Young Cougars looking to make noise in Hills League

By ECS Staff
Updated: August 18, 2015

NOTE: This is the tenth of a 13-part series that will take a look at each football team that East County Sports.com covers. Each day, we will look at a different school, leading up to the final preview which will be published on the day that most of the teams in East County have their scrimmage leading into the 2015 season. This edition we look at how the Steele Canyon Cougars will fare with two young quarterbacks.

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com
RANCHO SAN DIEGO (8-18-15) — You know that feeling when you have a really good thing going on a Friday and then when you come back to the office or school on Monday and everything has completely changed? Yeah, that is what Coach SCOTT LONGERBONE felt like between Spring ball and Summer camp.

The feeling around the Steele Canyon campus seems to be one that is cautiously optimistic.

Roster breakdown:
Quarterbacks: Last year the Steele Canyon Cougars had a dominant quarterback in DOMINICK WOOD-ANDERSON who had 924 All-Purpose yards and was responsible for 10 touchdowns himself. That was then, this is now. Wood-Anderson over the summer transferred out of Steele Canyon leaving a vacuum at the quarterback position. Step in two quarterbacks from the lower levels. BRENDEN WILLIS (Jr.) and THOMAS FISHBURNE (So.) are both scrappy kids that started for the JV and freshman teams last year respectfully. With them both young and inexperienced (on the varsity level) it will take them some time to get acclimated to the speed of the varsity game.

“The good thing is that both kids are super smart,” Longerbone bragged about how both of the quarterbacks carry a 4.0 grade point average.

Running backs: PIERRE ALEXANDER (57 carries – 462 yards – 4 touchdowns, see video above) and MALCOM ANDERZ (80-350-3) are both returning from last year’s playoff team. SEAN TODD comes up from junior varsity.

Wide receivers: CARRINGTON TRISBY, NY JOHNSON, JACOB JONES, DEANGELO LEWIS who is coming over from the basketball team, ERIC PARKS are all fighting for basically three spots at the wide receivers

“We’ve never been short on athletes here at Steele Canyon,” the fourth year head coach said.

Offensive line: KYREE WOODS, CALEB O’GORMAN, JOEY METZ, JUSTIN NAM and AZIZ HANNA are all returning from last year’s club.

“Aziz was hurt all last year so he’ll be experiencing varsity for the first time,” Longerbone stated.

“Defensively we’ve had to replace a ton. We graduated nearly every starter, we got some players that played some significant time coming back,” Longerbone disclosed.

Defensive line: ANDRE FITZMAURICE, SEAN MILLER and JACOB YODER look to win positions along the D-line for the Cougars.

Linebackers: JAKE CITRINITTI will be returning to the “’Backer Corps.” MIKEL OLIVER will be making the transition from junior varsity. Rotating in at linebacker is DANIEL GOMEZ II, RICH VASQUEZ and JORGE LIZARRAGA.

“Mikel will be a stud,” Longerbone asserted.

Defensive backs: Jones looks like he will be playing both sides of the ball. Trisby, who is a part of a legacy family at Steele Canyon, has been football since nearly being able to walk will be in the secondary. On the other side of the defensive backfield there is a battle going on with XAVIER LEASAU, ANTHONY HOWARD and LATRELL LINDSEY are all battling for a corner position. Johnson looks to have a spot wrapped up in the backfield at one safety.

Schedule:
The season will begin with the Falcons of Torrey Pines in a Division I battle.

September will open with a neighborhood battle against Monte Vista. A week later, the Cougars will face the Eagles of Granite Hills at Valley Stadium. Week four will feature a road trip up North to the land of Longhorns of Rancho Buena Vista. RBV was demoted to Division II this season by the CIF office. The final game of the first full month of the season will see a third straight road contest at Otay Ranch who is another very tough Division II game.

October will begin with a bye week before the Scotties come to Rancho San Diego to open Grossmont Hills League action. Hills action will continue with a match up with the Foothillers on the 16^th at Grossmont. A two game home stand will see the Vaqueros and Norseman come on back to back weeks.

November’s lone regular season game will be a road contest at Mount Miguel.

Photo courtesy of Tammy Ryan and TRyan Photography

“Our league is one of the toughest in the county. It showed last year when the CIF it put out the rankings. I’ll put the Hills League up against the Palomars and Avocados of the World,” Longerbone proudly proclaimed.

“This is a blue collar team. I don’t have any rock star, over the top guys. I have a bunch of players that come out and work their butts off every single day. They have been working their tails off since January to get better,” Longerbone concluded.