Friday Night Recaps Week 14: The homestretch

The high school football season is slowly dwindling down, as are the number of Michigan commits still playing. This week, half of the eight commits in action saw their seasons end.

Two players, Quintel Kent and Nolan Rumler, made the state championship in Ohio, meaning their seasons will be over next week whether they win or not. Given that, this will be the penultimate Friday Night Recaps of the season.

Giles Jackson and Jack Stewart are the only two that could still be playing after next week, but I don’t think they’re enough to warrant an entire article. If they keep advancing, I’ll throw in their progress in my Wednesday Recruiting Roundups.

With all that said, let’s recap the performances of the quartet of players who finished their high school careers this weekend.

Season Wrap-Up

Trente Jones

In one of the toughest state title playoff brackets in the country, Grayson fell in the quarterfinals in a defensive heart-breaker. Despite holding Lowndes to only 87 yards of offense, a couple costly turnovers put their opponent in good field position to squeak by the powerhouse Rams 20-15.

Jones had an excellent senior season. On a line featuring two other Power 5 commits, including the No. 9 player in the country, Wanya Morris, Jones was graded as the best lineman on the team by his coaches. This resulted in a nice bump in the recruiting rankings for him as well.

One of my first articles for this website was scouting Jones. Back then, I was really impressed, especially with his advanced pass blocking. From all indications, he has built on his junior tape and will be a valuable piece on the offensive line in the future.

Mike Morris

In the state quarterfinals, American Heritage Delray squared off against Chaminade-Madonna Prep, who is stocked with FBS talent. Unfortunately they also lost in a defensive battle, this one with the score of 14-3.

Morris and the defensive crew did their part to stifle the Chaminda-Madonna offense, but their defense, which contains former Michigan commit Te’Cory Couch, frustrated Heritage all night.

On the season, Morris racked up 83 tackles, 23 of those being for loss. He also contributed four sacks and two forced fumbles. In college, I forsee Morris taking a path similar to Carlo Kemp’s. He’ll start out as a strong-side defensive end, but will eventually slide inside to defensive tackle.

Mike Sainristil

While Massachusetts powerhouse Everett lost in the playoffs a few weeks ago, they got the chance to play one final game on Thanksgiving. They took advantage of this opportunity, shutting out Masconomet 32-0 on a cold, wind-swept morning.

The weather kept Everett’s offense mostly on the ground, but Sainristil still took advantage. He rushed 13 times for 54 yards and two touchdowns.

Throughout the season, this was different than his usual role. Sainristil caught 32 passes for 792 yards, nearly 25 yards per reception. He also scored 12 touchdowns through the air and nabbed six interceptions on the other side of the ball.

There’s still some speculation to which side of the ball Sainristil will be playing at Michigan, but he’s shown he can excel on either side in high school.

Amauri Pesek-Hickson

After losing three straight games to start the season, Blue Valley North ripped off nine straight wins to reach the state title game. But in a rematch of last year’s game, the Mustangs fell short, losing 24-16 to undefeated Derby.

Pesek-Hickson was extremely balanced on the season, rushing for 563 yards while gaining 595 yards receiving. He scored 14 touchdowns overall. I don’t have his defensive numbers, but he did play on that side of the ball, as well. Pesek-Hickson is a more bulked up version of Sainristil in that he has positional versatility that’s not quite decided yet.

Giles Jackson finally gets to play

Rounding out the recap this week, I wanted to highlight Jackson’s latest game against Amador Valley. This game had been postponed for three weeks because of the California wildfires. Neither team had suited up since Oct. 26! Nevertheless, Freedom emerged victorious with a definitive 48-29 win.

Jackson showed he certainly wasn’t rusty. He caught five passes for 80 yards and a touchdown, while also taking a jet sweep 60 yards on his only carry. But that wasn’t his biggest play of the night.

The Freedom defense was backed deep into their own red zone when Amador Valley handed the ball off to their running back. It looked like a touchdown, before Jackson squared the back up, ripped the ball out of his hands and ran it back 99 yards for a touchdown.

Watch the play at :18 on his highlights from the game to see for yourself:

Freedom advanced to the semifinals against California High, who beat them 42-27 earlier this season.

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