Football: Mater Dei and Carson open season on ESPN2

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ESPN released its high school football broadcast schedule on Wednesday, and it’s planning to make another early-season SoCal pit stop.

Mater Dei, led by Gatorade national male athlete of the year Matt Barkley, pictured, will take on defending City Section runner-up Carson at Veterans Stadium in front of the ESPN2 cameras on Sept. 3 at 6 p.m.

I have a feeling we won’t see a repeat of last year’s parochial vs. L.A. Unified battle, but this game should give us a good idea as to where each team stands. The Monarchs are once again a favorite to take the Pac-5 Division title and Carson figures to be one of the main challengers to Birmingham’s quest for a three-peat.

Still, do you know what the best part of all this is? The game starts at 6 p.m! That means we reporter types can actually file a complete game story before deadline (last year, the Notre Dame-Birmingham showdown didn’t get over until around 11 p.m.).

Click here to check out ESPN’s 19-game coverage schedule.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Lori Shepler/Los Angeles Times