For those who were out and about this weekend (and first, a word of silence for my Missouri Tigers, who lost their perfect season in a Saturday night heartbreaker to Oklahoma State), there were a couple of notable games played a day later than usual.

First, Garces spoiled Highland's unbeaten year with a 34-14 romp that probably wasn't even as close as the score would tell you. And, down south, Bakersfield Christian put another hurting on an overmatched team, 49-15 over Sun Valley-Village Christian.

And with that, we're halfway through the high school football season. Pretty hard to believe, but it's time to gauge what we know.

— Since we're speaking of Bakersfield Christian, what do we know about the South Sequoia League, which finally gets into league play next week? For one, the Eagles have looked the most impressive of any league team, followed by Taft. Tehachapi is young and had injury problems but likely will be a factor at some point. And Arvin and Wasco are good enough to where I think there's not as much of a top-three, bottom-three dichotomy in that league as I did at first. In Round 1, your big game is Taft at Arvin. Big chance for both teams to get off on the right foot.

— Things took a turn for the logical this week. Teams we think are good (Bakersfield, Stockdale) didn't struggle or lose to teams we thought weren't at that level (Centennial, South), and the SEYL and SWYL races are finally starting to take some shape. In the SWYL, Stockdale is your team to beat, bona fide, thank you very much. The Mustangs have the pole position until someone knocks them from it. North also is 2-0 but seems too mistake-ridden and inconsistent to pull enough victories out like it did at Ridgeview, 13-8 on Julian Dean-Johnson's 35-yard run in the final 30 seconds. We know West is wildly inconsistent, and young Centennial and Frontier teams aren't ready to make that leap.

— As for the SEYL, Garces actually is the only 2-0 team after the Rams dominated Highland from start to finish Saturday after a blackout postponed the game Friday night. i have to admit, I didn't even feel in sync going to a game on a Saturday afternoon, so I thought one or both of the teams might not. That clearly was Highland, which never found any kind of rhythm on offense or defense. But take nothing away from Garces, which deserved to win the game no matter which day it was played on.

— That sets up a Garces-BHS showdown of sorts next week at 1-0 BHS (do the Drillers even play road games? That'll be four in a row at Griffith Field). I say "of sorts," because it's still early, and there's still a chance for 1-1 Liberty or Highland or even 0-1 Foothill to get back in the league race. But these two teams have each knocked off a fellow contender, and the winner of this game will have a clear advantage the rest of the way.

— Also a great win for Liberty, which, for the first time this season, bent but didn't break and was never threatened in a game it easily could have lost. Instead, the Patriots were 21-3 winners and have a great chance at finishing 7-3 after the 1-3 start. The biggest tests left are this week at Stockdale and games to end the year against Highland and Garces.

— A couple of teams nobody should be sleeping on: Golden Valley and Frontier. Realize that if either had won a close game in its league opener (the Bulldogs lost a last-minute affair to 2-0 Garces, the Titans' comeback came up short against 2-0 North), they would be the schools we'd all be talking about instead of the Rams and Stars. Up next is a home game for GVHS (3-0 under its new lights) against Highland. Frontier travels to Ridgeview.

— Unbelievably, the Central Section playoffs are only five short weeks away. That means it's certainly not too early to look ahead to some possible brackets. Consider these:
            - I'd say Clovis-Buchanan, Clovis West and Clovis East probably have a grip on the top three seeds in Division I, at least at this point. So guess what might come next? A 4-5 quarterfinal matchup between Stockdale and BHS? Wouldn't that be juicy. Of course, if Stockdale stays unbeaten, it might get into a 2 or 3 spot, and Fresno-Bullard is in the mix for a top-5 seed as well.
            - Before you think Bakersfield Christian, the only team to give Westlake Village-Oaks Christian even a remote test and maybe one of the better schools of its size in the whole state, is a shoo-in for the Division V section title, keep an eye on Corcoran. The Panthers are 5-0 and didn't allow a point until the fourth quarter of this week's 39-12 victory against Fowler, last year's D-V runner-up. Of course, Corcoran's five opponents are a combined 8-18, but Fowler was 4-0. If Eagles and Panthers collide in the D-V title game, it'll be a classic offense-vs-defense battle.
           - The Division II semifinals, barring any major upsets, will contain Fresno-Edison, Visalia-El Diamante and Tulare Union. So who'll be the fourth team to take its shot? Sanger? Garces? North? Someone we're not even thinking of? Seeding will have a lot to do with it.

A couple were mentioned above, so let's take at a few of next week's big games:

Liberty at Stockdale: If the Mustangs can find a way here, 10-0 is a real possibility
Garces at Bakersfield: Rams look to ratchet surprise level up a notch
North at West: It would be just like West to play great this week
Taft at Arvin: Bears have been battle-tested, but Taft is flat-out tough
Highland at Golden Valley: Tricky game for Scots, who need a rebound in a big way