Crespi’s Bennett is the best young QB in the region

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While waiting on the sidelines for Notre Dame‘s homecoming game against Loyola to start about a month ago, a Notre Dame freshman parent who was working as an event staffer asked me who I thought was the best young quarterback in the region.

I knew Eric Sondheimer was roaming the sidelines that night, working on an upcoming Dayne Crist feature, and I almost sent the parent his way. But I figured the ‘Voice of Valley Sports’ wouldn’t really appreciate that. So, I decided to take a crack at the question: Who’s the best young QB in the region?

Well, it took me about a nanosecond to tell him that Crespi sophomore QB Bryan Bennett, pictured, is the best young QB in these parts. He took it pretty well, despite the fact the Knights are going to have to deal with this kid for the next two years.

I know Santa Barbara‘s John Uribe, San Luis Obispo‘s Dave Schultz, Righetti’s Justin Level and Pacifica‘s Vince Moraga all had impressive junior campaigns.

But Bennett has passed for more yards than any other sophomore in the region and has the fifth-most passing yards of any sophomore in Southern California. And, he’s the only 10th grader in the state to go up against multiple top-tier opponents [Brimingham, Corona Centennial, St. Bonaventure, Notre Dame, Mater Dei] unlike all the guys ahead of him. Sorry Chase Rettig, Isaac Valdez, Alex Beaton and Mike Bundy, but none of your teams were in the running for a state divisional bowl berth this season.

Bennett enters this afternoon‘s Pac-5 Division semifinal against Servite with 1,906 yards and 17 TDs. No, I didn’t forget about the 10 interceptions, but he’s young. All those other guys I mentioned in the previous paragraph averaged nine interceptions over an average of fewer games played.

Bennett has played extremely confident in high-pressure games, and don’t be surprised if this kid can help the Celts capture the toughest divisional title in the nation next week.

-- Austin Knoblauch

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