QB Quentyn DeMara (left) is helping University City of San Diego bounce back from a 1-9 season. At right is NorCal Player of the Year candidate Kingston Keanaaia of Mountain View St. Francis. Photos: X.com & GetSportsFocus / YouTube.com.
For this week’s six State Football Players of the Week we don’t have any entries to track for the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, which is one of the goals of this feature, but we do have some exceptional talent that gets statewide recognition for their efforts to go along with local accolades, and that’s the other thing we look for. This week we visit Mountain View, Rancho Cordova and San Mateo in Northern California, and in Southern California our stops are in San Diego, Calexico and villa Park.
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Notes: We will continue to have flexibility to one of the honorees by calling it Multi-Purpose/Special Teams. Multi-Purpose is already a category for All State honors. For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Kingston Keanaaina (St. Francis, Mountain View) Sr.
The search for the Northern California Offensive Player of the Week takes us around 40 miles south of San Francisco to where The Peninsula borders the greater San Jose Metro area and it’s in Mountain View at Saint Francis that we find this week’s honoree.
We didn’t have to look too hard to find the player they call “the King” because not only did we get a nomination from Pat “the Stat” Segurson (who does stats for the Lancers in football and other schools in the West Catholic Athletic League) but Keanaaina has been on our radar screen since he supplanted his older brother Keala Keanaaina as the Lancers’ primary running back in the final four games of his sophomore season.
Keanaaina was selected first team running back for the 2023 Preseason Central Coast Section Football Team and that led to his being named All State Juniors Second Team at running back last year. This year the King repeated as a Preseason Central Coast Section First Team running back and his numbers continue to improve, but it was for his most recent performance that Kingston is being honored as a state player of the week.
Committed to BYU, the solidly-built 6-foot, 195-pound Keanaaina had cracked the 200-yard rushing barrier twice before, both last season, but last week in an impressive 34-14 home win over a former state champion McClymonds (Oakland) team that has been one of the top programs in the Bay Area in recent years, the King broke new ground after exploding for 336 yards and three TDs on a whopping 38 carries. He also returned a punt 21 yards to give him 357 total yards.
The 336 yards falls short of making the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book Most Yards (Game) list for rushing, but at a storied program like St. Francis according to Pat the Stat it was only the third time the 300-yard barrier has been broken and is the second-highest total in school history.
With 118 yards on 14 carries with three TDs in an impressive 35-14 road victory over a perennially tough Helix of La Mesa, Keanaaina now has 454 yards rushing on 51 carries (8.7 yards per carry) and six TDs heading into a Friday matchup for the 2-0 Lancers at Concord De La Salle.
After 780 yards and 10 TDs in eight games as a sophomore and 1,530 yards and 19 TDs last season, Kingston now has 2,770 yards and 35 TDs rushing (36 total) for his varsity career and it has come against some of the toughest competition any Northern California team has faced.
Jalen Scroggins of San Mateo Aragon is about to haul in a 24-yard TD pass during explosive fourth quarter for him in team’s win vs San Mateo High. Photo: Nathan Mollat / San Mateo Daily Journal.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams
Player of the Week
Jaden Scroggins (Aragon, San Mateo) Sr.
Our second Northern California stop at the area known as The Peninsula takes us to San Mateo and a school on the Alameda de las Pulgas called Aragon that’s virtually a stone’s throw away north of Highway 92 from Serra High, which is the school in town that logically gets most of the local props. However, for the Northern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week it’s a member of the Dons named Scroggins that scarfs up a statewide honor to go with local accolades.
Talk about making an impact quick, fast and in a hurry. San Mateo Times prep sports writer Nate Mollat could not have said it any better when he said that “when it was crunch time, it was Jalen Scroggins who came to the fore.”
The Dons were struggling in the first half and even in the third quarter when they led 10-7 at the half and trailed 14-10 after three.
Up to that point, the defense kept Aragon in the game of what was an eventual 31-21 victory over cross-town rival San Mateo, but as Mollat pointed out the difference maker in the end was Scroggins, who made big plays in all three phases of the game, and scored twice two different ways, all in the fourth quarter, to help Aragon come away with the victory.
Teammate Vale Hokafonu, who finished with 153 yards rushing, scored on a 1-yard plunge on the first play of the fourth quarter to give Aragon a 17-14 lead, but from that point on it was all Scroggins.
After the TD that gave the Dons the lead, they stripped the ball and recovered the fumble on the first play of San Mateo’s ensuing drive. Three plays later, Scroggins caught a 24-yard TD pass and Aragon had a 24-14 lead.
Scroggins had an interception on the next San Mateo possession that he returned 50 yards but Aragon did not capitalize and San Mateo instead hit for a score and cut the Dons lead to 24-21 with around five minutes remaining.
Scroggins, however, answered back fast when you guessed it. He took the ensuing San Mateo kickoff 93 yards to the house for a TD that pretty much sealed the deal.
Jaden then helped make sure San Mateo would not make a comeback by capping his night’s performance with two batted passes after his run to paydirt.
