By Greg goodyear and Larry Weiner
special to the Observer 

Is Heritage Christian Really a 16 Seed?

 

November 9, 2017



Is Heritage Christian Really a 16 Seed?

By Greg Goodyear and Larry Weiner

According to CIF officials the #1 seed always plays the #16 seed unless that team happens to be in their league. As the #1 seed Culver City drew 8-1 Heritage Christian as thier first round opponent.

One has to wonder how an 8-1 team can be a 16 seed in any division? The CIF has a playoff formula that determines how the teams are seeded.

However, as a #1 seed typically Culver would play either a wild card or a third or fourth place team in their respective league. Heritage Christian won eight games in a row before falling to Valley Christian 47-16 and finishing second in league play.

Historically Valley Christian is a very well coached team who plays well in the playoffs. So the question should be, why is Culver City playing a team that was second in its league and whose only loss was to a traditional playoff powerhouse?

Normally a 16 seed does not average over 400 yards a game rushing and over 500 yards in total offense. The Crusaders’ number 1 running back is Nasir Marshall

,5’8,” 165, who ran for 1265 yards on 126 carries with 10 touchdown in eight games and who has not gained less than 100 yards in any game this season, and in one game against Verdugo Hills, (an LA City School) ran for 301 yards on 23 carries. According to his film on HUDL, he looks like he has good quickness, legitimate speed and good moves. Their number 2 rusher is senior Garrett Clark who has run for 688 yards on 50 carries over the course of the season.

The Cursaders are led by their senior quarterback Jason Parraz who completed 31 passes on 51 attempts for 770 yards and nine touchdowns with no interceptions in eight games.

According to game film, it appears that the Crusaders have decent sized offensive and defensive lines. They block fairly well and they are relatively aggressive and could pose a good challenge to our offensive and defensive lines.

Although they blew out many teams, they did play a few teams that have been traditionally good in Kennedy and Granada Hills, but it is hard to discern how good those teams were because of their losing records. Although half of Heritage Christian’s team members are freshmen and sophomores, their major contributors are juniors and seniors.

Last week Culver City played their arch rivals the Beverly Hills Normans and went up at the half 35-0. Then both teams agreed on a running clock and Culver was able to put in most of their second and third stringers and they still managed to score 2 more touchdowns making the final score 49-0.

The defense has now shut out three teams in a row and if they continue to do so they could possibly break a Culver City record set in 1969 for most consecutive quarters not scored upon. That record is 21 quarters.

Probably the most impressive aspect of the game was the play of starting freshmen quarterback, Zevi Echaus. Not only is Zevi the first freshmen quarterback to ever play on the varsity at Culver City he is now also the first freshmen quarterback to start a varsity game for Culver. His official stats comfirm his impressive debut. He completed 14 of 18 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns and most impressively had no passes intercepted. The coaching staff was highly pleased with his poise, accuracy and leadership skills which will give him a leg up in competing with the other two returning quarterbacks for the starting job next season. The Cents also had some really long runs from scrimmage including two from Brandon Oum, the longest being a touchdown run of 76 yards and a 51-yard touchdown jaunt by Joshua Ford.

The center, junior Gabriel Robles, left guard junior Diego Campos, right guard and team captain senior Jaden Porter, and the offensive tackles juniors Amir Hodge and Cofi Karikari have been opening large holes on offense all year and have also done a great job protecting the quarterback. In fact, both of our tackles have been getting good reviews from D1 scouts.

In tonight’s contest Culver City will again start freshmen quarterback Zevi Echaus and he will have to stand tall as he leads his team to the Promised Land.

 

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