State Football Players of the Week

Two of this week’s honorees are quarterback Brady Edmunds, sophomore at Huntington Beach, and running back Jhadis Luckey, junior at California of San Ramon. Photos: Gibby Zone 57 / SoCoPrepSports.com & Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area.

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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 Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week

Brady Edmunds (Huntington Beach) Soph.

The search for the Southern California Offensive Player of the Week takes us to a place known as “Surf City USA” because with its over 10 miles of wide-open sandy beach and crashing waves has made Huntington Beach a surfer’s paradise for decades.

We don’t cover surfing at Cal-Hi Sports, although some California high schools in Southern California have surfing teams, but we do cover high school football, and with Edmunds under center Huntington Beach High has one of the top sophomore quarterbacks in the nation.

After his most recent performance, which was one of many top outings for Edmunds this season, the 247Sports top-ranked quarterback in California and No. 2 signal-caller in the nation from the Class of 2027 gets honored as this week’s SoCal offensive award winner.

As a freshman, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound Edmunds had two 300-yard passing performance and this year he already has three, but last week, in a 43-29 victory over Foothill of Tustin, Brady broke the 400-yard barrier when he went 23-of-40 for 414 yards (school record for a school that’s more than 100 years old) and five TDs. He did show he’s not perfect as he did throw two picks but he made up for that by rushing for 35 yards and a sixth score.

With a prototype physique and a rocket for an arm, it’s not surprising that just about every major college program would like him to some day ink a letter committing to them.

Edmunds already has 22 offers and several other Power 5 schools haven’t offered but interest according to 247Sports. In an early September interview, he said he had narrowed his college choices to offers from Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Texas, and remember, he’s only a sophomore.

As for Edmunds’ overall stats, and heading into a Friday night matchup for the 5-3 Oilers with visiting Epsilon League rival Crean Lutheran of Irvine, Brady has passed for 2,359 yards and 25 TDs with five interceptions. He’s also rushed for 252 yards and seven touchdowns.

The 414 yards passing falls short of making the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book Most Yards (Game) list in the passing section but keep your eye out for Edmunds. Add the 2,359 yards passing this season to the 2,691 yards (24 TDs) of last season, his 5,050 yards in a little over a season and a half is currently less than 2,500 yards away from cracking the Most Yards (Career) list.

Oaks Christian’s Davon Benjamin is one of those big-time recruits who also has been very, very productive on the high school level. Photo: Cannon Sports / YouTube.com.

Davon Benjamin
(Oaks Christian, Westlake Village) Sr.

To find the Southern California Defensive Player of the Week, we venture to around a half mile east of the Los Angeles and Ventura County border and land at a school with a deep football tradition. It’s at Oaks Christian in Westlake Village that we find our honoree.

We strongly considered Benjamin for this statewide honor when earlier in the season he had two interceptions in a game but that week he fell just short.

Well, guess what? This week he gets to go to the front of the class because he it against perennial Ventura County powerhouse St. Bonaventure of Ventura, he snagged two interceptions in a 35-0 drubbing of the visiting Seraphs, both of which he took to the house for touchdowns.

For good measure, the 6-foot, 180-pound Benjamin was also the Lions’ leading receiver with three catches for 71 yards, and on defense besides the picks he had four tackles, and a pass defended.

So far this season, and heading into Marmonte League matchup on the road this Friday night down the hill in Camarillo for Cal-Hi Sports No. 15 ranked Oaks Christian, Davon has five interceptions with three he’s taken all the way to paydirt. The five picks is a top 20 reported mark in the state as well.

Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week

Silas Christiansen (Rancho Bernardo, San Diego) Jr.

The northernmost part of the city of San Diego is where we head in the quest to find the Southern California Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week and we end up around a mile east of the I-15 at Rancho Bernardo, where the Broncos are off to a 7-1 start including a 3-0 record in Palomar League play under first-year head coach and former 14-year NFL veteran Eric Weddle.

Part of that success has been the special teams work of Christiansen, and last week in a 42-12 victory over Fallbrook he not only scored twice on special teams to earn this statewide honor, he added a third score rushing.

With high school rules changed to not allow runbacks on punts or kickoffs that go into the end zone, the four punt returns that went 100 yards or more in the state record book will never be exceeded unless the rules change again.

That means the 99-yard punt return Christiansen had in the Fallbrook win is the longest anyone can return a punt or kickoff and that exactly what Silas did to tie him with six others that have returned a punt 99 yards and with it the Broncos junior will earn a spot in the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book Longest Punt Return (Yards).

