Quiz: How many interceptions for Burse, Swartz? (0)

High School Football

By Richard T. Estrada
restrada@modbee.com

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

Who will be the first to toss an interception? It's a surprising question to ask going into the ninth week of the season, unless you're discussing Dylan Swartz and Isaiah Burse.

Modesto's private-school quarterbacks have combined to complete 129 of 225 passes for 2,376 yards and 34 TDs — and have yet to throw a pick between them.

There's not a passer in the Sac-Joaquin Section who has at least 46 passes without being picked, except for Swartz (Central Catholic) and Burse (Modesto Christian); Swartz has 154 throws and Burse 71.

Stanislaus Football Weekly - Week 9, 2009

Both have potent running games that prevent defenses from focusing too much on pass coverage, but they are also veterans. Burse is in his fourth year as a starter, while Swartz started the Division 3 State Bowl Game for Central Catholic in 2007.

The two might get an opportunity to play one another, since both are in the Division 4B playoffs. The meeting could come in the 4B semifinals or the title game.

• KEEPING A RECORD PACE — Downey's Jason Lee had his lowest output of the season in Friday's 48-20 loss to Enochs — 239 yards. But the senior quarterback still moved up on some of the Sac-Joaquin Section all-time lists. His 21 completions gave him 215 in eight games, breaking the section 10-game regular-season record of 200 set by Nate Ray of Colfax in 1999. The state regular-season record is 294.

Lee has the section regular-season record for attempts, after his 42 passes boosted his season total to 353, surpassing the 344 thrown by Orestimba's Brian Black in 2000. He's well within reach of the section single-season (including playoffs) attempts record of 389, set last year by Cody Vaz of St. Mary's.

Had Lee remained on the 400-yards per game pace through the 10-game regular season, he would have become the first quarterback in California history to have a 4,000-yard regular season. With two games left, he's at 3,039 yards, within range of Ray's 1999 10-game section record of 3,253 yards.

Lee is now third in the nation with an average of 380 yards per game, with Wil Nicks of Little Rock, Ark., first with 397 yards per game. Receiver Corey Keller, meanwhile, is second in the nation with 160 yards per game and Javon Kelly is seventh (149).

• AIR EXPRESS — Downey isn't the only team anxious to put the ball in the air. Waterford's Russell Longworth and Phillip Tubera combined to throw for 415 yards in Friday's 56-18 loss to Mariposa.

The Wildcats used a no-huddle offense much of the night, gathering perhaps five times as a unit. Longworth and Tubera were 33 of 61, with two TDs and four interceptions.

David Hill, son of coach Dave Hill, was the receiving star with 15 catches for 204 yards and a TD: "All our receivers had several catches," the coach said. "The Longworths, Thomas and Russell, made some great plays.

"We are going to stay with the no-huddle. It's fun and we put up some good numbers. We had opportunities to get on the board, but made a couple of mistakes. We suited up 19 players and used all 19."

• BOWL RANKINGS — Central Catholic (7-1) is still sitting at No. 3 in the CalHiSports.com NorCal Division 3 rankings, behind top-seeded St. Mary's of Stockton (8-0) and Palma of Salinas (6-1-1). Central, despite being the only team to finish within 22 points of St. Mary's, receives little credit for its feat.

St. Mary's beat Bellarmine of San Jose (No. 4 in D1) by 24 and Lincoln of Stockton (No. 13 in D1) by 30, so Central represented better than either school. It's no surprise Central is behind St. Mary's — the best team in Northern California, regardless of division — but being behind Palma defies logic. Palma lost to a 7-3 team from Nevada and tied 6-1-1 Seaside, which isn't on anyone's radar.

Why does it matter? Section commissioners consult CalHi before meeting to decide 10 teams for five bowl games. If CalHi continues to rank Palma ahead of Central, and St. Mary's is in the Open Bowl as expected, the commissioners could easily cite CalHi's ranking as a reason to pick Palma.

Oakdale moved up a spot to No. 5 in the D2 NorCal poll, and is ahead of section rivals Inderkum (No. 6) and Lincoln of Placer County (No. 9). Modesto Christian remains No. 1 in the small-school poll.

• GROUND GAME — While this has become the season of the quarterback, the running backs might steal the attention next season. Buhach Colony, for example, is likely to return its top three rushers — Corey Chapman, Dallon Muse and Jarrell Davis have run for 2,786 yards and 32 TDs, and they're all juniors. BC has a bye this week and finishes the regular season by hosting Los Banos. Depending what happens this week, both might face a must-win game in the finale or risk not advancing to the playoffs.

Staff writer Brian VanderBeek contributed to this report.