Prep Rally: The most exciting quarterbacks so far this season
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. Good quarterbacks are like a gold coin. Everyone wants one. There are plenty to watch this fall.
There was a terrific matchup of quarterbacks on Friday, with Minnesota commit Jackson Kollock of Laguna Beach taking on Santa Monica junior Wyatt Brown. Here’s the report.
Gavin Gray, a junior transfer from Thousand Oaks, has Agoura fans excited. “He’s the real deal,” coach Dustin Croick said. Gray passed for 352 yards and six touchdowns in a 58-55 win over Westlake. Now he gets to face his old school Friday.
Sophomore Jaden Jefferson continues to impress for 2-0 Cathedral, passing for 287 yards and three touchdowns during a win in Utah.
Sophomore Dane Weber of Chaparral (2-0) passed for 362 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for 101 yards and one touchdown in a 49-28 win over Apple Valley.
Junior Liam Pasten of Eagle Rock leads City Section quarterbacks with 571 yards passing in two games. He also has an interesting story. His father and two older brothers were star receivers at Eagle Rock. And he’s got a barber business on the side. Here’s the report.
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Southern Section football
Three years after dropping football, St. Bernard returned to the field and won its debut 21-14 over Littlerock. St. Bernard hadn’t played since the spring of 2021. Former Dorsey coach Charles Mincy has worked hard to get the program re-started. Chase Williams had a touchdown passing and running. He’s supposed to be a receiver but played quarterback while waiting for the starter to be cleared as a transfer student.
Williams waited since his freshman season to finally play for St. Bernard. He’s the son of College Football Hall of Fame receiver David Williams. Here’s his story of patience and loyalty.
Sierra Canyon set up a showdown with St. John Bosco on Saturday by routing Oaks Christian, which played without four injured starters. Here’s the report.
Trinity League teams are a combined 10-1. Santa Margarita has the only loss but came back with a stunning 31-15 rout of Corona Centennial behind Trent Mosley. The Eagles led 31-0.
Mater Dei plays Las Vegas Bishop Gorman on Friday at Santa Ana Stadium in a game that several national polls have as the top two teams in the nation.
Another big game Friday has Oxnard Pacifica (2-0) traveling to Newbury Park (2-0). There will be so much passing that exhaustion may set in for the statisticians trying to keep track.
Gardena Serra picked up a 36-0 win over Warren in a game that was halted at halftime when Warren administrators became concerned over crowd control. Warren also is dealing with the defections of receiver Jace Brown and quarterback Madden Iamaleava, two UCLA commits who did not play.
Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings from The Times.
Here’s this week’s schedule.
Here’s list of top performances.
City Section football
Perhaps the top two City Section teams, Birmingham and Narbonne, were routed in games against Southern Section opponents St. Bonaventure and Los Alamitos, respectively, but that only means they will be better.
Gardena had no trouble taking care of Crenshaw 52-0 with a running clock. Running back/defensive end Xavier Grant will be tough to stop this season. Here’s the report.
Quarterback Jack Thomas, a transfer for Loyola, continues to perform well at Palisades. Here’s the report.
Banning has used powerful performances up front to run the ball effectively in wins over Dorsey and Granada Hills to start the season 2-0, but the Pilots are about to find out that things are going to get a lot harder with five Southern Section opponents ahead, including Palos Verdes and Capistrano Valley.
Cesar Reyes rushed for 118 yards and four touchdowns in Garfield’s win over Crespi. Garfield faces King/Drew on Friday night.
Hamilton got its first win for new coach Elijah Asante and plays Crenshaw on Thursday night at Fairfax.
Here’s the City Section top 10 by The Times.
Flag football
Makena Cook, the sophomore quarterback for Orange Lutheran, is earning rave reviews. She led the Lancers to the championship of the Chargers tournament more than a week ago. Her throwing skills are impressive.
JSerra has started the season with a series of victories.
Garfield picked up a 51-12 win over Montebello. The Bulldogs have added athleticism and speed with players from the basketball, soccer and softball teams.
Top City Section teams Birmingham and Eagle Rock will begin their seasons this week and next.
Girls’ volleyball
When asked before the match to compare this year’s team to last, Redondo Union girls’ volleyball coach Tommy Chaffins said “We’re grittier.”
That grit was evident in key moments during last week’s 25-20, 25-19, 25-17 sweep of Mater Dei before a boisterous crowd in the Sea Hawks’ gym as they ended the Monarchs’ 28-match winning streak dating back to early last season at the Dave Mohs Tournament.
Here’s the report.
For a preview of top teams in girls volleyball, here’s the report.
Basketball
Sierra Canyon held its first girls’ basketball practice session of the new school year, and it’s clear talented junior Jerzy Robinson is better than ever. Asked what she’s improved on, she said, “Everything.”
Sierra Canyon will join Ontario Christian and Mater Dei in trying to topple defending Open Division and state champion Etiwanda.
Sierra Canyon has a 13-year-old freshman, 6-foot-2 Rosie Oladokun, who should be very good in the coming years. Her brother, Jimmy, played basketball for the boys team at Sierra Canyon.
Mei Ling Perry from Sage Hill has committed to Princeton.
Nikolas Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake completed one of the best years ever for a teenager by winning his second gold medal of the summer. This year, he was part of the Southern Section Open Division championship team, CIF state championship teams, USA 18U championship team and last week was named MVP of the 3x3 18U World Cup in Hungary. Here’s the report.
Water polo
The top teams in water polo are pretty clear: JSerra, Newport Harbor, Harvard-Westlake and Oaks Christian.
Here’s a look at the schools to beat.
All will be playing each other before the playoffs begins in the battle for No. 1 seed in the Open Division.
Cross-country
Palisades’ Blake Sigworth won the boys varsity individual at Glenn’s Great Cow Run in 15:09.4. West Torrance won the team title. Palisades won the girls team title with Serenity Fausto of Sana Ana winning in 17:09.8. Palisades’ Zoey Morris was second.
Girls’ tennis
Iva Jovic, a 16-year-old from Torrance who takes online courses, isn’t playing high school tennis. She became the youngest American to win a women’s main-draw match at the U.S. Open since 2020, eliminating 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-3 last week.
Here’s the report.
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Notes . . .
Sports power St. John Bosco has been undergoing administrative changes. Here’s the report. . . .
Infielder Noah Stead of Westlake has committed to Navy. . . .
Legendary Royal volleyball coach Bob Ferguson Jr. was killed in a a crash on Monday in Thousand Oaks. He was 77. His boys teams won four Southern Section championships and girls teams won two championships. He was a member of the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame. . . .
Doug Case, the football coach at Foothill for 25 years, announced his retirement at the conclusion of the season. . . .
Tony Green is no longer the baseball coach at Ganesha. He guided the team to a Southern Section title in 2023. . . .
Standout receiver Phillip Bell of Mission Viejo has committed to Ohio State.
From the archives: Tetairoa McMillan
Those who watched Tetairoa McMillan perform at receiver during his high school days at Servite are not surprised he has become one of the best in college football at Arizona.
In his season debut, he made 10 catches for 304 yards and four touchdowns against New Mexico State.
Here’s a story from 2021 about McMillan’s rise to prominence.
Recommendations
From the Review Journal, a story on Bishop Gorman looking toward playing Mater Dei this week.
From ESPN.com, a story on former Servite quarterback Noah Fifita.
From Projectplay.org, a story on five states helping foster youth sports.
From DailyCamera.com, a story on how Campbell Hall guard Isaiah Johnson ended up committing to Colorado.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
