Morning Jolt (Sept. 10): Thursday night HS games to watch

[caption id="attachment_18413" align="alignleft" width="300"]Photo by Christopher Farias Photo by Christopher Farias[/caption] This is the Morning Jolt, TexasFootball.com’s wake-up call to get up and start thinking about football. It's Thursday, which means the high school football weekend kicks off tonight with dozens of games across the state! Here are a few Thursday night games that we've got our eye on tonight. Denton Ryan (2-0) at Wylie East (2-0), 7 p.m. at Wylie ISD Stadium Talk about star power. Between Ryan's dual-threat QB Spencer Sanders and Wylie East's running back sensation Eno Benjamin — fresh off a 265-yard, 4-touchdown performance against Mesquite Poteet — there should be some fireworks in this one. Expect this game to come down to defense, where Ryan may have a very slight edge. Tepper's pick: Wylie EastRound Rock Cedar Ridge (2-0) at Killeen Shoemaker (2-0), 7 p.m. at Killeen's Leo Buckley Stadium On the other side of the coin, you have this matchup between teams that have combined to average just barely more than 11 points per game. Shoemaker's got LB Sir Darren Duncan and dominating rush end Rahssan Thornton; Cedar Ridge features explosive safety Ian Peterson and LB Connor Kaup. It's not an overstatement to say that 20 points may win this game. Tepper's pick: Killeen ShoemakerHarlingen (0-1) at McAllen (1-1), 7 p.m. at McAllen Memorial Stadium The RGV will be rocking tonight when two of the region's preeminent programs square off in the Valley's largest stadium (McAllen Memorial seats 13,500, and it's likely to be full). The biggest question in this one is, who's going to play defense? Both teams have weapons — Harlingen's Leo Tienda may be the Valley's best running back this side of Trevor Speights, and McAllen has young stars at quarterback and running back in Caleb Youngblood and Josh McGowen, respectively — but both have had their ups and downs defensively. Whose defense shows up tonight? Tepper's pick: Harlingen