The must-see Thursday night games for Week 1 of the Texas high school football season

It’s been 258 days since Lake Travis claimed its sixth state championship with a 41-13 win over The Woodlands in the last game of the 2016 Texas high school football season. After eight months of waiting, regular season football is finally back. Here are five intriguing games around the state as the 2017 season gets underway tonight. Guyer vs. Lake Ridge The Wildcats and Eagles will square off at Vernon Newsom Stadium in the only matchup of ranked teams Thursday night – Guyer is No. 25 in the TexasFootball.com Class 6A rankings while Lake Ridge comes in at No. 17 in Class 5A. The teams combined to score 90 points in their meeting last season – one that Guyer ran away with in the second half after getting off to a slow start. The Eagles have two top-notch quarterbacks likely to see playing time in North Texas commit Jason Bean and junior Chandler Rodgers, while Guyer will feed sophomore Kaedric Cobbs and junior Devin Jefferson early and often with TCU offensive line commit John Lanz leading the way in the run game. Churchill vs. Clark What better way to kickoff a new season than with an annual rivalry game dubbed “The Gucci Bowl”? This year marks the 37th meeting between the two schools as the teams again face off in one of the best-named series in Texas. Churchill has won seven straight against Clark and will again enter as the favorite, but the teams return similar levels of experience to the field – 12 returning starters for Clark and 11 for Churchill. RB Diego Vela will power the Churchill offense while Baylor TE commit Ben Sims sets the tone for Clark. Is this the year Clark is able to get back on track, or will Churchill extend the streak? Dallas Carter vs. Carrollton Newman Smith If you’re looking to see some top talent Thursday night, Standridge Stadium in Carrollton is the place to be. Carter DE Jarrell Cherry is the best player in the state taking the field on the first day of the season, and the LSU commit will be looking to lead Carter to another win over Smith to start the season, despite there being a gap in classification between the two schools. Hebron vs. Plano Plano beat Hebron handily in a 38-7 romp last season, but the Hawks went on to go two rounds deep in the playoffs while the Wildcats finished at 4-6. Hebron returns nine starters from a talented offense, including Kansas QB commit Clayton Tune and BYU WR commit Jaren Mitchell. Hebron is favored largely due to the explosiveness that potent duo brings to the table. Misson Memorial vs. Harlingen This game offers a clash of 2016 playoff teams from different classifications. Memorial went three rounds deep in Class 5A last year while Harlingen advanced to the area round of the Class 6A playoffs. The Cardinals asserted their dominance in a 44-14 win to open last season, but Memorial QB Landry Gilpin has the talent to make things a little more interesting this time around.