Makai Lemon of Los Alamitos (now a freshman at USC) earned career receiving listings for catches, yards and touchdowns. At right is Jeremiah Bernard of Modesto Christian, who still has senior season to play after catching 87 passes for 1,238 yards in just 11 games last year. Photos: Mark Tennis & Twitter.com.
All of the categories we have for our exclusive state football records are updated and ready to go before the start of the 2023 season. For this post, we go over some of the elite wide receivers added to all-time lists (more than one still playing but at new schools). We didn’t have a longest field goal but there was a kicker from last season who was added for a single-game total.
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There was only one wide receiver in the state from the 2022 season who was able to earn all-time state leader list additions for both a single season and a career. That would be current Stanford freshman Tiger Bachmeier at Murrieta Valley of Murrieta.
Catching passes from sophomore brother Bear Bachmeier and from a family already very familiar with state records due to older brother quarterback Hank Bachmeier, Tiger had a huge senior season for the Nighthawks. He had 97 receptions in 11 games for 1,525 yards. Both of those totals are now on the all-time single-season lists, but since Murrieta Valley was only able to have one playoff game Tiger’s regular season totals of 82 catches for 1,313 yards are much higher on the regular season all-time lists.
Tiger Bachmeier only got in one playoff game last season for Murrieta Valley, but still pushed career receiving totals to nearly 4,000 yards and 40 TDs. Photo: Twitter.com.
In his four varsity seasons with Murrieta Valley, despite the one year being extremely limited by COVID, Bachmeier latched on to a reported 238 passes for 3,958 yards and 40 touchdowns. His yardage total is currently No. 13 on the all-time career list. The others are lower but not exactly at the bottom of the list, either.
While he didn’t have any totals from last season that gained state record listings, receiver Kashton Henjum from Newport Harbor of Newport Beach did have two of three career totals that went onto the all-time lists higher than Tiger Bachmeier. With a huge junior season that cranked up his numbers, Henjum ended his four-year career at Newport with 268 catches for 4,138 yards and 39 TDs in 43 games. Kashton is now playing at the University of Utah.
There were two other graduated receivers who also were big-time college recruits who also like Henjum were able to gain career state record listings in two of the three major categories — catches, yards and touchdowns. One was 2021 State Junior of the Year Makai Lemon of Los Alamitos. Lemon, who also starred on defense for the Griffins, capped his career with 234 catches for 3,676 yards and 41 touchdowns in 39 games. This includes Makai’s freshman season when he started at La Mirada before he transferred to Los Al. Makai is now at USC. The other was Folsom’s Rico Flores. Despite suffering an injury late in the 2022 season that prevented his final totals from being higher, Flores finished his career for the Bulldogs with 201 catches for 3,222 yards and 32 TDs in 41 games. His 32 TD total just missed making it on to the all-time list as it takes 34, but the other two made it. Rico is now playing at Notre Dame.
The only other receiver in the state from last season to get added to an all-time career state list was Matthew Morrell of Cypress. Morrell, who also was a baseball standout for the Centurions and was the 2022-23 Orange County Register Athlete of the Year, ended his football career with 35 TD catches in 31 games.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE CAREER RECEIVING LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
STATE SINGLE SEASON RECEIVING LEADERS ARE ON THE MOVE
Of the top five receiving yardage leaders in the state for last season (according to MaxPreps), three of them were juniors and two of those three have transferred to other schools for the 2023 season.
The state leader for receiving touchdowns (31) and receiving yardage (2,051) in 2022 was junior Dillon Gresham of San Jacinto. Both of those totals are high in the state record lists. Gresham’s touchdowns ranks sixth while his yards ranks eighth. He’ll be back for the Tigers this season, but will be working with a new quarterback as Dereun Dortch has graduated. Getting to play 16 games like he did last year (San Jacinto went to the CIF D3-AA state final) also is no guarantee.
For catching passes, the state leader for last season was sophomore C.J. Jones from Sunnyside of Fresno. His total of 120 catches was lowered from an initial reported mark of 123 by the coaching staff following a review of each game recently. Jones, who played 14 games for the Wildcats, has transferred to San Joaquin Memorial of Fresno for the upcoming season. The Panthers don’t throw it around the yard like Sunnyside does, but Jones definitely should be able to add to his career totals over the next two seasons.
Another of the state yardage leaders from last season was Xavier Jordan from Cathedral of Los Angeles. He had 1,626 yards in 13 games and also had 1,349 yards in 10 regular season games. Both of those totals are now in the back. Jordan has since transferred to Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth. He is a USC commit and very talented, but is joining a roster with more than one other D1 committed receiver and is not going to be a stat star like he was at Cathedral.
Other receivers from last season who have had their names added to the all-time state records are Bryant Carey of Downey, Jackson Harris of Berkeley, Cooper Hoch from Corona del Mar of Newport Beach, Ty Benefield from Crean Lutheran of Irvine, Kayvon Monfareed from Canyon of Anaheim, Jeremiah Castillo from Mt. Miguel of Spring Valley, Demel Turner of Lemoore, Drew Faulkner from Western of Anaheim, Cole Owens from Casa Roble of Orangevale, Jeremiah Bernard of Modesto Christian, Stacy Dobbins from Chaparral of Temecula (now at St. John Bosco), Jaden Landrum of Etiwanda, Gabe Hernandez from Downey of Modesto and Robert Barrera from Hueneme of Oxnard.
There also were two 99-yard touchdown receptions from last season turned in by Julian Niupala from West Park of Roseville and Marshel Sanders from Clovis West of Fresno.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE SEASON RECEIVING YARDS LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE SEASON RECEPTION LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE SEASON TOUCHDOWN CATCH LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
Preston Scott of Lemoore (a senior last season) tied a state record with three punt return TDs in one game. Photo: Hudl.com.
SPECIAL TEAMS, DEFENSIVE STATE RECORD ADDITIONS
There were no additions to the state record book from the 2022 season in the categories of most quarterback sacks or most interceptions for a season. The reported state leader for 2022 in sacks, Ratumana Bulabalvu from Army-Navy of Carlsbad, just missed going onto the all-time list with his total of 23.5. With another big year, however, he should easily make for career sacks.
The additions on special teams and defense that did happen were for single game performances.
Perhaps the most impressive of those outings came early on when Preston Scott of Lemoore tied a state record when he took back three punts for touchdowns during a 78-6 rout by the Tigers over Selma.
There also was a 107-yard interception return for a touchdown by Dayton “Day Day” Aupiu from Pacifica of Oxnard that was confirmed by watching film of the play during a 72-0 win by the Tritons against Channel Islands of Oxnard. Aupiu was a junior who will be a senior standout at Pacifica this season and he has committed to Cal.
There were no field goals last season long enough to get in to the state records, but a kicker who has been added is Caen Lewis of Hanford. He was a senior for the Bullpups last season and went in for most PAT conversions in a game. Lewis was 12-for-12 on PATs in a 84-21 triumph over Ridgeview of Bakersfield.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE GAME SPECIAL TEAMS LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
FOR THE UPDATED GOLD CLUB LIST OF ALL-TIME STATE SINGLE GAME DEFENSIVE LEADERS, CLICK HERE.
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
