While the quarterback is the most important position in the NFL and, to some extent, college, high school football is a little bit different. Save for that rare high school quarterback who throws for 4,000 yards, the player who runs the offense at the high school level are different things to different people.
Of the six teams that comprise the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division, only one team — Aragon — returns a quarterback who started all last season.
Burlingame, Half Moon Bay, Menlo-Atherton and 2021 Ocean Division champion Menlo School, which is moving to the Bay for 2022, will all be breaking in new signal callers.
Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, split playing time in 2021. Those five quarterbacks who graduated combined for 12,753 yards of total offense and 142 touchdowns.
Menlo School
In the case of Menlo — which went 10-0 during the regular season and finished 12-1 after losing in the CCS Division II championship game — Sergio Beltran was, essentially, the Knights’ offense. Not only did he throw for more than 3,500 yards and set a new Central Coast Section single-season touchdown record with 52, he was one of two quarterbacks in the Bay Division to rush for more than 1,000 yards. His 1,032 was just behind Half Moon Bay’s Will Moffitt, who ran for 1,172 yards.
The Knights already had its heir apparent waiting in the wings in 6-5, 195-pound senior Jake Bianchi, who saw limited action in 2021.
Despite graduating a number of key players, the Knights have plenty of pieces left, however, including senior lineman Ralston Raphael and receivers Robby Enright and Charlie King.
Half Moon Bay
Like Menlo, HMB, which was 4-1 in Bay play in 2021 and finished 5-5 overall, already has settled on the replacement for Moffitt, with Liam Harrington winning the job in the summer.
“We wanted to make it a competition and [Harrington] kind of took it out of our hands,” said HMB head coach Keith Holden.
No quarterback may be more important to the offense than Half Moon Bay’s signal caller, who is responsible for starting the Cougars’ triple-option offense.
“For our quarterback, you can’t have a guy who is half-hearted about it,” Holden said. “You have to be willing to carry some weight on your shoulders. It’s not easy.”
But in the run-heavy HMB offense, opening holes at the point of attack is the name of the game and an area of concern for Holden.
“We’re pretty athletic, we’re just thin at the offensive line,” Holden said. “I think our O-line is good, we just don’t have a lot of guys.”
Burlingame
Burlingame, which went 3-2 in the Bay and 8-3 overall in 2021, is another team that has already found a replacement for Ryan Kall in Liam Friedman. But as Burlingame head coach John Philipopoulos said, the Panthers’ success is all about its offensive line. A Burlingame quarterback is less about sheer athletic ability and more about leading the team, being confident and making the right decisions at the right time.
“The latter is probably more important for us. The leadership, the intangibles,” Philipopoulos said. “The mental side is so much more important (for us).”
Those intangibles will be even more important for a team that graduated 20 of 22 starters from 2021. Making the transition slightly easier is the fact that the Panthers still believe in the ground and pound and are set up to continue that tradition. Lucas Habelt is a returning fullback, which is the main ball carrier in the Burlingame offense. He rushed for 527 yards last season. He will share the workload with a number of other players, including Joey Nawrocki and Kevin Sandoval, who both saw action last season.
The linebacking corps is the defense’s strongest unit with Ethan Lancaster a returning senior starter. He’s joined by Danny Hilt, who was a part-time starter in 2021.
Aragon
Despite having a third-year starter under center, Aragon head coach Steve Sell won’t change his stripes and ask Dylan Daniel to start throwing the ball all over the field for the Dons, who finished third in the Ocean with a 3-2 record but went on to win their first CCS championship since 1994 and finished 2021 with a record of 9-5.
Sell will simply ask Daniel to be a cog in the machine.
“He’s played 20 games in, like, six months,” Sell said of Daniel, who started six games during the pandemic spring season in 2021 and then all 14 games in the fall of 2021, averaging 103 yards passing per game.
“[Fourteen] games is almost a season and a half and he took every meaningful snap,” Sell said. “We added a little competition in the summer … but heading into the season, Dylan is the starting quarterback.”
Daniel won’t have to go it alone. The Dons graduated just seven or eight players off last year’s roster and returning are receiver Lloyd Walter, who had 23 catches for 389 yards in 2021. There is plenty of talent in the backfield as well with senior Jared Walsh and junior Ivan Nisa, who combined for more than 1,500 yards rushing and 22 touchdowns last season.
