Week 5 Game Balls: Catawba River

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Two quarterbacks who spread the ball around, while a defensive lineman in northwestern York County was key in helping his team pull away on Friday night and an active defensive back who continues to make plays.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Let's jump into performances that caught our eye for this week's Game Balls in the Catawba River Region:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='809751' first='Ian' last='Grissom']</strong> | QB | Lewisville</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Grissom continues his hot streak of putting up huge numbers, this week against Andrew Jackson. He went 21-of-33, 390 yards and four touchdowns in a 43-0 win on Friday night. The velocity on his throws and the way he's able to look off coverages is fun to watch. He can throw the shallow route, vertical and routes to the sideline with accuracy.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://twitter.com/iangrissom6/status/1705957003921670276?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/iangrissom6/status/1705957003921670276?s=20 </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='241044' first='Finley' last='Polk'] </strong>| QB | Northwestern<br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Polk is spreading the ball around for the Trojans, as evidenced in their 56-14 win over cross-town rival Rock Hill last Friday night. He threw three touchdowns to three different receivers: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='589050' first='Greer' last='Hopkins'] </strong>(12 yards)<strong>, Jaylen Burris </strong>(12 yards) and <strong>Jayden Burris </strong>(42 yards). The junior quarterback also ran for three more touchdowns. The offensive output for the evening was 642 total yards.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='997351' first='Jayden' last='Bryant'] </strong>| DL | Clover</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bryant (pictured above) was all over the field for the Blue Eagles defensively, <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2023/09/what-we-saw-clover-36-boiling-springs-21/">especially in the second half in their 36-21 win over Boiling Springs last week.</a> He got pressure on the quarterback consistently and there were several times he had the opposing quarterback running around desperately searching, only to be sacked.<br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1142605' first='Joaquan' last='Howze'] </strong>| LB | Lewisville</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Howze is a name we think you'll be hearing more often as region play begins. What stood out to us in watching his cut-ups from the win over Andrew Jackson last week is how quickly he reacts to a play and then gets into the backfield quickly, like we saw on the toss play against a strong and physical running back. He certainly matches the physicality.<br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/16289774/650f7e4890f9e80a24e257c2' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-6511c6ed98d05"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='589053' first='DeMaurion' last='Stewart'] </strong>| DB | York</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stewart had another solid week as the Cougars wrapped up non-region play with a 34-0 shutout win over Fort Mill. He showed an ability to come up and put pressure on the quarterback to make the sack or force a bad throw. He's also a great tackler in space, like when the quarterback took off on a scramble and he came up and made a good tackle.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/13321911/650e6679e97ad607a43bd043' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003ern","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-6511c6ed98d31"} /-->