3A Region 2 Top Player Performances of the Week
Congratulations to this week's top players! We're covering the best performances from Friday's football action (using all statistics entered as of the time of writing). Enjoy!
Caleb Leisenring Drops League-Best Effort on Friday
Starting off the list is Salem's Caleb Leisenring, who we judged to be the best player in the league this week. Leisenring made two total tackles. He also punched in two rushing touchdowns, which is notable because Salem is undefeated when he posts at least two rushing touchdowns, but 1-3 otherwise.
Salem's win was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 4-3. Leisenring and Salem will host Mountain View at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Gamescore: 45.98
Mason Martin Crosses Big Stat Threshold
Atkins came up short on Friday despite Mason Martin delivering his best game to date. Martin rushed for 184 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries, and also caught a touchdown. The performance once again pushed his average rushing yardage north of 100 yards per game (109). The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in rushing yards.
This year, Martin has caught 3 touchdowns while averaging 25.7 receiving yards per game. He's made a big improvement compared to last season: at this point last year, he was only averaging 28.57 rushing yards per game.
Gamescore: 44.38
Martin Posts Huge Game in 42-41 Defeat
Keeping Martin company is Jaden Martin, a fellow Atkins player. He rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown on only 15 carries. His rushing production has been exceptional recently as that marked his fourth straight game with at least 105 rushing yards dating back to last season.
Martin and Atkins will look to defend their home field on Friday against Quitman at 7:00 p.m. The last time Martin took on the Bulldogs, he rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown. Can he match (or beat) that performance?
Gamescore: 30.58
Ethan Birmingham Turns in Season-Best Performance
Ethan Birmingham produced his most outstanding game to date while leading Salem to the win on Friday. Birmingham rushed for 74 yards and two touchdowns, good enough to set a new career-high in rushing yards in the process.
This season, Birmingham has averaged 3.4 receiving yards per game.
Gamescore: 24.17
A Constellation of Stars for Atkins
Another Atkins player making an appearance on this list is Cole Crawford. He threw for 152 yards and four touchdowns.
For the season, Crawford has thrown 17 touchdowns while averaging 154.9 passing yards per game. That doesn't tell the whole story though: at this point last year, he was only averaging 20.57 rushing yards per game. This year he is averaging 36.71 rushing yards.
Gamescore: 23.93
Other Notable Players
- Aiden Province: 70 yards rushing, 1 TD (Gamescore: 20.20)
- Keagan Sanderson: 2 sacks and 5 total tackles (2.0 for loss) (Gamescore: 18.00)
- John Davis: 13 total tackles (1.0 for loss) (Gamescore: 17.75)
- Jackson Taylor: 107 yards passing (Gamescore: 17.38)
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
