UPDATE, 12:13 a.m.: And I thought the football season was crazy before tonight. We had a fitting Halloween for Week 8, with the biggest upset this year to date — Golden Valley over Bakersfield — and a couple of other interesting results. All the available scores are below, and I'll continue to update as the weekend goes along. Here we go:

Golden Valley 23, Bakersfield 14: Byron Newman went off on the BHS defense, rushing for about 300 yards and three touchdowns on a Drillers unit that hadn't been touched in the past three weeks. I'm really speechless about this one. Obviously, the Bulldogs played exceptionally well and came up with a huge victory, but I really thought BHS was ready to roll into the playoffs. Instead, it'll likely have to split a league title with Liberty, a 48-14 victor against East.
I don't know what to say about the Division I playoffs now. Clovis-Buchanan, my favorite coming into the night, needed everything it had just to get by 1-6 Clovis, and BHS obviously has issues. Clovis West or Clovis East? They played an apparently sloppy game won by the Golden Eagles. Call them your favorite for now, I guess.

Stockdale 44, North 14: Didn't want to take the luster off this one, which the Mustangs dominated from the get-go. Actually, "dominated" probably is the wrong word. North could have hung with Stockdale, if it had held on to the ball first. The Stars fumbled four times, plus had a bad punt snap go out of the end zone for a safety. Now the teams are virtually tied atop the SWYL, with North at 4-1 in the league and Stockdale at 3-1. North plays resurgent Centennial next week, and Stockdale has games left with Frontier and West, two two-loss teams that still have a say in the league race.

Tehachapi 41, Taft 13: A statement win from the Warriors puts them at 2-1 in the SSL. The real winner here might be Bakersfield Christian, which pounded Shafter 56-7 and went to 3-0 in the league. The Eagles' 40-35 victory against Tehachapi last week now looks even more important, theough BCHS still has to travel to Taft in Week 10.

Foothill 24, Highland 2: A defensive domination here, with the 6-1 Scots held to just 48 rushing yards. That's not like a Tim Hartnett team, but give the Trojans credit. They're looking at a suddenly big finish against Garces and Golden Valley, both games to keep an eye on.

West 31, Garces 14: Have the Vikings found themselves, at long last? This result sure speaks volumes for a team that has lost to North but could still win a share of the league title if the Stars stumble at Centennial next week and West wins out against South and Stockdale.

Tulare Union 54, Delano 16: Turns out the Redskins are indeed on a different level. That's what we thought, but it's nice to have confirmation.

Centennial 37, Ridgeview 30: I mention this one because of a great comeback from the Golden Hawks, who scored the game's last 27 points, and because Cody Kessler, a sophomore QB, threw for 272 yards and four touchdowns. Two of them were to Bryan Maxwell, a senior who was playing his first game after suffering from Valley Fever for the first few months of the season.

UPDATE, 9:40 p.m.: Bigtime upset in the making at Golden Valley, where the Bulldogs are up 23-14 on Bakersfield High late in the third quarter. Something certainly worth kieeping an eye on. Here, it's 44-14 Stockdale with about five minutes to play.

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: Halftime here. North drove inside the Stockdale 25 with about a minute to play and a couple of timeouts in its pocket, only to fumble the ball away for the fourth time. That's pretty much been the story of the first half. North has been outplayed and has compounded that with a bunch of mistakes. Meanwhile, Stockdale clearly came ready to wipe away the memory of losses the past two weeks.
At halftime, Stephen Silva has rushed 12 times for 129 yards and a long touchdown (what concussion?) and Malik Henderson has 22 yards and two scores rushing. For North, Julian Dean-Johnson has 98 yards and Seth Vlach 77 with a touchdown, but they've each fumbled once, as have Kameron Bailey and quarterback Juan Rodriquez.
Elsewhere Delano hasn't stayed with Tulare Union and is down 40-3 late in the first half, and East is down 48-0 to Liberty with three minutes till the break. Foothill has an impressive 17-0 lead on East at the half.

UPDATE, 8:28 p.m.: It's taken only a couple of plays for things to go completely awry for North at home. Stockdale scored on a 66-yard touchdown run by Stephen Silva to extend the lead to 23-7, then forced a fumble on North's third play and used just one play again to score on a 44-yard TD pass from Efren Venegas to Chris Bowie. It's 30-7, and North's Wing T is not a comeback-compatible offense.

UPDATE, 8:19 p.m.: A second touchdown run for Malik Henderson has given Stockdale complete control of this game early. Credit the Mustangs for getting out of the gate quickly in a crucial game. North was driving down 9-0, but three fumbles on three consecutive plays left the ball in Stockdale's hands near midfield. The Mustangs then took about five minutes off the clock in a methodical drive that just ended, making it 16-0.
And, just a couple of minutes later, a crucial response from North. Julian Dean-Johnson's 45-yard scamper put the ball on the Stockdale 15, and Seth Vlach finished things up with a 6-yard TD run on fourth-and-1. It's 16-7, Stockdale.

