Two of this week’s NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week are Tyler Vander Waal of Sacramento Christian Brothers & Jaelan Phillips of Redlands East Valley. Photos: Twitter.com.
Big-time recruit Jaelan Phillips does something to get this week’s SoCal Defensive POW honor and get his name into the state record book. Our NorCal Offensive POW, meanwhile, throws for nearly 500 yards in 74-32 win. Other chosen this week are from Atherton, Petaluma, Villa Park and Santa Maria.
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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 Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Tyler Vander Waal
(Christian Brothers, Sacramento) Sr.
A 6-foot-4, 210-pounder who has committed to Ball State, Vander Waal had an off-the-wall outing in leading the Falcons past Vista del Lago of Folsom, 74-32.
In a game in which both QBs like to throw, Vander Waal finished 21 of 34 for 490 yards and five TDs. He had the most success going to Matt Marengo (8 catches, 233 yds, 2 TDs) and Jamarri Jackson (5 for 127 and 2).
Christian Brothers began the season with back-to-back losses to Manteca and Holy Bowl rival Jesuit, but since then has won eight in a row. Vander Waal actually started as a sophomore at Elk Grove, but transferred to Christian Brothers at the start of last season. He wasn’t eligible to play until this season.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
J.H. Tevis
(Menlo School, Atherton) Jr.
He has had some big games this season, including the regular season finale when the Knights won their season-best fifth straight game with a 31-14 win over their rivals from Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton.
For his sixth straight game, Tevis finished in double digits with total tackles as he made 10 total tackles and now has 101 total tackles on the year.
In the same game, Tevis also recovered a fumble and recorded two sacks for his sixth multi-sack game of the season. He has 22.5 total sacks on the year and earlier this season he had a five-sack game.
With great size at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, we expect J.H. to be one of the top defensive end recruits next season for Northern California.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Special Teams Player of the Week
Brandon Keefer
(Casa Grande, Petaluma) Sr.
The Gauchos needed a win to make the playoffs and that is what they got with a 34-33 win over Santa Rosa and Keefer did a bit of everything to make sure that it happened.
Having a perfect night kicking the football, he made all four of his extra point attempts and two field goals, including a long of 43 yards for a total of 10 kicking points on the night.
Before three of his extra points, Keefer also was the one that reached the end zone for the touchdown as he caught four passes for 91 yards and three touchdowns.
It was his second straight game with multiple touchdown receptions. He also has now gone 8-for-8 on the season on field goals.
Nick Sipe had a great spring last year that led to the Villa Park QB getting a lot of D1 offers. He eventually committed to Purdue. Photo: SoCalSidelines.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Nick Sipe
(Villa Park) Sr.
The Spartans entered their game last week against Foothill of Tustin with a six-game winning streak and they extended that streak with a 48-14 win with their standout quarterback throwing six touchdown passes.
Since throwing four touchdown passes in Villa Park’s first two games of the season, Sipe not thrown more than three in a game before his season-high of six touchdowns. He also completed 24 of his 34 pass attempts for a season-high 378 yards.
Through the regular season, the senior who has committed to Purdue has passed for 2,624 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Jaelan Phillips
(Redlands East Valley, Redlands) Sr.
It’s always great when we can report that a great player like Phillips, regarded as one of the top defensive ends in the nation, is going to have his name put into the state record book.
He’s going in after last Friday’s 51-7 triumph over Citrus Valley of Redlands because in that game Phillips came through with seven sacks. He also had 13 tackles, caused a fumble and blocked a field goal.
A 6-foot-5, 250-pounder who like REV QB Armando Herrera (already in the state record for career pass yards and career TD passes) was a sophomore standout on the 2014 CIF Division II state title team, Phillips has committed to UCLA.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams Player of the Week
Nathan Halsell
(St. Joseph, Santa Maria) Soph.
While this sophomore still has two more seasons to try and top his performance during a 51-17 win over Santa Ynez, that will be hard.
In the win, Halsell had a total of 14 kicking points for his highest scoring game this season. To get those points, he was a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points and kicked three field goals for the first time, including one from 43 yards out.
Halsell, who also had an 11-point kicking game earlier this season, also had nine of his 10 kickoffs against Santa Ynez result in touchbacks.
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
