The recruiting season is starting to heat up as teams get eliminated from the
playoffs and prospects take their official visits. The big news for Stanford
this weekend is the official visit to the Stanford-USC game for Sean Wiser. In
addition, Matt Howe came to the game for an unofficial visit. In other visit
news, Matthew Masifilo and Savai'i Eselu were scheduled to visit Oregon. Finally, Saturday was an SAT test date and, as always, that means that some
prospects of interest for Stanford probably took retakes in the hopes of
achieving bumps that would allow them to clear Stanford's high admissions bar. On to the updates:
* Stanford QB commit L.D. Crow's Countryside team exploded for a 41-0 win to
finish the regular season with an 8-2 record. The victory came against the team
that gave them a bitter loss in last year's regular season finale and knocked
Crow out of action with internal bleeding. Crow completed 10-of-14 passing for
189 yards and three touchdowns (49-yard pass, seven-yard pass, nine-yard pass). He was
dominant in the first half, completing 8-of 10-passes for 173 yards and two
touchdowns, as Countryside went out to a big lead. While the two losses in
October this year were big disappointments for Crow and Countryside, they made
the playoffs and are still a pretty prominent team in the Florida playoff hunt. The race for the championship goes through Lakeland, of course.
* Same old song for Moorpark, as they won easily behind a dominant running
game. Running behind Stanford offensive line commit George Halamandaris and the rest of
Moorpark's big offensive line, junior superstar Darrell Scott finished with 211
yards and two touchdowns in a 33-7 win. Scott wasn't as dominant as usual, with
his longest run being 21 yards and his final total only being so-so by his
standards, but that's a sign of how good he is more than anything else. Still a
great day of work. Moorpark plays undefeated Westlake next week to decide the
league championship.
* Francis Parker beat one of the top teams in their league, 27-14, in a
performance that their coach characterized as their first quality game in weeks. Potential Stanford recruit Gino Gordon, running behind an offensive line led by
Stanford commit Tyler Mabry, finished with 84 yards rushing and two touchdowns on
20 carries. Gordon also returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown. Parker's head coach said:
"I was pleased with the effort. We called our seniors
out this week and they responded well. Gino Gordon is as good a running back as
I've ever coached, and he really helped this team pull together. Gordon was
everywhere on the field. He had an interception and forced an interception
on a blitz."
* Stanford safety commit Eddie Morgan's team lost for the fifth straight
time, this time by a 23-20 final score. On offense, Morgan had 66 yards rushing,
including an 11-yard touchdown run, on 18 carries. He also had two catches for
80 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown catch. He plays the last game of his
high school career next weekend.
* Mission Viejo, the team of Stanford kicking specialist commit David Green,
won 62-35 to improve to 7-2 on the season.
* Jesuit completed a perfect regular season with a 38-0 win on national
television. Not only does Jesuit win most games, but they completely dominate their
opponents almost every game. This was their fourth shutout, and they won their
league games by an average score of 49-6. They are without a doubt one of the
best teams in the country. In the most recent game, Jamaine Olson had a 75-yard
touchdown reception. Jesuit's quarterback said: "I don't get too many chances, so
I have to capitalize on the ones I do. Jamaine is fast and ran under it. It's
fun when I do get to air it out." Coming into the year Olson was invariably
described as a pure cornerback who focused on the defensive side of the ball,
but as a senior he's become a decently dangerous downfield receiving option. It
will be interesting to see if any teams beside Stanford show interest in him as
the recruiting cycle winds down. Jesuit fullback Owen Marecic is also a Stanford
target.
* Kellen Kiilsgaard's Auburn team remains the favorite to win the state
championship in Washington, as they demolished their first-round playoff opponent,
61-0, to improve to a perfect 10-0 record. Kiilsgaard couldn't get much going
through the air, but was dominant as always quarterbacking the ground attack. Auburn finished with nearly 500 yards rushing and
eight rushing touchdowns. Kiilsgaard credited the offensive line, saying "they played incredible. The guys
that are scoring are getting all of the credit this year, but they've done an
awesome job up front." Although the ground attack was a team effort and
Kiilsgaard did not lead the team in rushing in this particular game, his head
coach singled him out for praise: "He's a special athlete, obviously. Fortunately for us, we've got enough kids that we don't have to count on him to
do everything for us." Stay tuned for more news on Auburn's playoff run. Kiilsgaard appears likely to hold off on committing until after the playoffs. At
that point he will decide between the schools which he officially visited this
season (Stanford, Washington, Oregon, and Cal).
* Chike Amajoyi and Aquinas continued to dominate, winning this week's game
40-0. They have now won seven games in a row and have won the last two by a combined
margin of 98-0. Coming into the weekend, Amajoyi had accounted for half of
Aquinas' offense, racking up 1270 rushing yards at a 10-yard-per-carry clip and
finding the end zone 16 times on the ground, twice through the air, and once as
a stand-in punt return specialist. On defense, he had 43 tackles. With a 40-0
score in the most recent game, I would think that he added a good deal to his
totals.
