All-State Football 2025: Small Schools

With the sophomores and juniors in the books, we now switch to the best of the best among small schools for the 48th annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State football honors. We have a first team of 30 players as usual but once again there’s a few extra on second team multi-purpose to account for the high number of those types of players who are small schools. Small Schools Team of the Year Sonora leads the way with five honorees with Rio Hondo Prep right behind with four. Sutter, Ferndale, Santa Fe Christian, St. Vincent de Paul and Immanuel all have three.

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It was truly one of the most memorable years for power-packed small school football teams that has been covered in the 48 years of there being Cal-Hi Sports all-state small school honor squads.

It culminated in the CIF D2-A state championship game played at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, which has never featured two legit small school teams in that high of a state divisional final before. That Sonora was a dominant 35-10 winner over Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia shouldn’t diminish that claim. The Wildcats were just that good this season in winning their second straight state title and ending 15-0. Rio Hondo Prep, which won the CIF Southern Section D5 championship, was looking to go 16-0, but fell short to Sonora.

Sonora senior running back-defensive back Cash Byington already has been named as the Small Schools State Player of the Year. He’s been joined on first team by teammates Brody Speer and Steven Morfoot. Speer also was one of the team’s top running backs, but he was the leading tackler on the team at linebacker and thus was placed on the all-state team at linebacker. Morfoot ranked among the state leaders in interceptions with nine and he had two in the state final. He was placed on the all-state team at defensive back.

Two other Wildcat players have gained second team nods. Channce Davis, a 6-foot-1, 280-pound offensive lineman who already has been named first team All-Sac-Joaquin Section, is one of them. The other is kicker Rigo Estrella, who made 82 PATs and was 6-of-7 on field goals for the season with a longest of 48 yards.

Rio Hondo Prep was perhaps even more tricky to pick its players with such a balanced lineup on both sides of the ball. There are four from the Kares, however, who have all-state honors.

The player who already has been selected as the San Gabriel Valley Tribune Player of the Year, two-way lineman Elijah Gavia, was put on first team all-state on the offensive line. Senior Noah Penunuri was an all-state pick last year for two-way success, and while he did still rush for 1,233 yards in 13 games (he missed three games with injury) we put him on for defense for this year (he had 82 tackles). The team’s leading tackler was junior Christian Lee with 109. He also rushed for 770 yards and 11 TDs and has made the all-state small schools second team on multi-purpose. We also could have put senior Nate Shine on as multi-purpose (he rushed for 124 yards in a big regional playoff win vs Santa Fe Christian) but he also led the team in sacks on defense, he was named All-SGV on defense, so that is where he was placed (on second team all-state).

The team that Rio Hondo Prep defeated to reach the state final, Santa Fe Christian, is one of the teams that has three all-state small school honorees. Junior QB Dax Labrum is one of those three. He already has landed All-CIF San Diego Section honors and passed for 3,106 yards and 36 TDs and importantly had to go higher or equal to Bishop’s of La Jolla junior QB Cash Herrera (who has a number of D1 offers) for our teams. First team kicker Bradan Scott and second team linebacker Cole Hajjar are the other two.

In the CIF D4-AA state final, Barstow topped Sutter, but Barstow is medium schools based on enrollment and other factors so any of its players would be on the upcoming medium schools all-state teams. Sutter is still small schools as is the team Barstow beat in the SoCal regional final, Immanuel of Reedley. Sutter’s NorCal opponent, Ferndale, plus the team Ferndale beat to win a CIF North Coast Section title, St. Vincent de Paul of Petaluma, would be small schools as well. Sutter, Immanuel, Ferndale and St. Vincent de Paul all have three all-state players.

One of Sutter’s all-state players, junior defensive end Troy Bowens, was picked last week to be on our all-state juniors first team. He’s one of the top-ranked junior rush ends in the state regardless of school size and has been welcoming numerous college head coaches on campus visits in recent days.

