High school football seasons across the country are winding down, as some
teams prepare for playoff runs and others see their seasons end. Some prospects
of interest for Stanford have even seen their high school careers end already,
including new Stanford commit Matt Bentler. The prospects who have ended their
careers and remain undefeated are now in the swing of official visit season. Savai'i Eselu visited Oregon last weekend and Colorado this weekend. Matthew Masifilo visited Oregon last weekend and Washington this weekend. A number of
recruits are still playing football, of course. Some updates:
* L.D. Crow had a bittersweet week. Earlier in the week, he was relieved to
hear that he had been admitted to Stanford. On Friday, however, he lost the
first playoff game he has been healthy enough to play in. The 27-10 loss ends
his high school career. Countryside's defense was worn down by an opposing
running back who carried the ball 51 (yes, 51) times for 252 yards and three
touchdowns. On offense, Crow and the Countryside offense, which ran a hurry-up
offense in the game, struggled to move the ball down the field. On the game,
Crow completed 9-of-23 passes for 130 yards and one touchdown. Excluding the
impressive first drive of the game, though, Crow completed just 5-of-19 passes
for 44 yards and no touchdowns. While Crow's senior season proved disappointing,
he now gets to focus his attention on being Stanford's next quarterback recruit. Look for a December visit to Stanford by Crow now that he knows that his team
won't be playing that late into the year.
* Oaks Christian finished their regular season undefeated, of course, with a
56-0 win. Jimmy Clausen completed 14 of his 17 pass attempts for 367 yards and
four
touchdowns, all by halftime. He is two away from the all-time California state
record even though his utter dominance has led to very little second half
playing time in his career. Oaks Christian wide receiver/safety Sean Wiser
committed to Stanford earlier in the week. He did not get in to the scoring
action, but Oaks Christian's head coach was very happy with the team's defensive
effort and Wiser tends to be an important part of that unit as well as his
typical role as Clausen's favorite receiving target.
* After a white hot stretch of wins powered by an unstoppable running game,
Moorpark finally lost again, coming up short in their attempt to win their
competitive league. The 23-12 loss to undefeated Westlake should effectively end
Moorpark's dark horse bid to earn a spot in the state championship bowl. Nonetheless, Moorpark goes on to the CIF-Southern Section playoffs as a
prominent team to be reckoned with. Despite the loss, Moorpark's star running
back Darrell Scott, who runs behind Stanford commit George Halamandaris, got
his, finishing with 201 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.
* Mission Viejo finished their regular season 8-2 with a 38-0 win. Presumably
Stanford commit David Green made his extra point attempts and added a successful
field goal.
* Francis Parker finished their regular season with a 21-10 win, improving
their record to 7-3. Gino Gordon, running behind Tyler Mabry, had a two-yard
touchdown run and a 45-yard touchdown run.
* Eddie Morgan played the last game of his high school career and went out
with a bang. He led his team to a 31-13 win and finished with a career-high 160
rushing yards and three touchdowns. Next up for his recruitment is an official
weekend to Stanford on December 8. That weekend is shaping up as a big event for
Stanford recruiting this year.
* Stanford's newest commitment, Thomas Keiser, had a big weekend. In addition
to the public release of the news of his commitment, his team had a big 24-17
upset playoff win. They were coming off of a big 7-6 game last week. Said
Keiser, "(That win) motivated us, because it made us realize how close we were
to having our season end, and we don't want our season to end. We came out here
and realized that we have to give it our all because we might not have a chance
to do it again." In this week's game, Keiser had a 23-yard touchdown catch. Coming into the game, Keiser had 10 catches for 169 yards and
five touchdowns. On
defense, he had 47 tackles and 4.5 sacks.