* Oaks Christian won their 40th straight game with a 41-10 victory. Sean
Wiser caught a 49-yard touchdown pass. Though not Stanford prospects, Jimmy Clausen and Marc Tyler deserve mention and were their efficiently dominant
selves. Clausen completed 7-of-11 passes for 168 yards and four touchdowns. Tyler
rushed for 133 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries.
* Hoover finished their regular season with a 37-7 victory, improving to 9-1
on the year. Brandon Clear had a 19-yard touchdown reception. His twin brother Byron Clear is also a Stanford
target. The Clear twins were originally slated to take their official visit to Stanford this weekend, but Hoover will start their playoff run versus Pell City this coming Thursday night. That necessitated a Sunday practice which cannot be missed, and rather than cram their official visit into 24 hours, they will reschedule for January.
* Camarillo stayed hot with a 23-0 win. The Samson Szakacsy-Bryan Anger duo
wasn't able to achieve the same success through the air that they did last week
in Szakacsy's return to action from an injury, but Camarillo was able to
dominate on the ground. Anger is a standout receiver at the high school level
but is being recruited as a punter. After a rocky start to the season, Camarillo
has put together a nice string of wins to stay alive in the title hunt. For the
third straight year, Camarillo will play Rio Mesa for the league title even
though Rio Mesa is 8-1 on the season and Camarillo is 4-5.
* Derrick Hallman's team evened their record at 5-5 as they head into the
playoffs. Their season has been a tale of two halves, with a terrible non-league
start to the season and an excellent performance through the league part of the
schedule. This week, they won easily in a 36-6 blowout. No specific details on
how Hallman played, but he has been a standout at safety all season and had
seven
interceptions coming into this game. His team had a number of interceptions in
this game, and I think it's a good bet that Hallman got into the action.
* Jason Peters' Baton Rouge Catholic team finished the regular season a
perfect 10-0 with a 43-6 win. They win most of their games easily, have won 30
straight league games on their way to five straight district championships, have
won 26 straight regular season games, and are clearly one of the nation's top
programs. Catholic has a stifling defense led by Peters on the line.
* Johnathan Frink's Oxford team won their opening round playoff game by the final
score of 35-14, improving to 9-2 on the season. They now move on to the
quarterfinals. Frink is the clear star and leader of the team and amasses a huge
number of tackles when healthy. In this game, the team's strategy was to force
the opponent's shifty running back to run inside and deal with Frink and the
linebackers. The strategy clearly worked, and the back was limited to 39 yards
rushing.
* Matt Conrath's team won 48-21 to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Also, the
Chicago Tribune ran a little
blurb on Conrath announcing that he had
been named his league's defensive player of the year.
* Cameron Collins' Santa Monica team won 27-7 to move back above .500. Santa
Monica's stars are Collins and running back Louis Adeyemi, and their better play
the last two weeks coincides with better health for their stars.
* Mitchell Schwartz' Palisades team lost 27-21 in a crazy game punctuated by
a game-winning 24 yard touchdown pass with two seconds remaining. The game was
marred by fights in the stands early in the game that resulted in the assault on
a police officer. The man who assaulted the police officer disappeared, and the
game continued after the fights were controlled.
* As always, I have a one-week-old Doug Baldwin update. In last week's game,
Baldwin's team lost 20-8. Baldwin had at least a couple of catches, including a
successful two-point conversion attempt. His team did not make the playoffs, and
this past weekend concluded his high school career.
* Matt Howe's Colleyville Heritage team was upset 22-19 by a team that only
had one previous win. Colleyville Heritage is now 6-3 on the season and 4-2 in
district play.
* Victor Ojukwu's team won for the first time since September with a 30-7
win. They close out their season and Ojukwu's high school career next weekend.
* Unlike the other prospects mentioned in this report, Chase Minnifield has
already committed to another school. But since he has signaled that he will take
a Stanford official visit, I think it's worthwhile to include him in these
updates. After losing their regular season finale to end hopes of an undefeated
season, Minnifield's Henry Clay team easily handled another highly ranked
Kentucky team with a 49-7 opening-round playoff victory. They clearly played
inspired football, as this was an opponent that they barely beat 43-42 earlier in
the year. Minnifield had 130 yards rushing and two touchdowns on only 10 carries. He also had a touchdown reception and made all
seven of his extra point attempts. Said Minnifield, "Knowing we can take a loss and come back was a big part of us
doing it again this year," referring to bouncing back with a playoff run last
year after seeing hopes for an undefeated season vanish with a late season loss
to the same team that beat them a few weeks ago. In next week's second-round
playoff game, Henry Clay plays a team they beat 40-7 in the regular season.
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