El Paso High School Football Week 8 Schedule and Key Matchups

Three El Paso high school football programs will not take the field this week as the University Interscholastic League schedule enters its eighth week, leaving Pebble Hills, San Elizario and Mountain View idle during a critical stretch of district play.

The bye weeks arrive as UIL District 1-6A Division I and surrounding classifications push toward playoff positioning. Under Texas high school football scheduling rules, districts with an odd number of teams or those balancing non-district commitments must rotate byes throughout the regular season. For programs like Pebble Hills, which competes in one of the state’s most physically demanding classifications, the rest period comes after seven consecutive weeks of contact. San Elizario and Mountain View, competing in lower classifications where roster depth is often thinner, face similar recovery dynamics heading into the final third of their schedules.

Action begins Thursday, Oct. 15, with two matchups carrying direct implications for postseason seeding. Montwood faces Socorro in a game that pits two programs with deep roots in the region’s competitive landscape against each other. On the same night, Canutillo travels to Jefferson. Both Thursday contests allow coaches to evaluate film before the heavier Friday slate, a tactical advantage in a compressed season where preparation time between games is limited.

The eighth week of the 2026 high school football season in El Paso and across Texas is set for Thursday, Oct. 15 and Friday, Oct. 16.

The top games on Thursday are Montwood vs. Socorro and Canutillo vs. Jefferson.

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On Friday, some of the top games are Austin vs. Ysleta, Riverside vs. Andress, Eastwood vs. Franklin and El Dorado vs. Americas.

This week, Pebble Hills, San Elizario and Mountain View are idle.

Ysleta’s Rodrigo Martinez runs with the ball as Riverside’s Phillip Ramos attempts a tackle at Riverside High School in El Paso, Texas, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026.

Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Live score tracker: El Paso high school football scores from Week 8

Friday, Oct. 16, features four marquee matchups that will likely shape the upper half of local district standings. Austin meets Ysleta, a contest drawing attention following Ysleta running back Rodrigo Martinez’s performance last week against Riverside, where he carried the ball while navigating pressure from Riverside defender Phillip Ramos. That Oct. 9 meeting at Riverside High School offered a preview of the physicality expected when Ysleta takes the field again.

Riverside returns to action against Andress, while Eastwood squares off with Franklin. The Eastwood-Franklin matchup frequently ranks among the highest-attended games in the Sun City, given both schools’ large student bodies and histories of producing NCAA Division I recruits. El Dorado rounds out the Friday showcase against Americas.

Unlike the National Federation of State High School Associations standard 10-game format used in many states, the UIL permits districts to construct schedules that account for Texas’s geographic size and varying enrollment numbers. This flexibility explains why certain El Paso-area teams sit out Week 8 while others play pivotal district games. Teams currently holding winning records inside their districts use these late-October matchups to secure home-field advantage for the bi-district round, the first stage of the UIL playoffs that typically begins in November.

Coaches managing the three idle programs will utilize the open week for injury rehabilitation and installation of specific schemes tailored to their remaining opponents. With the regular season approaching its final weeks, every practice rep during a bye carries heightened weight for teams fighting to stay above the .500 threshold required for most playoff berths.

Week 8 games across El Paso proceed as scheduled on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16, with kickoff times determined by individual district athletic coordinators based on stadium availability and local transportation logistics.