez has been at the helm of Eastwood for 10 years, taking over the program at the tender age of 25. Since his arrival, the 6A program (the highest tier in Texas high school football) has made historic leaps and has every intention of making even more history.
“We want to be the first high school in El Paso to make it to the 6A state finals,” Lopez said. “No one has ever done that.”
He was close, though. The Troopers reached the last 16 in 2021. That was a first.
“To get deep into the playoffs here in Texas, you have to look for games that prepare you for the monster programs like Southlake Carroll, DeSoto or Duncanville. You also have to be prepared for the long trips,” Lopez said. “The game against St. John Bosco meets all of those criteria.”
Eastwood will be put to the test, that much is certain.
A quick search on 247Sports.com shows “no results found” for Eastwood’s search for top-ranked recruits in the class of 2025 or 2026. That could be problematic considering the Braves just pulled off a huge out-of-state win over nationally ranked Chaminade-Madonna of Florida.
First-year starter Matai Fuiava threw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns, and sophomore running back Maliq Blackwell-Allen rushed for 128 yards on 11 carries. On defense, St. John Bosco boasts Epi Sitanilei, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound senior lineman who has committed to UCLA.
The class of 2026 is full of talent, especially wideouts Daniel Odom and Madden Williams, corner Joshua Holland (USC) and edge rusher Dutch Horisk (Oregon).
Lopez highlighted senior defensive end/linebacker Konrad Joseph-Garcia, senior corner Jaydn Deal, junior wide receiver Jude Walker and slot Fabian Penaloza as Eastwood’s top playmakers.
Although the game on paper has all the makings of a one-sided outcome, St. John Bosco traveled to Hawaii last year and lost to Kahuku 30-23 in a national upset. Negro later praised Kahuku for its victory.
“Nobody in the country thought we would go to Hawaii and lose to Kahuku,” Negro said at the CIF Southern Section Sitdown in late October 2023. “But you know what happened? … Bosco lost. But that’s the beauty of high school sports … going out and playing against competitive opponents and not being afraid.”
“Kahuku was not afraid.”
Neither is Eastwood.
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