We mentioned that Christiansen scored twice on special teams and although it doesn’t make the record book Silas took it to the house for a 77-yard kickoff return touchdown.

This was the first punt Christiansen returned for a touchdown this season but on kickoff returns he has three he’s taken all the way to paydirt.

Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week

Jhadis Luckey (California, San Ramon) Jr.

Contra Costa County is our destination in the search for this week’s Northern California Offensive Player of the Week and it’s not far south of majestic Mt. Diablo in San Ramon at California High where we find our award winner.

Cal-Hi Sports executive editor and co-founder Mark Tennis saw Luckey last year as a sophomore at Manteca where he rushed for 460 yards and six touchdowns and thought he had D1 college potential. With the two top running backs graduating, Tennis had felt he might be the top running back in the grinding Manteca ground game.

Instead, Jhadis is grinding out the yards at California and his most recent performance is a perfect example and earns Luckey a statewide honor to go with local accolades.

Last week, in a 50-36 victory over visiting Monte Vista (Danville) that pushed California to 7-1 overall, evened its record in the powerful East Bay Athletic League – Mountain Division at 1-1, and has the team knocking on the door of the bubble in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings, there was no luck involved in the performance of Luckey. However, for the Grizzlies’ fans they were lucky that Luckey came through big-time after he carried the ball a whopping 33 times for 317 yards rushing with five touchdowns.

Luckey also returned a punt for 15 yards, and on defense the 5-foot-9, 180-pound junior safety had four tackles.

The 317 yards rushing is a career high mark, but Luckey has been piling up rushing yardage all season. Last week’s outing was the third time he’s rushed for over 200 yards and two weeks ago in the Grizzlies’ lone loss, 38-26 to state-ranked San Ramon Valley of Danville, he ran for 165 yards and two touchdowns.

So far this season, Jhadis has rushed for 1,450 yards and is averaging 10.0 yards per carry. He also had 103 yards receiving and two touchdowns, plus he does some limited kickoff and punt returning. On defense he has 42 tackles and two interceptions.

The 1,450 yards rushing is the No. 11 reported mark in the state and tops both in the CIF North Coast Section and the entire Bay Area.

Josiah Campbell from Christian Brothers of Sacramento has been a tackling machine all season. Photo: Facebook.com.

Josiah Campbell
(Christian Brothers, Sacramento) Sr.

To find the Northern California Defensive Player of the Week, we visit Sacramento, and it’s not far southeast of the state capitol building where this tackling machine plies his trade.

With the kind of season the 6-foot-1, 210-pound senior is having this season, we very well could have picked him for this statewide honor on more than one occasion previously.

In fact, the 22 tackles with 17 solo and two for losses, plus a forced fumble that he registered in a 33-7 victory over Balla Vista of Fair Oaks last week only ties his second-highest total for tackles in a game this season.

Campbell also had 22 tackles (17 solo) in a 37-36 victory in September over Inderkum of Sacramento. Ironically, his season high came in a 7-0 loss to arch-rival Jesuit of Carmichael where Josiah had 23 tackles with 16 solo and two for losses.

We called Campbell a tackling machine because that is what he is. With last week’s performance, Josiah now has 145 tackles (99 solo) with seven for losses including two sacks. That total not only is 34 tackles more than the No. 2 reported mark in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section it was No. 1 in the state this week by 22 tackles according to MaxPreps.

Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Multi-Purpose/Special Teams Player of the Week

Preston Clark (Bullard, Fresno) Sr.

We added multi-purpose to this category last year because sometimes it’s hard to find a kicker who does enough to earn a statewide honor, but this week we didn’t have to search for a kicker because longtime Cal-Hi Sports friend and contributor and CIF Central Section historian Bob Barnett nominated Bullard’s Clark in his weekly Milestones missive.

Last week, in a 44-13 victory over visiting crosstown Justin Garza, Clark “kicked Bullard past Justin Garza” according to Barnett after he tied a school record with three field goals, one from 45 yards out and the other two from 21 and 27 yards.

Clark was also 5-for-5 on PATs for a total of 14 kicking points in the game, meaning Preston had more points with his foot than Garza tallied for the game, and according to Barnett the 14 kicking points is the second highest total in school history. Clark also had one punt in the game, and it went for 40 yards.

So far this season, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Clark, who is also the goalkeeper on the Bullard soccer team, has made 36-of-38 PATs and 4-of-5 field goals.

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