DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Connor McKendry knows his left from his right.

So he knew when he made the shift from right tackle to left tackle on Estancia High’s offensive line, he was going to have to take charge.

McKendry understood that the left tackle position meant he was the best lineman on the team, charged with protecting the quarterback’s blind side and clearing the way for a running back like senior starter Carlos Mendez.

The six-foot-four, 255-pound senior just started playing left tackle this year, but it’s paid off in big dividends for the Eagles and for Mendez, who has 1,307 yards rushing in nine games this season.

Maybe it’s the food.

McKendry was the one who came up with the idea of having a different parent cook for the offensive line, tight end, running back, and quarterback after every Estancia win.

When the Eagles (5-4, 2-0 in the Orange Coast League) earned their first win over Buena Park, McKendry’s family cooked steaks for the group at his grandmother’s house.

For the next win, David Lopez’s mother and grandmother made enchiladas and tostadas, and of course, the entire team ate ribs at Newport Rib Company after the Battle for the Bell.

But something in the math didn’t add up to McKendry. There’s two dinners he’s still waiting to enjoy.

“After the last few wins, people have yet to step up to make us food, so I’m still waiting for that food,” he said, jokingly.

But Friday night’s 41-13 win over Costa Mesa in the Battle for the Bell was the offense’s best performance of the season.

Mendez rushed for 299 yards and three touchdowns to smash James Dawkins’ single-game rushing record of 247 yards, set in 1996.

Mendez averaged just more than eight yards per carry and, generally, he didn’t even get touched until he’d run through the line and someone in the secondary stopped him.

“It didn’t seem like Carlos ran that much to me,” McKendry said. “It seemed like any other game. The total just added up to be a great game. I kept telling the coach, I want the ball to run to my side because I felt like I could contribute to his rushing totals.”

McKendry wasn’t even allowed to play football until his freshman year at Estancia because he always exceeded the size requirements for Pop Warner and junior All-American leagues. So his first team sport, and his first love, was basketball.

As a freshman, coaches tried him at fullback and tight end, but he finally settled at tackle.

“It was a whole learning experience my freshman year, learning tackle football,” McKendry said. “My sophomore year, I felt like it was butt-kicking time.”

Now, McKendry is shopping his skills as a blocker in hopes of earning a spot on a college football team.

He’s communicated with Oregon, Washington State, UCLA, and a couple of Division III schools, and so far, he’s leaning toward Washington State.

“I instantly fell in love with the campus,” he explained.

McKendry visited on his own, and attended a four-day camp in June, when he was voted MVP on the offensive line by the coaching staff.

Estancia is not exactly a hotbed of college recruiting, so McKendry’s father has been adamant that the left tackle send his information everywhere.

Steve McKendry owns his own door company in Cerritos, where Connor’s brother, Bryce, works as well. Bryce McKendry, 20, also played football for Estancia, and he’s now a student at Orange Coast College.

“He pushes me to succeed in everything because he wants me to have the opportunities that he didn’t have and that my brother didn’t have,” McKendry said.

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