The Dons’ defense will be stout with a number of returners, including Walter, who was Ocean Division Defensive Player of the Year. Also returning are junior defensive tackle TY Faaumu and senior Albert Zhang.
Sacred Heart Prep
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SHP is the only other team that has significant experience returning under center. Mitch Taylor started five games on a state championship team that went 3-7 during the regular season, but won five in a row to win a CCS, Nor Cal and state title and finish 8-7 in 2021.
Of the Gators’ two wins in Bay play in 2021, it was Taylor at quarterback.
“He’s had a great summer. He’s excited and ready to go,” said SHP head coach Mark Grieb. “Any time you can play as a junior, it makes so much of a difference coming into senior year.”
Making Taylor’s job even easier is the fact SHP may have its best, biggest offensive line, maybe ever. Certainly since Grieb took over the program for the 2017 season. Aseli Fangupo, at 5-10, 260 pounds, started on the line as a freshman last season. He’ll be joined by the likes of Mason Chetcuti, a catcher on the Gators’ baseball team, and RJ Stephens comes in at 6-2, 245 and holds a handful of college offers.
“Not too many years when you have a whole line,” Grieb said. “We’ve relied, so many times, of piecing things together and filling it in with a 170-pound guard.”
That should open things up for the Gators’ running game and Andrew Latu, who led the team in rushing with 729 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. Anthony Noto should see an expanded role after rushing for 266 yards and six scores.
The line should also offer protection for Taylor to find senior receiver Carter Shaw, who missed time with a knee injury last season.
Defensively, the Gators feature linebacker Shay O’Kelly, who led the CCS in tackles last season. Roving the defensive backfield is safety Tyler Wong, who showed off his power during the baseball season with five home runs and 23 doubles this past spring.
Menlo-Atherton
The biggest quarterback question mark appeared to be at M-A at the beginning of practice. Bears head coach Chris Saunders went into the start of the season with an open competition at the position to replace Matt MacLeod, who led the Bears to a 5-0 mark in the Bay in 2021 and 9-3 overall.
Saunders said a pair of seniors — Billy Johnson and Colton Assunto — were battling for the starting job, with Johnson now the apparent front-runner.
Both Johnson and Assunto were on the roster last year, which should accelerate the learning curve.
“There is some familiarity there,” Saunders said. “The retention is high, as far as knowledge. Any time you have a change at quarterback, any sort of retention is great.”
Helping the transition is an offensive line that earned a huge amount of experience last season as a mostly junior unit. Soane Fa’asolo is an absolute beast at 6-9, 300 pounds and has already verbally committed to University of Washington. David Tangilanu, a 6-5, 250-pound two-way lineman, already holds scholarship offers from San Jose State, as well as Army and Air Force.
The Bears also scored a huge coup in wide receiver Jurrion Dickey, who transferred from Valley Christian and is one of the biggest college recruits in the nation. But the Bears’ receiving cupboard was far from bare with the return of two-way standout Johno Price and another two-way threat in Jayden Moss.
SCVAL players to watch: De Anza Division
Los Gatos Wildcats
• Jake Boyd, senior QB. Threw for 1,887 yards, with 22 touchdowns against six interceptions in 2021. He rushed for only 139 yards, but he was a short-yardage guy, scoring five time on 50 carries.
Wilcox Chargers
• Andrew Palacios, senior RB. The Chargers graduated the CCS's top rusher, but Palacios, as the No. 2 option, had a big season as well. He rushed for 1,042 yards in 2021 and scored 12 touchdowns.
Palo Alto Vikings
• Tobey Lau, senior LB/RB. Lau saw limited action on the ofensive side of the ball in 2021, but still managed to score three times. His biggest upside came on the defensive side, where he averaged eight tackles a game, finishing with 56 in seven games while also recording 3.5 sacks.
Homestead Mustangs
•Zachary Acton, senior MLB/RB. Acton was second in the CCS in tackles last season, finishing with 166 total tackles, nearly half of which were solo takedowns.
Mountain View Spartans
• Dillon Daniels, junior RB. Daniels enters his third season as a varsity player. The Spartans leading returning rusher, Daniels rushed for 323 yards and scored five touchdowns as the the No. 4 option.
Milpitas Trojans
• Zae Mims, senior QB. Mims, at 6-2, 240 pounds, is transitioning from lineman to quarterback for the Trojans this season.
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