Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week: Edison’s Bazer rises to occasion

Spencer Bazer is the kind of high school football player Edison Coach Dave White used to see line up on the defensive line back in the day. Bazer is small and quick.

The Edison roster lists Bazer at 5 feet 10, but the senior is a couple of inches shorter than that. At his size, Bazer looked the part, so White asked the 215-pounder if he wanted to play on the line this year. Bazer had never done it before.

The year before, Bazer played a little fullback, and he enjoyed it. The role allowed him at times to carry the ball, something he does in rugby, the sport he has played longer than football.

Bazer picked up rugby eight years ago. His dad, Ron, played rugby in college, and his older brother, Truman, played the sport as well. In rugby, Bazer plays the centre position.

“He gets to run the ball a lot,” Bazer said of whoever plays his position, which differs greatly from a center in football.

On the football field, the center is a player trying to slow Bazer down. Bazer is a defensive tackle in the Chargers’ 4-4 defense. He’s usually over the offensive guard, and the way Bazer has been performing in the first four games, a center needs to come help the guard block Bazer.

The double teams don’t always work. Bazer is coming off his best game, recording 12 tackles and three sacks in Edison’s 24-17 win at San Juan Hills last week.

The final sack came at a crucial time. With San Juan Hills on Edison’s nine in the waning seconds, Bazer kept the offense from scoring on the third-to-last play. He sacked the quarterback for a one-yard loss on second down, and with the clock running and the offense without any timeouts, the Stallions hurried up to the line to spike the ball.

Five seconds remained for the fourth-down play. The pass in the end zone never made it to the intended receiver’s hands, and Bazer and the Chargers remained undefeated.

“It got pretty close,” Bazer said.

Keeping it close will be a challenge for the Chargers on Friday, when they meet Mater Dei at 7 p.m. Both teams travel to Orange Coast College with 4-0 records, one is far more impressive than the other mark.

The Monarchs are not only ranked No. 3 in the state by CalHiSports.com, but also No. 3 in the nation by USA Today and MaxPreps.com. They have beaten teams by an average of almost nine touchdowns per game.

“I think it’s the best [Mater Dei] team we’ve ever seen,” said White, whose program has played the Monarchs every year from 1986-89, and then from 2000 to the present. “I’ve played them forever. This is as about as good [of talent] as they have had.”

Two and a half months ago, the Chargers got an early look at the loaded Monarchs. Bazer was there during the Battle at the Beach, in the semifinal between host Edison and Mater Dei.

Bazer wasn’t in the game because it was in a seven-on-seven passing tournament. Linemen don’t play. There were no pass rushers trying to get to the quarterback.

“It was really close,” said Bazer, who watched the Chargers lose to Mater Dei, 25-20. “But the way they play is kind of similar to seven-on-seven because they just pass it a lot. They’re big. They’re physical. They [have] a lot of good athletes.”

The job for Bazer and the defense is to contain Mater Dei quarterback JT Daniels and his plethora of receivers. The task, Bazer said, will be difficult.

For Daniels, he has Osiris St. Brown, a senior bound for Stanford, St. Brown’s younger brother, Amon-Ra, a junior, and juniors Nikko Remigio and C.J. Parks, and sophomore receiver Bru McCoy. White said Daniels has more weapons than quarterback Matt Barkley had at his disposal during his junior year at Mater Dei in 2007. Daniels has completed 83 of 103 passes for 1,508 yards and 23 touchdowns.

“They were really good on offense, too,” White said of the Monarchs with Barkley as the signal caller. “He had four really good receivers and they threw for a million yards. But these guys got five good receivers, and this quarterback is really special, too. They’re beating really good teams [like La Puente Bishop Amat, 63-14, and La Mirada, 48-0], and it [was] 56-0 at halftime [against Upland last week]. That’s what’s scary.

“We’re not going to stop their offense, but just try to slow them down. They’re catching the ball five yards [from the line of scrimmage] and getting 20 yards every time. People are missing tackles, so just try to tackle. We don’t care if they catch the ball at five yards, but don’t give them 20, give them seven.”

White isn’t worried about Bazer, even though Mater Dei boasts a stout offensive line, anchored by Tommy Brown, a highly recruited 6-7, 321-pound junior.

Playing rugby for so many years has benefited Bazer when it comes to tackling in football. He uses a rugby-style tackling move, leading with the shoulder and wrapping up around the legs. The technique works. In four games, Bazer is third on the team with 39 tackles and his 6.5 sacks rank first.

“He uses his quickness,” White said of Bazer, who also uses his smarts on the field, as he has 4.4 weighted grade-point average. “He’s going to go against guys bigger than him every game, and he’s done well with that.”

Spencer Bazer

Born: June 3, 1999

Hometown: Huntington Beach

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 215 pounds

Sport: Football

Year: Senior

Coach: Dave White

Favorite food: Tacos

Favorite movie: “The Sandlot”

Favorite athletic moment: “Winning the championship last year in rugby.”

Week in review: Bazer recorded 12 tackles and three sacks for the Chargers in a 24-17 win at San Juan Hills.