Two of this week’s honorees are quarterback Jacoby More from Vista del Lago of Folsom and running back Elisha Robinson from Mountain Empire of Pine Valley. Photos: Dorie Anderson / Gold Country Media & EastCountySports.com / YouTube.
It’s usually difficult to pick the defensive honorees each week, but this week we got a strong nomination from the south and easily came across an easy one for the north. Our stops this week are in Folsom (but not at the school you think about first), Santa Rosa and Modesto in the north. For the south, we head to the small San Diego town of Pine Valley and then hit Chino Hills and Lancaster.
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Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Jacoby More (Vista del Lago, Folsom) Jr.
Quarterbacks from nearby Folsom High are known throughout the nation, but once in a while Vista del Lago of Folsom has a real good one as well and that’s the case this season with More, who also is a junior and could be one to watch as he goes through the camp/combine/Elite 11 circuit in the spring.
In a 36-22 win over Ponderosa of Shingle Springs last Friday that didn’t get the Eagles (5-5) into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs but did get them an invitational bowl game matchup with West Park of Roseville (also 5-5), More connected on 21 of 29 passes for 369 yards and four touchdowns. He also runs the ball effectively and while he didn’t score vs the Bruins he did rush for 72 yards on 10 carries.
For the season, the big outing vs Ponderosa also put Jacoby above 3,000 yards for the season. Entering the bowl game, the 6-foot-2, 175-pounder has 3,009 yards passing with 32 TD passes plus 250 yards rushing and two TDs. We’re sure More also would want to give a shout out to teammate senior receiver Luke Roberts, who caught three of the TD passes last week and had six catches for 109 yards.
Carmine Guevara has done a little bit of everything for the Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa football team, but getting four interceptions in one game sure stood out last week. Photo: cardinalnewmancardinals.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Carmine Guevara
(Cardinal Newman, Santa Rosa) Sr.
As a junior last season on offense, Guevara had 37 catches for 800 yards and nine touchdowns. He played defense and subbed in for some starts at quarterback due to an injury to top QB J.T. Retamoza. This year, Carmine himself has missed games — six in all — due to injury but played last week and had a huge outing on the defensive side of the ball.
In Cardinal Newman’s 45-0 shutout of Windsor to complete a dominant run in the Redwood Empire Adobe Division, Guevara turned heads by coming down with four interceptions. His other stats for the night were not available, but four interceptions on defense and knowing how versatile he’s been the last two seasons was enough for this week’s defensive selection.
The Cardinal Newman defense only allowed 14 points in its five league games. The Cardinals will be the No. 2 seed in the CIF North Coast Section Open/D1 playoffs behind 33-time defending champion De La Salle. With a win on Friday vs Marin Catholic of Kentfield, they would then likely earn a shot at playing De La Salle the following week for the NCS Open Division title.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Joel Mora (Johansen, Modesto) Sr.
It’s likely going to be a tough task for Mora and the Vikings when they head to Sacramento on Friday to play top seed Destiny Christian of Sacramento in the first round of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 playoffs. But Mora will be a player that the unbeaten Lions will have to keep and eye on.
He’s been a two-way standout all season and had another top outing in last week’s 45-7 victory over Pacheco of Los Banos. Mora caught six passes for 120 yards and two TDs and he had four tackles with an interception on defense. For the season, Joel enters the playoffs with 40 receptions for 597 yards and nine TDs on offense. On defense, his interception vs Pacheco was his seventh of the season, which also is among the leaders in the state and is tied for second in the SJS.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Elisha Robinson (Mountain Empire, Pine Valley) Jr.
One week after the SoCal Offensive Player of the Week, Jacory Coleman of Baldwin Park, rushed for 451 yards in one game, we have a second running back who is going to add his name to the all-time single-game state list. That will be Robinson, a junior from Mountain Empire in the CIF San Diego Section, who exploded for 424 yards rushing and six touchdowns for the RedHawks in their 55-28 win over Clairemont of San Diego in the SD D5-AA playoffs.
The two teams were tied at 28-28 when Robinson and the running game took control and scored 27 straight points to end the game. Elisha also went past 2,000 yards rushing for the season, despite one of Mountain Empire’s games getting canceled. He’ll enter the semifinal round of the bracket with 2,009 yards and 29 rushing touchdowns.
It takes a single-game total of 415 yards to make it on to the exclusive Cal-Hi Sports state record list. Robinson’s total also looks like it is a tie for 7th on the all-time San Diego Section list. The section records include one 8-man performance (we count those separately) and don’t have a 424-yard game (same as Robinson) for Kenneth James of San Diego Mt. Carmel in a 49-32 win over Westview of San Diego in 2009.
Defensive end sack master Jacob “Boogie” Baker and team at Chino Hills are seeded No. 1 for the CIF Southern Section D4 playoffs. Photo: Hudl.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Jacob “Boogie” Baker (Chino Hills) Sr.
In all games played by Chino Hills last season, it was only able to get 13 sacks of the opposing quarterback. With Baker this season breaking through repeatedly, it’s been much, much better. In fact, after what “Boogie” did in the Huskies’ 28-21 win over Culver City last Friday in the CIF Southern Section D4 playoffs, his own personal season total for sacks is well in front of the team total from last year.
Baker led the Chino Hills defense in its playoff win with 6.5 sacks. According to Riverside Press-Enterprise writer Eric-Paul Johnson, he’s also now at 21.5 sacks for the season. That’s the second-highest total in the state.
The 6.5 sacks for one game also will be enough to land Baker’s name on the all-time single-game state list. The record of 10 was set in 2015 by Hunter Cabral of Hanford Sierra Pacific. The Inland Empire record is 7.0 by two players with one of those being current NFL defensive end Jaelen Phillips from the 2016 season when he was starring at Redlands East Valley.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Shawn Sanders (Paraclete, Lancaster) Sr.
Now that the playoffs are around us, there are some instances in which we may break from the norm and do one of these writeups on a player who did something special in a losing effort for his team. And besides, anyone on a losing team right now will be done for the season and for a senior done for a career.
All of that is true for Sanders, who has had a career that began at St. Francis of La Canada, where he played alongside older brother, John. Both brothers later played at Paraclete and Shawn finished his senior season for the Spirits last Friday.
In a heart-breaking 45-44 loss in two overtimes to Summit of Fontana in the first round of the CIFSS D6 playoffs, Sanders had a truly remarkable outing. He passed for 331 yards and four touchdowns, he rushed for 101 yards and one touchdown, he made five PAT kicks in five attempts and he had a 63-yard punt. For the season, Shawn finished with 1,934 yards passing and 893 yards rushing. He also has a 4.2 GPA and has been reported with a punting average above 50 yards per punt.
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