Scroggins finished with 191 all-purpose yards and in doing so helped deliver first-year head coach Ash Parham his first win as a varsity head coach.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Julian Drahn (Cordova, Rancho Cordova) Jr.
Our search for the Northern California Defensive Player of the Week takes us around 15 miles east of the state capitol on the Highway 50 corridor, and we find the honoree around a mile north of the freeway at Cordova High in Rancho Cordova.
Drahn, the leading tackler for the Lancers this season, pretty much had another day at the office in a 33-0 blanking of Roseville Valley Christian last week, so the weekly honor for the 6-foot-, 250-pound defensive tackle, who is also listed as playing tackle on offense, is pretty much for the entire body of work for the Cordova junior star.
In fact, the nine total tackles is the lowest number Julian has posted in a 3-0 start for the Lancers, but six of them were for losses, including four sacks. Four sacks is always going to pique our interest. Drahn also forced a fumble.
Two weeks ago in a 15-14 victory over Mesa Verde of Citrus Heights, Drahn had a season-high 12 tackles with two for losses. In a season opening 37-12 victory over El Camino of Sacramento, Julian recorded 10 tackles with a sack.
Add it all up and its 31 total tackles with nine for losses including five sacks, plus three quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles for the season so far.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Quentyn DeMara (University City, San Diego) Jr.
To find the Southern California Offensive Player of the Week, we head to the CIF San Diego Section and the City of San Diego’s University City district on Genesee Avenue just about smack dab in the middle of a triangle formed by I-5 to the west, I-405 to the east and to where they merge to the north, and by Highway 52 to the south.
It’s at University City High where we locate our award winner, and so far this season DeMara has been the most integral part of a Centurions’ offense that’s outscored opponents 160-38 in a 3-0 start, and his most recent performance is a prime example.
Last week, in a 48-16 rout of host Chula Vista Bonita Vista, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound junior quarterback went 15-for-22 for 372 yards and four TDs with one interception. DeMara also rushed for 102 yards and a TD on 11 carries.
DeMara is being honored for last week’s performance when he joined the 300-100 clubs for quarterbacks but passing-wise it wasn’t his best performance of the season. That came two weeks ago when Quentyn passed for 383 yards and five TDs in a 49-10 win over West Hills of Santee.
So far this season, DeMara has thrown for 954 yards and a very formidable 46-for-67 passing, with 12 TDs and only two interceptions, and that translates into a solid 138.5 quarterback rating. The 954 yards passing is the No. 8 reported mark in the state and No. 3 in the San Diego Section.
Villa Park’s Nate Lewis is one of the most versatile players this season in Orange County. Photo: X.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams
Player of the Week
Nate Lewis (Villa Park) Sr.
We head to Orange County and end up a little less than a mile east of the 55 Freeway at Villa Park High for this award-winner. It’s there we find our Southern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week, who now adds a statewide honor to being named the Orange County Register Boys Athlete of the Week.
Lewis is the epitome of Multi-Purpose. He’s the Spartans’ starting quarterback but also plays safety and he punts and kicks, and in a 34-33 last-second victory over Upland, which knocked that team out of the Cal-Hi Sports TOP 50 state rankings, he did it all including sealing the victory.
As a signal-caller, Lewis completed 16-of-22 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns. He also made nine tackles and intercepted a pass on defense, punted twice for a total of 84 yards, kicked all of the team’s extra points and was 2-for-2 on field-goal attempts, including a 43-yarder in the final seconds that secured the victory for Villa Park.
His first field goal in the game was from 44 yards out and there is a twist to this saga that’s a compliment to Nate’s nerves and his booming foot. Lewis originally lined for the game winner from 38 yards out but a 5-yard penalty moved back to the 43 where he split the uprights again despite the pressure of being an underdog to a state-ranked team.
On a side note and in another bit of a twist, Lewis is from the same high school as Miami Dolphins’ kicker Jason Sanders, who made a walk off 53-yard field goal on Sunday in his team’s season-opening triumph over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Emilio Fimbres (Vincent Memorial, Calexico) Sr.
We stay in the CIF San Diego Section to honor this week’s Southern California Defensive Player of the Week, but unlike our SoCal offensive honoree this week from the City of San Diego, Fimbres plys his trade around 120 miles east of the city at Vincent Memorial in Calexico, as school less than a mile from the Mexican border and Mexicali, the capital of Baja California.
Our award winner has been a tackling machine since last season when he was named Cal-Hi Sports All State Small Schools Second Team defensive lineman, and while his reported stats are not totaled on MaxPreps so far this season, we know from local accounts that last week, in a 34-0 whitewashing of El Cajon Valley of El Cajon, the 6-foot, 245-pound defensive lineman recorded 12 total tackles, a pass interception, two sacks, and a fumble recovery.
Last season, Fimbres was among the tackling leaders in the state and his 173 total tackles with 37 for losses including 13 sacks, was the No. 8 reported mark in the state and No. 2 in the San Diego Section behind current senior linebacker and teammate Lucio Ascolani. The 13 sacks was tied for No. 38 in the state and tied for No. 3 in the San Diego Section.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
