St. John Bosco vs. Mater Dei: Defensive Standouts

Two of the top teams in the country played each other Saturday in the Trinity League championship game at the Santa Ana Bowl. Mater Dei cruised to a 34-17 win over the Braves and there are plenty of great pieces you can read for a traditional game recap. There were dozens of media outlets covering the game. Instead of giving you a scoring summary with some quotes and big picture thoughts, I am going to breakdown the players who stood out on both sides of the ball and some under the radar players who stepped up in the big game. Here are my <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2021/04/st-john-bosco-vs-mater-dei-offensive-standouts/">offensive standouts</a> from the game. Below are my defensive standouts: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="115443" first="Kyngstonn" last="Viliamu-Asa"], St. John Bosco, 2024</strong> There were a few excellent freshmen in this game but Kyngstonn stood out as the best of the group. He flies around the field from the linebacker position and is a great pass rusher. He is built at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds as a freshman. He had multiple tackles for a loss for the Braves and was able to get past big Mater Dei linemen. You can make a case that he was the best player on defense for Bosco and it’s easy to see why he has 10 offers as a freshman, including Auburn, Ohio State and USC. <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25092" first="Andrew" last="Simpson"], St. John Bosco, 2021</strong> Simpson was recently released from his commitment to Kansas and showed schools how he can hang with the best players in the state. What impressed me about him was how quickly he got to the flat in zone coverage and he could hang with Mater Dei’s slot receivers in man-to-man. He is a true sideline-to-sideline linebacker which is what Power 5 coaches demand from their linebackers. He made some big stops in the running game and is very polished. https://twitter.com/KyleMorgan_XOS/status/1383907124405706754?s=20 <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25257" first="Jalen" last="Woods"], St. John Bosco, 2022</strong> I watched the Bosco linebackers doing their pregame warmups and Woods drawing a lot of attention from the media spectators. During the game he impressed with his agility, pursuit angles and tackling. He has a good football IQ and can quickly adjust from pass coverage to defending the run before other backs make the adjustment. He made big hits and had a suplex tackle on a Mater Dei running back. He has six offers from Arizona State, Boston College, Miami, Oregon, UCLA and Kansas. https://twitter.com/KyleMorgan_XOS/status/1383786296129187840?s=20 <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25281" first="Quincy" last="Craig"], Mater Dei, 2022</strong> Every team has players who make sacrifices for the team but nobody has sacrificed himself for the better of Mater Dei’s team more than Craig. He was the team’s primary running back last year but moved to slot receiver and defensive back when [player_tooltip player_id="25225" first="Raleek" last="Brown"] transferred in. He was all over the field in pass coverage for the Monarchs and forced the biggest turnover in the game when he forced a fumble at the one-yard line which Mater Dei recovered in the endzone. Craig is under recruited and I don’t know where he will play college football, but he is a great high school player who the coaching staff raves about. https://twitter.com/latsondheimer/status/1383954626848772106?s=20 <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25223" first="Domani" last="Jackson"], Mater Dei, 2022</strong> Domani may be the most physically dominant corner I have seen at the high school level. He is 6-foot-1 but looks taller in person is 185 pounds. He shut down very good Bosco receivers and had a big interception in the fourth quarter to help seal the win for the Monarchs. Bosco’s coaches rarely threw the ball in his direction while he was in man coverage and after a big pass deflection he did the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag at the Bosco sideline. He is also good at coming up and defending the run. USC is getting the best player in California’s 2022 class. <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25176" first="Shoes" last="Brinkley"], Mater Dei, 2021</strong> The transfer from Philly was all over the field and drew praise from the Bally Sports commentators during the broadcast. He shut down a lot of passes to the middle of the field and laid some big hits on crossing routes. This was the biggest game of his career on the biggest stage and he delivered. "This is why I came out here. Playing on the biggest stage," Brinkley said. "My family always says big players make big plays on the big stage and I feel like I did that today." He is uncommitted but has offers from lots of Group of 5 schools and whoever gets him is getting a playmaker. https://twitter.com/prepzone/status/1383628160940482566?s=20 https://twitter.com/mikehuntley63/status/1383624656721092617?s=20 <hr /> [player_tooltip player_id="25447" first="Levi" last="Sua"], Mater Dei, 2022 Mater Dei has many elite linebackers I knew would play well but one guy I hadn’t seen in person yet was Leviticus Su’a. You can make a case that he was the best run defender on the field for Mater Dei. His speed while getting to the flat defending the speedy Bosco running backs was glaring. He had a huge play on 3rd and 11 where Bosco quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="25367" first="Pierce" last="Clarkson"] had room to run for a first down but Su’a chased him down to force a punt. He has many offers including Michigan but somehow still feels under the radar. https://twitter.com/Scott_Schrader/status/1383605305133572096?s=20 <hr /> <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25026" first="Raesjon" last="Davis"], Mater Dei, 2021</strong> Davis was the most college-ready linebacker on the field Saturday. He stepped up and made plays in the running game, put interior pressure on the Bosco quarterbacks and had a deflection in pass coverage. He beat a Bosco offensive lineman who is considered one of the best of his class and was a nightmare for the Braves running backs. USC is getting an elite linebacker in Davis. https://twitter.com/latsondheimer/status/1383606922016817156?s=20