DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Even though there are 17 seniors on Estancia High’s football team, there are three who just might be the group’s oldest souls.

Eddie Tomasek, Ryan Redding, and Mike Morley are close friends who have all known each other since they were about 11 years old.

They used to play in Little League together, and they went to the same middle school.

Now, the three all laugh over episodes of Seinfeld (which stopped taping original episodes in 1998) and argue over sports, especially football.

Morley is a Green Bay Packers fan, while Tomasek and Redding spend their time defending the Philadelphia Eagles, who are currently last in the NFC East standings. Morley’s Packers sit atop the NFC North.

“I know we all follow sports pretty closely,” Morley said. “So probably 75% of the time, our conversations are about football. One thing that draws us close is football.”

So it only seemed fitting that when the Eagles were in a pinch, Tomasek, who plays wide receiver and linebacker, would take over for his injured friend, Morley, and at least for a week, he would direct the offense.

After all, it was Morley and Tomasek who coaxed Redding into playing wide receiver for Estancia this year. The trio always used to play on the same casual pick-up team at the park, but before this year, Redding had just been playing baseball at Estancia.

Finally, someone else was available to take the heat catching passes over the middle.

Friday night in Acton, Tomasek tossed three passes to Redding for 132 yards and two touchdowns. He finished the evening with seven completions for 163 total yards and two touchdowns.

“I’m sure Eddie was glad to be playing last week throwing touchdowns to him,” Morley said.

It was his first time playing quarterback since stepping in for half a game as a freshman. Tomasek filled in for Radames Gutierrez, who was still out with a high ankle sprain.

Morley sustained a season-ending injury when he broke his elbow during the Ocean View game.

“I was pretty convinced that Eddie was the most offensive-minded person I knew until last year,” Morley said. “Then I saw him play defense against CdM, and he just laid the guy out. I was like, I think Eddie can play defense. And now, I almost want to say that Eddie’s more defensive-minded. I don’t want to say it, but I think it’s true.”

Coach Mike Bargas was worried entering the Vasquez game about the ball exchange between Tomasek and Eagles center David Lopez.

The week before the game, Lopez and Tomasek stayed late to take about 50 snaps after practice. Bargas was concerned about the exchange, but it wasn’t a problem against the Mustangs.

“I had no doubt,” Tomasek said. “I wasn’t nervous at all about the snaps because I knew if I thought about it, the more I thought about it, the more likely they would have been messed up.”

Tomasek’s favorite movie is “Uncle Buck,” which was released in 1989, before he was even born, and he said he’s ready to get away from the apron strings of Costa Mesa to try his hand at independence, possibly on the East Coast.

He’s watched it so many times he knows almost all the lines.

Tomasek demonstrated: “Here’s a quarter,” he said. “Go downtown and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face.”

Tomasek is considering attending Loyola, Delaware, Lafayette, Ursinus, Santa Clara, or Santa Barbara next fall. He hasn’t decided what he wants to study, but Tomasek said he likes late 19th and early 20th-century U.S. history.

But, despite the taste in past movies and sitcoms, Tomasek isn’t a complete old head. The last good movie he saw he said, was “Superbad.”

Tomasek, Morley, and Redding have shared laughs over the comedy by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, because really, what isn’t there to love about a bumbling über-nerd whose fake ID name is “McLovin?”

“I loved it,” Tomasek said. “I think it’s one of the best movies.”

But as a coming-of-age film, is it accurate?

Is anyone really going to try to smuggle beer out of a party he wasn’t invited to in laundry detergent containers?

Tomasek laughed, and then answered.

“No.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.