Two of this week’s honorees are Evan Higgs of Paradise (left) and Matix Frith-Smith from Hart of Newhall. Photos: _paradisefb / Instagram.com & Habeba Mostafa / SignalSports.com.
Our first stop this week is to the small town in Butte County in Northern California that was in the news to start the season for a trip it made to Maui to play another school known for once being devastated by a wildfire. We then head to another small town in the CIF Central Section and then visit the city of Oakland before heading south. Our first SoCal stop is in the Santa Clarita Valley. This week’s tour then ends further south in San Diego and Palm Desert.
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Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Evan Higgs (Paradise) Sr.
Earlier this season, the Paradise team traveled to Maui in the Hawaiian islands for what was called “The Unity Bowl” for a game against Lahainalua High. Both schools and their communities in recent years have been devastated by a wildfire. And the Paradise team got some financial help from future Hall of Fame NFL QB Aaron Rodgers to make the trip. He played games at Paradise when he played at Pleasant Valley High in Chico.
Now, we have Paradise back in the spotlight again due to the accomplishments of its senior running back. Higgs went bonkers for the Bobcats in their 41-3 triumph last Friday over Colusa. He carried 35 times for 367 yards and four touchdowns. He also had five receptions in that game for 63 yards.
Higgs also jumped himself much higher on the state leader list. Although Paradise has not had a great season overall with just two wins, he had 273 yards rushing in a close loss to Pierce of Arbuckle. For the season, the big night vs Colusa put his season total over 1,000 yards with 1,217 yards heading into this week’s game.
Gracen Halton of the San Francisco 49ers was an all-state player at St. Augustine (San Diego). We’ll see if Gracin Redding can do that as a junior at Coalinga. Photo: X.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Gracin Redding (Coalinga) Jr.
One of the most unlikely shutouts of the season for a defense has to be the one the Redding and his team at Coalinga were able to accomplish in last week’s game against Liberty of Madera Ranchos. Liberty came into the game at 6-0 and had scored at least 37 points in each of its first six games. At the end of last week’s game, though, Coalinga had posted a 20-0 shutout win.
Gracin could have been a multi-purpose player of the week but we went for him on defense due to the team shutout. He was the leading tackler on defense with 13 tackles. He had four tackles for loss and two sacks. Offensively, Redding also was the star of the game. He rushed for 156 yards on 16 carries and scored three times.
As a freshman, Redding started at linebacker for the Horned Toads and helped them win a CIF Central Section title. His 156-yard game rushing was a season high, but he has had a season-high 14 tackles twice, first in a win vs McLane of Fresno and later in a win vs Firebaugh. Coalinga’s only loss so far came to Templeton. Gracin has 82 tackles on the season with 10 for loss and one fumble recovery.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Jaylin Davis (Castlemont, Oakland) Sr.
The returning standout for the Knights, who was on the San Francisco Chronicle’s All-Metro honorable mention list after last season, had one of the multi-purpose outings that game in a 42-0 win last week over Fremont of Oakland that makes one wonder if there’s anything he didn’t do, including carrying the water or lining the field beforehand.
Davis scored twice in the game, once on 75-yard run described as Marshawn Lynch-esque by the Bay Area News group. He also scooped up a fumble and ran for a 55-yard touchdown. On top of that, Davis rushed for 101 yards, blocked a punt on special teams and on defense he also recovered a pair of fumbles.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Special Teams/Multi-Purpose Player of the Week
Matix Frith-Smith (Hart, Newhall) Sr.
When head coach Jake Goossen-Brown of Hart emailed a nomination in for Matix, he did so with the hyphen in the standout player’s last name. That’s not something we’ve seen before, but Goossen-Brown confirmed it as being the preferred way to list it. “That is the original way,” the coach said. “Had to switch the back of his jersey.”
We almost picked Frith-Smith as a player of the week earlier this season for a game he had against Saugus, but the Hawks’ senior had an even better outing in last week’s 42-7 victory over West Ranch of Valencia. Matix rushed for 283 yards and four TDs, he had a 43-yard TD on a reception, went 1-for-1 passing for 26 yards and returned a kick 43 yards. All in all, he had 395 all-purpose yards on the night and five touchdowns.
For the season so far in Hart’s 6-1 start (which includes a win over Newbury Park and an only loss to Pacifica of Oxnard), Frith-Smith had rushed for 952 yards and 12 TDs, he’s caught 25 balls for 258 yards and 1 TD and he has 59 return yards. Last season, he was deployed more as a receiver and had 82 catches for 1,090 yards and nine TDs with more than 1,300 yards rushing.
“Whether he’s running the ball, catching passes, throwing the football, or returning kicks, Matix impacts every phase of the game,” Goossen-Brown said. “His ability to line up anywhere on the field and consistently make explosive plays is what makes him such a special talent.”
San Diego Hoover’s Hezekiah Manual breaks into the clear as a running QB during a game earlier this season. Photo: nibarivisuals / Instagram.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Offensive Player of the Week
Hezekiah Manual (Hoover, San Diego) Jr.
Here’s one of those players who it’s just a matter of what time to get him taken care of as a player of the week. He’s had more yards passing in a game before, but this past week it was still an impressive 426 yards plus six TD passes in a 40-13 win over Kearny of San Diego. Manual completed 25 of 34 passes and he added 35 yards rushing on two carries.
Hezekiah broke onto the scene as a stat star regular and one of the most dynamic players in the CIF San Diego Section last season as a sophomore. He helped the Cardinals reach the D5 section championship game (lost to Morse) by passing for 3,033 yards and 26 TDs in 14 games. He also rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
So far this season in eight game, Manual has 2,590 yards passing and 26 TDs plus 688 yards and 13 scores. He already has more than 6,000 career yards for passing and is closing in on 8,000 yards for career total offense. With another year to go after this one, Hezekiah has a chance to really move up on several all-time state lists.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Defensive Player of the Week
Santino Cannone (Xavier Prep, Palm Desert) Jr.
This week’s SoCal defensive choice was a difficult one as we were splitting hairs over several final nominees. The difference for Cannone is that his previous outing prior to last week also was impresssive.
A 6-foot-1, 205-pound junior with a 4.5 GPA, Santino had 15 tackles and a forced fumble for Xavier Prep in a 14-3 win over Palm Desert. The week before, in a 14-13 victory vs Palm Springs, Cannone registered 14 tackles and three sacks.
Cannone, who is a three-sport athlete for the Saints, had 52 tackles with 35 solo in his first five games this season. He also had four tackles for loss with a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.
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