Presented by LE BOULANGER bakery, this is the latest in a new feature highlighting the most outstanding players from the South Bay/Peninsula region of the CIF Central Coast Section. This week’s three honorees are Anthony Gordon from Terra Nova of Pacifica, Jake Holton of Los Gatos and Maurice Washington from The King’s Academy of Sunnyvale. CLICK HERE for details on how South Bay/Peninsula football fans can win 2 free San Francisco 49ers tickets.
Le Boulanger South Bay/Peninsula
Offensive Player of the Week
Anthony Gordon (Terra Nova, Pacifica) Sr.
As the season has been winding down, we’ve been looking for a week to get Anthony written up and selected for this honor. Part of the problem is that it’s preferable to choose players from winning teams and Gordon’s team at Terra Nova was only 4-6 in the regular season, although the Tigers did play a tough schedule.
We finally have the perfect week for Gordon. Facing top-seeded The King’s Academy in the first round of the CIF Central Coast Section Division IV playoffs, the senior quarterback connected on 25 of 38 passes for 412 yards and five touchdowns. It wasn’t Gordon’s top outing of the season, either, since he set the CCS record with 513 yards against Menlo School.
Counting from his regular season state-leading total of 3,828 yards, Gordon upped his overall total to 4,262 yards with 40 TD passes. He and the Tigers face Carmel (8-3) in this week’s semifinals.
Le Boulanger South Bay/Peninsula
Defensive Player of the Week
Jake Holton (Los Gatos) Jr.
With the Wildcats stunning many in the Bay Area with their 28-0 shutout of San Mateo Serra in the opening round of the CCS Open Division, it only made sense for us to look for someone off of that defense to become this week’s honoree.
Holton was a logical choice. The 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior has been the team’s leading tackler this season and against Serra he had a team-high 10 tackles plus came up with an interception.
That interception helped seal the deal for Los Gatos since it came at the Serra 10-yard line in the third quarter and set up a short TD run by Joey Wood that made it a 21-0 score.
Le Boulanger South Bay/Peninsula
Special Teams Player of the Week
Maurice Washington (The King’s Academy, Sunnyvale) Fr.
We hadn’t selected anyone from a team before that lost in its game from the previous weekend but went with Washington for several reasons.
First, there wasn’t a lot to choose from in the special teams category with much fewer teams playing. And second, Washington could be one of the top freshmen in the CCS.
In a 42-28 loss by The King’s Academy to Terra Nova of Pacifica, Washington kept the Knights close by returning a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. It also was the second straight week in which he had a kick return score.
Washington, who also scored against Terra Nova on a 65-yard TD run, probably will soon be compared to former King’s Academy standout Amir Carlisle, who is now a wide receiver at Notre Dame.
Note: To send in nominations for next week’s LE BOULANGER South Bay/Peninsula Players of the Week, send info to markjtennis@gmail.com or to marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Please include usable photo if possible as well, which means not from a newspaper or major national website.
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