Week 4 is in the books and I'm holding my lead in the weekly high school football picks against sports editor Shad Powers.
Last week I correctly picked nine of 11 games, while Shad was 7-4.
I was wrong about Rancho Mirage and Coachella Valley winning. Both lost. Shad also missed on Rancho Mirage and also missed on Palm Springs, Shadow Hills and Yucca Valley. All three lost.
Now, this week should be pretty interesting. On Thursday, Rancho Mirage travels to Desert Hot Springs, where Rattlers head coach L.D. Matthews will return to the school that gave him his coaching start. On Friday, Palm Springs will host a Yucaipa team that beat Shadow Hills and lost to Palm Desert.
That could give us a better idea of how Palm Springs, Shadow Hills and Palm Desert stack up before heading into their Desert Empire League slate.
For the season, I'm 38-7 on my picks and Shad is 27-18.
This is how Shad and I are leaning for this week's slate of games:
Andrew's picks
Thursday
Desert Hot Springs 21, Rancho Mirage 19
Xavier Prep 24, Yucca Valley 14
Friday
Desert Christian Academy 56, Cathedral City 7
Desert Mirage 21, Whittier Christian 15
Indio 28, San Gorgonio 6
Maranatha 31, Coachella Valley 20
Palm Springs 35, Yucaipa 28
Palm Desert 42, Redlands 7
La Quinta 34, Central (El Centro) 28
Andrew's Game of the Week: Rancho Mirage at Desert Hot Springs (Thur.) — I love this storyline of LD Matthews heading back to his old stomping grounds and facing one of his former assistant coaches in Golden Eagles head coach Roy Provost. I think this will be a good game. I think Rancho Mirage has a slight advantage in the skill positions, but I think the grittiness and confidence of Desert Hot Springs will carry the Golden Eagles to the win. If that happens, it would further validate how good this DHS team is this year.
Shad's picks
Thursday
Desert Hot Springs 20, Rancho Mirage 16
Xavier Prep 29, Yucca Valley 21
Friday
Desert Christian Academy 54, Cathedral City 8
Desert Mirage 28, Whittier Christian 15
Indio 34, San Gorgonio 27
Coachella Valley 30, Maranatha 27
Yucaipa 36, Palm Springs 31
Palm Desert 40, Redlands 14
La Quinta 34, Central 28
Shad's game of the Week: Central at La Quinta — This is another test for La Quinta in a difficult non-league slate. As desert fans may recall, Central went into Palm Desert and won in double overtime earlier this year, so this won't be easy. I think the Blackhawks can control the game, though, with what has become an increasingly balanced offense, which I like.
If the defense can get off the field enough, I think the Blackhawks will add a solid win to their ledger. Either way, they will certainly be battle tested when DEL play begins.
Andrew Johns covers sports and recreation in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
Shad Powers is the sports editor at The Desert Sun. Email him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Here's how we're leaning with our Week 5 high school football picks
