2017 Week 5: Helix Defender Near Top of List
Opinions are like a certain area of the anatomy. Most of us have one.
The opinion of Scouts.com, which maintains a running list of who’s who in high school football and who is being recruited by whom, is that the following table is indicative of the probable 10 best players in the San Diego Section.
The table reflects Scout.com‘s individual ranking for California players and is updated daily.
Helix’s Isaac Taylor-Stuart is considered the No. 4 player in the state, behind only three, five-star wide receivers, Amron-Ra St. Brown, Santa Ana Mater Dei; Devon Williams, Lancaster Antelope Valley, and Jalen Hall, Long Beach Poly.
Other rating services will differ.
| Rank | Name | Pos. | School | Stars |
| 4 | Isaac Taylor-Stuart | DB | Helix | **** |
| 17 | Jack Tuttle | QB | Mission Hills | **** |
| 41 | Kyle Phillips | WR | San Marcos | *** |
| 45 | Chris Brown | RB | El Camino | *** |
| 54 | JR Justice | Athlete | St. Augustine | *** |
| 119 | Donovan Laie | Tackle | Oceanside | *** |
| 120 | Rocky Katoanga | OLB | El Camino | *** |
| 124 | William Dunkle | Tackle | Eastlake | *** |
| 140 | Chris Olave | WR | San Marcos | *** |
| 152 | Rashad Scott | WR | Helix | *** |
A FEW AT 5-0
At the regular season’s halfway juncture there are six teams with 5-0 records and eight with 4-0 records.
Three City League teams are on a collision course. Kearny and Crawford are 5-0 and San Diego is 4-0.
The Komets, overlooked by us last week, are off to their best start since 1978. Crawford was 5-0 as recently as 2013. San Diego is traversing ground not covered since the 5-0 team of 2011.
San Diego is favored this week as it opens league play against visiting Clairemont (2-3). Crawford is idle and will prepare for tough University City (4-1) at Hoover the following week. Kearny also is off and awaits Coronado (1-3) at home next week.
Other 5-0 teams are Mission Hills, San Marcos, Ramona, and La Costa Canyon.
Clubs with 4-0 records: Calvin Christian, Christian, El Centro Central, El Centro Southwest, Madison, Mira Mesa, The Bishop’s.
TWO-SPORT THREAT
La Costa Canyon’s Karson Lippert, football player or track man?
He’s taken the field by storm in each.
Last week the 165-pound junior rushed for 312 yards in 20 carries ad scored on runs 80, 82, and 90 yards as the suddenly lethal Mavericks ran past Carlsbad, 36-21.
Lippert caught everyone’s attention in June at the state meet in Clovis, finishing a surprising and scorching second in the 400 meters in :46.91, second fastest in area history.
La Costa Canyon is off to its best start since 2009 but faces the meat of its schedule the next three weeks against Avocado League toughies El Camino, Mission Hills, and San Marcos.
GRIZZLIES,WARHAWKS ON MOVE
Mission Hills and Madison continue to make incremental gains in the weekly Cal-Hi Sports rankings.
The Grizzlies, No. 1 in San Diego, rose from 18th to 17th on Cal-Hi‘s state list. Madison moved from 26th to 25th, and Helix dropped from 30th to 31st.
San Marcos crashed the top 50 at 48th and La Costa Canyon got some “on-the-bubble” cred.
The Union-Tribune Week 5 poll :
| Rank | Team | 2017 | Points | Last Week |
| 1. | Mission Hills (23) | 5-0 | 274 | 1 |
| 2. | Madison (4) | 4-0 | 241 | 2 |
| 3. | Helix (2) | 3-1 | 239 | 3 |
| 4. | San Marcos | 5-0 | 193 | 4 |
| 5. | La Costa Canyon | 5-0 | 137 | 8 |
| 6. | Ramona | 5-0 | 134 | 7 |
| 7. | The Bishop’s | 5-0 | 126 | 6 |
| 8. | Lincoln | 4-1 | 57 | 10 |
| 9. | El Camino | 3-2 | 52 | 5 |
| 10. | Eastlake | 4-1 | 42 | NR |
Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
NR: Not Ranked.
Others receiving votes: Carlsbad (3-2, 14 points), Torrey Pines (3-2, 13), Christian (4-0, 13), Valley Center (4-1, 2), Mira Mesa (4-0, 1), Point Loma (3-2, 1), St. Augustine (2-3, 1).
Voters (28 sportswriters, sportscasters, officials): John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, Don Norcross, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, Jim Lindren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone, Rick Willis, KUSI Chl. 51; Adam Paul, East County Preps.com; Ramon Scott, East County Sports.com; Bodie DeSilva, San Diego Preps.com; Ted Mendenhall, Taylor Quellman, The Mighty 1090; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Troy Hirsch, Fox 5 San Diego; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John LaBeta, Carlton Hoggard, CIF San Diego; Raymond Brown, sdfootball.net; Montell Allen, MBASports-SDFNL Magazine; Bob Petinak, 1360AM; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9FM; Jim Arnaiz, Mike Dolan, John Carroll, CIF Football Tournament Directors.