Southern California Top Passing Performances: Round One

<strong>[player_tooltip player_id="43679" first="Tyler" last="Gioia"], Edison, 2022</strong> Edison’s starting quarterback had to miss its first round game due to COVID restrictions and Gioia is far from your average "backup" quarterback. He is talented enough to start for many teams in Orange County and may have been the starting quarterback at the beginning of the season if he wasn’t recovering from an injury. Gioia was magnificent in a round one win against Murrieta Valley, completing 18 of 23 passes for 310 yards and five touchdowns. https://twitter.com/Tyler_Gioia10/status/1457429648699060225?s=20 <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="187268" first="Bo" last="Kelly"], Dana Hills, 2022</strong> Dana Hills was a pretty big underdog against El Modena and the Dolphins took them to overtime due to Kelly’s passing ability. He threw for 337 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the overtime loss. Kelly is currently the leading passer in the Southern Section and this week he broke the school-record for career passing yards, passing Sean Schroeder who broke the record in 2008. Kelly had a great career at Dana Hills and it will be interesting to see where he plays at the next level. https://twitter.com/SouthOCsports/status/1456454313220325389?s=20 https://twitter.com/rskuhn/status/1456697681170993157?s=20 <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="25344" first="Shea" last="Kuykendall"], Long Beach Poly, 2022</strong> Long Beach Poly is the best team in Division 4 and the Jackrabbits proved it by dominating a very solid Trabuco Hills team. Kuykendall was very efficient, completing 18 of 22 passes for 339 yards and four touchdowns. He spread the ball around well and his accuracy has improved greatly over the past couple seasons. https://twitter.com/562sports/status/1456835168983924741?s=20 <strong>Anthony Luna, Western, 2024</strong> Western had dominated its opponents in a low-level Orange League but the Pioneers proved they can play against better competition. Luna was great for Western, throwing for 267 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-37 win over Lompoc. He has improved steadily over the season for Western and has used his multiple talented receivers well. Western will host Colony in the next round and if Luna has another big game, Western will advance to the semifinals. https://twitter.com/mikehuntley63/status/1457100220790042624?s=20 https://twitter.com/anthonyyl17/status/1457215089488977923?s=20 <strong>Hunter Watson, Bishop Amat, 2023</strong> Bishop Amat was playing its first round playoff game without quarterback Tobin O’Dell who suffered a season-ending injury. Watson filled in very nicely and led the Lancers to a convincing win over previously undefeated Yorba Linda. He completed 72 percent of his passes for 328 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Amat seems to be in pretty good hands with Watson under center for the rest of the playoffs. https://twitter.com/SGVNSports/status/1456852312240975880?s=20 <hr /> <em><strong>Other top performers</strong></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="145271" first="Daniel" last="Andrade"], Bonita</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Nate Bennett, Village Christian</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Will Bingham, Laguna Beach</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Alonzo Esparza, Culver City</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Ryan Feinberg, El Camino Real</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="25295" first="Logan" last="Gonzalez"], Orange Lutheran</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Tagg Harrison, Pacifica/Oxnard</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Brody Jones, Foothill</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Jake Long, La Serna</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Marcus Martin, Salesian</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="25412" first="Brody" last="Meyer"], Camarillo</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">AJ Guitron-Moore, Newport Harbor</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Braden Oberg, West Hills</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Casey Pavlik, Mira Costa</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="145236" first="David" last="Rasor"], Corona del Mar</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Jack Ruff, St. Margaret’s</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Chad Sabal, Hawkins</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="187298" first="Tobey" last="Schmidt"], Tustin</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, La Jolla Country Day</span>