The Teams:
–Boulder Creek Jaguars: Projected Record: 4-6 (section: 2-3)
–Horizon Huskies: Projected Record: 7-3 (section: 4-1)
–Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions: 4-6 (section: 3-2)
–North Canyon Rattlers: Projected record: 2-8 (section: 0-5)
–Pinnacle Pioneers: Projected record: 8-2 (section: 5-0)
–Sandra Day O’Connor Eagles: Projected record: 2-8 (section: 1-4)
The Favorite:
Pinnacle Pioneers: The Pioneers have the most talent of any team in this section despite the fact that they lose three college football players on the offensive line. New quarterback Brian Lewerke had a fantastic offseason competing in the elite 11 and impressing at college camps. They are very excited about what he will do in his first full season as the starter. The Pioneers also have great leadership on both sides of the ball with running back Josh Hoekstra and defensive end/line backer Cole Neubauer. Pinnacle has a daunting schedule but if they can make it through the non-section games on a positive side, they should be able to run the table to close out the season in their section.
The Darkhorse:
Horizon Huskies: The Huskies are an intriguing team to me. They are instilling a new all-business type mentality under new head coach Kris Heavner who comes to Scottsdale from Texas. Horizon has moved up to division I from division II and are one of the few teams making that jump this season that I don’t see taking a step backward. They have a tough first month of the season playing teams like Marcos, Corona and Desert Mountain but if they can manage to win a majority of those, they can roll through most of section play and be in great position for the playoffs. They return quarterback Dalton Sneed, offensive lineman Jake Grant and receiver Mark Robinson on offensive. As well as defensive standouts Kristian Salinas and Luke Quinn.
Preseason All-Section 5 team:
QB: Brian Lewerke, Pinnacle
RB: Josh Hoekstra, Pinnacle
RB: Onuche Okwoli, North Canyon
WR: Austin Cottrell, Mountain Ridge
WR: Dan Galindo, Pinnacle
WR: Bryant O’Georgia, North Canyon
OL: Ali Baiz, Horizon
OL: Ryan DeLung: Mountain Ridge
OL: Jake Grant, Horizon
OL: Troy Kowalski, Mountain Ridge
OL: Austin Stumberg, Pinnacle
DL: Nate DiFlorio, Mountain Ridge
DL: Nathan Eldridge, Boulder Creek
DL: Jamison Pruitt, O’Connor
DL: Cole Neubauer, Pinnacle
LB: Jro Byrd, Boulder Creek
LB: Billy McEowen, Mountain Ridge
LB: Kristian Salinas, Horizon
DB: John Okwoli, North Canyon
DB: Ryan Parenteau, Boulder Creek
DB: Luke Quinn, Horizon
DB: Cules Rose, Pinnacle
K/P: Spencer Marciniak, Horizon
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Jared Cohen
A born and bred Arizonan, Jared has had great passion for the hometown teams all his life. He now channel's that passion into covering the pro, college and high school teams around the state as a Multimedia Reporter for Sports360AZ.