One of Ferndale’s three is first team multi-purpose Tanner Pidgeon. He’s a repeater from last year and was the leading player on the team that set a new state record for regular season scoring with 646 ponts. Tanner passed for 1,020 yards and 13 TDs and rushed for 1,149 yards and 29 TDs on offense. On defense, he had seven interceptions as a DB plus 57 tackles.

Immanuel had two big linemen get onto the teams (one offense, one defense) plus Fresno Bee medium schools player of the year Tyler Romo had to be on our small schools squad. Tyler is listed for us on small schools multi-purpose first team. He had 1,159 yards rushing and 18 TDs on offense. On defense, he had 94 tackles, two sacks and one interception.

St. Vincent de Paul quarterback Gabe Casanovas saw his senior season totals reduced by injury, but his four-year career totals of 7,311 yards passing, 98 career TD passes plus 2,266 career yards rushing with 32 TDs scored were plenty enough for another all-state nod. The Mustangs also had San Diego State-bound tight end Jack Ellis named to first team.

We did not pick a straight punter to either first or second team this season, but instead went for a multi-purpose player who also had a strong punting average. For first team it was tight end-punter Bryce McDaniel. He’s signed with Fresno State as a tight end and had a whopping 46.6-yard punting average. For second team it was one of the Ferndale guys, Preston Langer, who averaged 41.8 yards per punt even though he didn’t have to punt it very often for that team.

Note: Schools broken down into large, medium and small based on section playoff divisions but also on where they’ve been traditionally. We also will not generally consider a school close to or above 1,200 enrollment small school at all no matter what section or state playoff division that school is placed. This means that many teams competing for CIF state titles in D4-AA down to D7-AA (examples Balboa of San Francisco and South El Monte) aren’t going to be a “small” school. Medium, yes. Small, no. We’ve also already done medium school and small school final team rankings for the 2025 season so many teams already have been put into those classifications.

Cal-Hi Sports All-State Football
Small Schools

FIRST TEAM OFFENSE

WR Landon Cooper (Grace, Simi Valley) 5-10, 165, Sr.
TE Jack Ellis
(St. Vincent de Paul, Petaluma) 6-5, 230, Sr.
OL Tipi Aloua (Immanuel, Reedley) 6-6, 350, Sr.
OL Robert Beverly (Carmel) 6-8, 290, Sr.
OL Lincoln Brunson
(Army-Navy, Carlsbad) 6-0, 260, Sr.
OL Elijah Gavia
(Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia) 6-1, 270, Sr.
OL Adam Simson
(Hamilton, Hamilton City) 6-6, 270, Sr.
QB Dax Labrum
(Santa Fe Christian, Solana Beach) 6-3, 185, Jr.
RB Enrique Armas (Holtville) 5-8, 180, Sr.
RB Jason De La Cruz (Orosi) 6-0, 170, Sr.
RB Tatum Ortiz
(Rim of the World, Lake Arrowhead) 5-8, 170, Sr.
PK Bradan Scott
(Santa Fe Christian, Solana Beach) 6-3, 185, Sr.

FIRST TEAM DEFENSE

DL Troy Bowens (Sutter) 6-4, 250, Jr.
DL Jason Davis (Gridley) 6-4, 270, Sr.
DL James Moffat (Crespi, Encino) 6-4, 260, Sr.
DL Palmer Riley (Menlo School, Atherton) 6-4, 250, SR.
LB Cole Hefner (Valley Christian, Cerritos) 6-2, 210, Sr.
LB Lance Mitchell (Moreau, Hayward) 6-2, 215, Sr.
LB Brody Speer (Sonora) 6-1, 220, Sr.
LB Justin Turner (King’s Academy, Sunnyvale) 6-0, 195, Sr.
DB Shane Anderson (Viewpoint, Calabasas) 6-0, 185, Jr.
DB Steven Morfoot (Sonora) 6-0, 170, Sr.
DB Noah Penunuri (Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia) 5-11, 175, Sr.

