Son of former NFL great moves to quarterback and is perfect in Menlo's fifth straight win; Montana coach wins landmark game; Lewis passes Couch in Kentucky.
Compiled By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
1) Unlike Father, Like Son
The son of the greatest wide receiver in NFL history moved from catching to throwing on Friday. In this splendid piece by San Francisco Chronicle staffer Will McCulloch, an injury forced the senior from Menlo School (Atherton, Calif.) to make the unusual transition to quarterback and he promptly completed all nine of his passes and ran for two touchdowns in a 29-26 win over Terra Nova (Pacifica). Rice Jr. also caught a 30-yard TD pass in the team’s fifth straight victory.
2) This Montana Legend Not Named Joe
His name is Jack Johnson and on Friday he won his 300th game as coach at C.M. Russell (Great Falls, Mont.) with a 28-14 victory over Bozeman. Under snowy conditions, Spencer Thomsen rushed for 190 yards and two scores as Johnson improved to 300-89 during a 36-year career at Russell. In three other seasons outside of Montana, Johnson was 22-3-1. He’s won 12 state crowns in his coaching career. According to the Great Falls Tribune, Johnson barely acknowledged the milestone but his team gathered near midfield after the game and chanted “THREE-HUNDRED.” According to Bozeman coach Troy Purcell, “(Johnson) is a legend and a class act.”
3) Passing King of Kentucky
Clay County senior quarterback Zach Lewis became Kentucky’s career passing leader, besting the mark of another pretty good Clay County standout Tim Couch, during his team’s 39-25 win over Perry County Central on Friday. Lewis, a 6-foot-1, 215-pounder who has been a starter since his freshman year, went 22 of 31 for 396 yards and three scores, pushing his career total to 12,495 yards. Couch’s previous mark was 12,167. Lewis broke the record on the game’s third play, appropriately a scoring toss of 64 yards to sophomore C.J. Miller. Lewis told Jason Frankes of the Louisville Courier-Journal said football wasn’t on his radar right before entering high school.
4) No One Wins by 91
The fallout from the 91-0 victory for Naples over Estero in a Florida football game on Friday isn’t terribly pleasant. On both ends. Naples coach Bill Kramer has been inundated with criticism even though the losing coach said he or his team did anything wrong.
5) Awe-stin Debut
Lincoln (Council Bluffs, Iowa) sophomore Austin Ebertowski got his first varsity start on Friday. By the end of the game he almost broke a state record that has lasted 54 years during a 56-42 win over Sioux City East. Ebertowski rushed for 451 yards on 41 carries, just missing the mark of 455 set in 1954 by Don Larson. Ebertowski told the Des Moines Register that he was extremely nervous coming into the game. It didn’t show.
National High 5 is a weekly feature highlighting headlines throughout the Web. E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com or Steve Spiewak at sspiewak@maxpreps.com for any more interesting features or news items pertaining to high school sports.