* Kellen Kiilsgaard's Auburn team stayed undefeated through the first round
of the playoffs, winning the playoff opener with a 42-7 rout. Kiilsgaard, quite
possibly the best player in the state of Washington, took over with three touchdown
runs and two touchdown passes. Said his coach, "He's a big-time player. He doesn't
do that every game, but he could if we needed him to... Tonight he stepped up
and made plays." Said Kiilsgaard, "Everyone on our team has been having a great
year. We've had well-rounded numbers all around. In certain games, when coach
[Gordon] Elliott calls on me to put up bigger plays, I've had some pretty big
nights. But no, I don't usually go out and account for five TDs. That's not the
norm." Kiilsgaard finished with 5-of-8 passing for 116 yards and two touchdowns
and had 17 carries for 107 yards and three touchdowns. He also made all six extra
points for Auburn. Auburn moves on to the quarterfinals, and they fully expect to
make a run at the state championship. After the playoffs, expect Kiilsgaard to
make a quick decision between his favorites: Stanford, Cal, Oregon, and
Washington.
* Like Kiilsgaard's Auburn team, Chase Minnifield's Henry Clay team also won
a blowout to advance to their state's quarterfinals. The 61-7 win featured
touchdowns on every single possession for Minnifield's team. He is the most
highly touted of many explosive options for Henry Clay, and they usually put up
big points with contributions from a number of offensive stars.
* In a game to decide their league championship, Chike Amajoyi's team lost
21-13. At 7-3, they will still make the playoffs. Amajoyi scored both of his
team's touchdowns and finished with 228 yards rushing on 28 carries. According
to him, "It was a great game. Everybody fought hard." Amajoyi is having a huge
year. By my count from combining stats from a couple of different sources, he
has about 1750 yards rushing at an almost 10 yards per carry clip with 25 total
touchdowns.
* Hoover won their first round playoff game 44-0. No word on how the Clear
twins did, though I would assume that Brandon Clear had some success since
Hoover was absolutely dominant through the air. Hoover's starting quarterback
was 10-of-13 passing for 282 yards and four touchdowns, all in the first half. The
backups played the second half, and Hoover was able to play 80 different players
and four different quarterbacks.
* Johnathan Frink's team had a disappointing 27-23 loss in the first round of
the playoffs. He now faces a tough decision on whether to stay home at Ole Miss
or go forth into the world. Here's a
recent article on Frink.
* Jason Peters' Baton Rouge Catholic team won 35-17 in their playoff opener
in a game that required a rally by Catholic and was closer than most of their
games.
* Matt Conrath's team continued to roll on the strength of a dominant defense
led by him. They won their latest playoff game, 20-0. Conrath had 12 tackles.
* Cameron Collins' team improved to 6-4 with a 52-6 win. They will need an
at-large bid to make the playoffs and are hoping that Collins' absence in a
couple of those losses will make the powers-that-be view them as a different
team with him.
* Derrick Hallman's team stayed hot with a 45-21 win in the first round of
the playoffs. While Hallman continues to list Stanford and Central Florida as
schools that have offered and Ole Miss as a school that has shown high interest,
a Florida newspaper is reporting that Hallman headed to the University of
Florida this weekend for an official visit.
* Doug Baldwin's high school career ended last week, but I have some new
details on that game. His team won 24-20 in a come-from-behind victory in which
Baldwin contributed a solid kick return and a number of big catches to move the
chains on the way to big scores. With his season over, his attention turns to
his recruitment. He'll make official visits to North Carolina State and Stanford in the
coming weeks.
* Bryan Anger's Camarillo team lost 21-16 to Rio Mesa, falling short in their
bid to win their league championship despite a rockier season than Rio Mesa had.
* Mitchell Schwartz is getting used to his team losing weird games. Last week
they lost a crazy game decided in the last seconds, in which brawls broke out in
the stands earlier in the game and a police officer was assaulted. This week,
they were blown out 48-13. This game was called early because Palisades' players
and coaches apparently walked off the field when a timeout was called by the
other team so that they could hold a jersey presentation ceremony for their line
coach, who had been Palisades' head coach in the 90s. It is unclear whether the
Palisades team left the field to protest the stoppage or due to confusion over
whether the game had been called.
* Matt Howe's team won 41-38 to improve to 7-3 heading into the playoffs.
* Victor Ojukwu's high school career is over as his team lost their last game
35-21.
* As the top team in the playoffs for Oregon, Jesuit had a bye in this week's
first round of the playoffs. They begin playoff play with the second round next
week. Jesuit is home to potential Stanford recruits Jamaine Olson and Owen Marecic.
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