FIRST TEAM MULTI-PURPOSE

QB/RB Lane Brown (Winters) 6-3, 185, Sr.
RB/DB Cash Byington (Sonora) 5-11, 185, Sr.
QB/RB Gabe Casanovas (St. Vincent de Paul, Petaluma) 6-2, 190, Sr.
QB/RB Cash Herrera (Bishop’s, La Jolla) 6-3, 185, Jr.
RB/LB Tanner Pidgeon (Ferndale) 5-11, 205, Sr.
TE/P Bryce McDaniel (Hughson) 6-4, 215, Sr.
RB/LB Tyler Romo (Immanuel, Reedley) 6-0, 205, Sr.

SECOND TEAM OFFENSE

WR Miles Galbraith
(Cantwell Sacred Heart, Montebello) 5-11, 185, Sr.
WR Carlton Perrilliat (Salesian, Richmond) 6-5, 185, Sr.
OL Channce Davis (Sonora) 6-1, 285, Sr.
OL Jorge Gonzalez (Santa Paula) 6-5, 280, Sr.
OL Justin Ortiz (Hilmar) 6-7, 295, Jr.
OL Lance Wegman
(St. Vincent de Paul, Petaluma) 6-5, 290, Sr.
OL Ethan Weitzel (Ferndale) 6-1, 250, Sr.
QB Michael Wynn
(St. Genevieve, Panorama City) 6-0, 200, Sr.
RB Losi Asiata (Sutter) 6-0, 195, Jr.
RB J’Anthony Cobb (Salesian, L.A.) 5-10, 180, Sr.
RB Tyler Cunningham (Templeton) 6-2, 205, Sr.
PK Rigo Estrella (Sonora) 6-5, 180, Sr.

SECOND TEAM DEFENSE

DL Jahseree Bailey (St. Bernard’s, Eureka) 6-2, 225, Sr.
DL Somto Nuvude (Crespi, Encino) 6-3, 215, Sr.
DL Nate Shine (Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia) 6-0, 225, Sr.
DL Malachi Tagi (Immanuel, Reedley) 6-1, 315, Sr.
DL Lotu Taufa (Mary Star, San Pedro) 6-4, 315, Jr.
LB Cole Hajjar (Santa Fe Christian, Solana Beach) 5-11, 185, Sr.
LB Daniel Hinkey (Kern Valley, Lake Isabella) 6-0, 190, Sr.
LB Chase Togerson (Christian, El Cajon) 5-11, 190, Sr.
DB Max Bringgold (Sutter) 6-1, 195, Sr.
DB Amos Cady (Ripon Christian) 6-0, 170, Sr.
DB Raul Iniguez (Fall River, McArthur) 6-1, 180, Jr.

SECOND TEAM MULTI-PURPOSE

QB/RB Sands Dougherty (Morro Bay) 6-0, 190, Sr.
WR/DB Jaiden Flores (King’s Academy, Sunnyvale) 6-3, 190, Jr.
TE/DE Darren Goodman (Redding Christian, Palo Cedro) 6-4, 210, Jr.
DL/ATH Kohlton Hall (St. Bernard’s, Eureka) 6-4, 240, Sr.
RB/TE/LB/P Prescott Langer (Ferndale) 6-3, 230, Sr.
RB/LB Christian Lee (Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia) 6-2, 190, Jr.
QB/RB Luke Lemke (Arcata) 6-2, 205, Sr.
LB/TE Madden Mayer (Linfield Christian, Temecula) 6-0, 180, Jr.
RB/LB Mason Pisarski (Bradshaw Christian, Sacramento) 6-0, 190, Sr.
WR/DB Dean Sommer (St. Helena) 6-2, 185, Sr.
QB/RB/DB Kayden Strong (Hamilton, Hamilton City) 6-0, 175, Sr.
QB/RB Adrian Torres (Kerman) 5-11, 170, Sr.

SMALL SCHOOLS STATE PLAYER OF THE YEAR (previously announced):
Cash Byington (Sonora)

SMALL SCHOOLS STATE COACH OF THE YEAR (previously announced):
Mark Carson (Rio Hondo Prep, Arcadia)

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