Villa Park Passing Tournament Highlights

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>12 teams gathered at Villa Park High in Orange County for a passing league tournament Saturday.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I did not get to see every team that participated, but I got to talk to some coaches and see who the top performers from those teams were.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>SAN CLEMENTE</strong></h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>San Clemente was missing some of its top skill players due to injury or touring colleges. For example, [player_tooltip player_id='398445' first='Drew' last='Shanley'] and <strong>Brock Della Vedova</strong> were out touring colleges and [player_tooltip player_id='270882' first='Max' last='Kotiranta'] is nursing an injury. Tight end [player_tooltip player_id='195580' first='Broderick' last='Redden'] shined according to coach <strong>Jaime Ortiz</strong> and he can create physical mismatches in a 7on7 setting. Ortiz said that senior receiver <strong>Holden Stakson</strong> has emerged as a deep threat receiver. Junior safety <strong>Max Bollard</strong> was a standout on defense for the Tritons. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stanford commit [player_tooltip player_id='398387' first='Connor' last='Bachhuber'] was at the event for the lineman competition and quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='273584' first='Dylan' last='Mills'], a Villanova commit, looked solid. San Clemente was 3-1 when I saw them and lost to Western and the game came down to a Hail Mary that was a yard short.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>WESTERN</strong></h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As it the case has been for the past few seasons, Western has the skill players to hang with anyone. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1128131' first='Quimari' last='Shemwell']</strong> has an offer from San Jose State and looked good on Saturday. [player_tooltip player_id='205984' first='Joshua' last='Faulkner'] is Western's best player and was one of the best two-way players on the field all day on Saturday. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1236177' first='Desmin' last='Joshway-Fairley'] </strong>had a big day and a coach pointed out new tight end <strong>Dane Torrance</strong> as a standout player. Western also has one of the top returning passers in the county in <strong>Anthony Luna</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Defensively, Western's linebackers stood out, particularly <strong>Quentin Corbett</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='370154' first='Anthony' last='Edwards Jr'].</strong> </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>CAPISTRANO VALLEY</strong></h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Capo Valley had some under the radar receivers make some big catches on Saturday. Quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='595827' first='Tommy' last='Acosta'] had a big day according to coach <strong>Sean Curtis</strong> but sometimes throws into traffic. The good news for Acosta is that Capo's receivers were catching those balls and absorbing contact. <strong>Kaden Hunter</strong> and <strong>Brayden Saavedra</strong> were two of the receivers that stood out along with [player_tooltip player_id='595817' first='Ryan' last='Isenhart']. <strong>Ethan Jarvis</strong> was another receiver who performed well according to Curtis.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hunter also played well on defense with a game-winning interception against Western. <strong>Reily Walker</strong> and [player_tooltip player_id='147764' first='Jackson' last='Sievers'] led the Cougar's defense. Capo went 3-2 on the day and had a very close game against Villa Park in the last game that could have gone either way.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/mikehuntley63/status/1672683215394594816?s=20","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/mikehuntley63/status/1672683215394594816?s=20 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>PALOS VERDES</strong></h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Palos Verdes coach <strong>Guy Gardner</strong> was happy with his team's performance on Saturday. <strong>Luke Gayton</strong> played well after returning from an injury that sidelined him for four weeks. <strong>Eric Mulkey</strong> recently got his first Division 1 offer from Davidson and had a nice day. <strong>Sean Winbush</strong> played well at receiver and Gardner was happy with both quarterbacks <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='709444' first='Ryan' last='Rakowski']</strong> and <strong>Michael Decker</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gardner praised his veteran linebackers like <strong>Cole Spajnol, Michael Clemons</strong> and others. Palos Verdes returns a ton of talent of defense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/EricMulkey32/status/1672323637666258945?s=20","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"twitter","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/EricMulkey32/status/1672323637666258945?s=20 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>VILLA PARK</strong></h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Villa Park was the host team and has some talent returning. Two-way player [player_tooltip player_id='797091' first='Carter' last='Christie'] led the defense according to coach <strong>Dusan Ancich. </strong>He praised junior cornerback <strong>Jacob Poff</strong>. Starting quarterback <strong>Nate Lewis</strong> didn't participate Saturday so Villa Park rotated three quarterbacks. <strong>Spencer Jarrell</strong> was the receiver that stood out the most.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I did not get a chance to see the lineman competition, but I'm sure [player_tooltip player_id='595798' first='Henry' last='Wonderlick'] and [player_tooltip player_id='595795' first='Ethan' last='Sickles'] performed well.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->