Two of this week’s SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week are DaRon Bland of Central Catholic and Bryce Fledderman of Mission Prep. Photos: Willie Eashman & Courtesy School.
Freshman Rourke Reiman of Ventura gets called up to the varsity and the next day he makes three 40-yard field goals and now he’s a SoCal Player of the Week. In the north, Clark Baker of San Ramon Valley showed De La Salle how good he can be and followed it up with a six-TD pass outing. Others picked this week are from San Luis Obispo, Van Nuys, Bakersfield and Modesto.
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Note: Stockton office assistant editor Paul Muyskens also wrote several of these player bios. For these honors, we consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To find out how your business could benefit by sponsoring these honors each week or to nominate your own favorite player, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Bryce Fledderman
(Mission Prep, San Luis Obispo) Sr.
We always look for weekly honorees who also do something that gets their name into the state record book and Fledderman fits the bill for this week.
The senior QB who just got his first offer from the University of San Diego and who is being recruited by UC Davis and Cornell completed 24 of 26 passes for 369 yards and five touchdowns in a 49-21 triumph last Friday against Morro Bay.
With those kind of numbers, you’d expect Fledderman didn’t throw an interception and he didn’t. The number that makes the state record book is his completion of 18 straight passes to end the game, including 12-for-12 in the second half.
“He showed touch on fade routes, accuracy on long throws and intelligence on check downs,” said Mission Prep assistant coach Mark Grosz.
Fledderman’s favorite target was speedy Angel Sanchez, who caught seven passes for 187 yards and three TDs.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Eric Gaona (Grant, Van Nuys) Sr.
Eric’s Lancers improved to 8-0 with a 42-12 win over Poly of Sun Valley and in that game the senior defensive back had three interceptions on the night.
Before last week’s big performance on defense, he had just one interception with his biggest impact coming on the offensive side of the ball catching passes from his own quarterback.
Earlier this season, Gaona had eight receptions for 177 yards and four touchdowns in one game and he had a big night against Poly on offense as well with nine catches for 260 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s imperative that Gaona do well on both sides of the ball, too. Grant only has 19 players on its team. Despite that, the Lancers are unbeaten and against Poly they also had 660 yards of offense.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams Player of the Week
Rourke Reiman
(Ventura) Fr.
This freshman kicker had quite the week and a varsity debut as he made three field goals from over 40 yards during a 50-21 win over Santa Barbara.
On the freshman team all season, he played in a freshman game last Thursday and kicked two field goals before being called up to varsity on Friday night and the 14-year old shined. He went a perfect 3-for-3 kicking field goals from 41, 45 and 46 yards out. The 46-yard field goal came after a 41-yard field goal was taken away from a penalty and it tied a program record which was previously set by his uncle, Tory, back in 1985.
Justin McGill is making a name for himself in his sophomore season at Bakersfield. Photo: Twitter.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Clark Baker
(San Ramon Valley, Danville) Jr.
While his impressive performance from the week before came up just short of pulling off a huge upset win over mighty De La Salle of Concord, this junior didn’t come up short while leading the Wolves to a 52-21 win over Granada of Livermore.
On the night, Baker completed 17 of his 21 pass attempts for 281 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions while also rushing for a season-high 24 yards.
In the loss the week before to the Spartans, the 5-foot-10, 175-pounder passed for 321 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for a touchdown in the one-point loss. On the year, he has now passed for 1,728 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Justin McGill
(Bakersfield) Soph.
You might be hearing a lot about McGill and another so called super soph for the Drilliers, quarterback Cam Williams.
McGill had a stellar game when Bakersfield raced past Frontier of Bakersfield 49-20 last Friday. The performance included two interception return TDs, hence his selection for this honor. McGill’s TDs came on returns of 19 and 57 yards.
In addition the defensive gems, McGill also had five receptions for 155 yards and two TDs, both from Williams.
We always miss it when the Drillers aren’t among the best teams in the state. Hopefully, down the road, they’ll be back.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Special Teams Player of the Week
DaRon Bland
(Central Catholic, Modesto) Sr.
From one of our favorite families to cover over the years, Bland sure made things easy for us to pick him as one of our players of the week.
We could have been picked him for defense, but it’s on special teams that worked out best since one of his big plays in Central Catholic’s 32-14 win over previously undefeated Manteca came on a 97-yard kickoff return.
On the final play of the first half, Bland intercepted a pass in the end zone and returned it 104 yards for a score. He also scored on a 70-yard touchdown catch and finished with six total tackles on defense.
A standout from last season during the CIF Open Division Small Schools state final, DaRon was named to our preseason Sac-Joaquin Section team.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