UPDATE, 7:55 p.m.: I said this might be a battle of mistakes, and North has definitely blinked first. After a three-and-out on their first possession, the Stars snapped the ball over the punter's head and out the back of the end zone for a safety and a 9-0 Stockdale lead. Not the way you wanted to start one of the biggest games in recent school history, but North appears to have recovered. Stockdale's ensuing drive has stalled, and the Stars are getting the ball back, though they're backed up on their own 3.

UPDATE, 7:44 p.m.: Well, that didn't take long. Stockdale marches 55 yards in five plays, all runs, to take a 7-0 lead just 1:10 into the game. Time for the Stars to respond.

UPDATE, 7:38 p.m.: First order of business here from North — Stephen Silva is back to return the opening kickoff for Stockdale, which is good news for Mustangs fans. Silva has missed the last seven quarters with a concussion. Still no word on Emmanuel Ossai, who has been out about the same amount of time with a leg injury.

ORIGINAL POST: Some good news to pass along to Central Valley football fans — Pat Su'a, a linebacker at Highland worth the price of admission, is continuing a Kern-to-Fresno pipeline. He announced last week that he's verbally committed to be a Bulldog, Highland coach Tim Hartnett said.

Su'a is a beast. He'll need to put on a little weight to be successful at the D-I level, methinks, but that shouldn't be too hard with a redshirt year. Or, as I was discussing with some co-workers last night, he could drop back and be a sort of nickelback, floating around and making plays a la Brian Urlacher at New Mexico in the 1990s. That's obviously an upward comparison, but I really do think Su'a has the skills to be a standout in the WAC.

Back to the high school gridiron, where we might have some non-heat-related weather issues for the first time this season tonight. Keep the refresh button going here as I'll do my best to update scores and live updates/analysis from the Stockdale-North game.

Oh, and for the record, I updated the Week 8 predictions with a couple of Saturday games I initially missed: Mojave at Claremont-Webb and Immanuel Christian at Big Pine.

(Central Section ranking is in parentheses; all games 7:30 Friday unless noted)

Kern County scores
Porterville 35, Chavez 12 (Thursday)
Golden Valley 23, (5) Bakersfield 14
(8) Tulare Union 54, Delano 16
(11) Liberty 48, East 14
(12) Bakersfield Christian 56, Shafter 7
(13) Stockdale 44, (15) North 14
Tehachapi 41, Taft 13
Foothill 24, Highland 2
West 31, Garces 14
South 39, Frontier 30
Centennial 37, Ridgeview 30
Arvin 21, Wasco 15
McFarland 26, Laton 19
Desert 28, Rosamond 16
Bishop 35, Kern Valley 7
Big Pine 52, Immanuel Christian 6 (Saturday)
Mojave 17, Claremont-Webb 0 (Saturday)
Frazier Mountain 18, Malibu 17 (Saturday)
Lighthouse Christian 49, Coalinga-Faith Christian 14 (Saturday)
Cuyama Valley 46, Maricopa 0 (Saturday)

Other Central Section scores
(10) Exeter 42, Coalinga 14 (Thursday)
Fresno 7, Madera South 0 (Thursday)
Fresno-Sunnyside 51, Fresno-McLane 6 (Thursday)
(1) Fresno-Edison 47, Fresno-Hoover 15
(2) Clovis-Buchanan 19, Clovis 17
(3) Clovis West 19, (6) Clovis East 14
(4) Fresno-Bullard 28, Sanger 21
(7) Visalia-El Diamante 48, Visalia-Redwood 15
(9) Hanford 38, Visalia-Mt. Whitney 13
(14) Corcoran 21, Lindsay 20
Mendota 34, Avenal 6
Visalia-Central Valley Christian 13, Dinuba 6
Chowchilla 26, Fresno-Washington Union 0
Oakhurst-Yosemite 42, Dos Palos 12
Parlier 2, Fresno Christian 0 (forfeit)
Visalia-Golden West 49, Hanford West 27
Selma 38, Reedley-Immanuel 0
Orange Cove 67, Lemoore-Kings Christian 18
Kingsburg 28, Kerman 12
Madera Ranchos-Liberty 23, Tollhouse-Sierra 21
Fresno-Central 30, Madera 21
Fresno-SJ Memorial 35, Fresno-Roosevelt 14
SLO-Mission Prep 69, Farmersville 8
Lemoore 24, Porterville-Monache 13
Caruthers 30, Riverdale 14
Strathmore 41, Orosi 20
Tranquility 35, Cambria-Coast Union 7
Porterville-Granite Hills 42, Tulare Western 21
Firebaugh 36, Acton-Vasquez 12
Fowler 48, Woodlake 7
Alpaugh 60, Visalia Christian 14 (Saturday)
Riverdale Christian 49, Clovis Christian 22 (Saturday)