Well, these are the five questions for which I seek answers …
1. Can anybody block Anthony Laurenzi? The North defensive end from El Dorado, the 2007 county defensive player of the year, is going to be a challenge. Tustin coach Myron Miller said Laurenzi might have been the most-difficult-to-block defensive lineman he has ever seen in Orange County.
The other four questions …
2. How will the South’s Brendan Chambers of Saddleback Valley Christian do? Chambers is the one small-schools guy in the game. He played quarterback at SVC, is listed on the South roster as a defensive back, but South coach Jason Negro said Chambers will play receiver, too. Small-schools football parents sometimes refuse to acknowledge it, but there is quite a difference between small-schools and large-schools football. Chambers is a good athlete — a fine basketball and baseball player, too — so he might meet the challenge.
3. Can anybody run the ball? The running game often is difficult to establish in the county all-star game, and Negro and South coach Brent McKee acknowledge that run-blocking might not the a strong suit of their offensive lines. We might see both teams pass to set up the run, which could produce some long, game-breaking runs.
4. Who has the most stickers? It is an all-star game tradition that players trade helmet stickers. So you might see a Tesoro helmet with stickers from a bunch of other South schools, or a Los Alamitos helmet with stickers from a lot of other North schools.
5. Will special teams have it together? The snap-hold-kick sequence for a field goal or extra point is more difficult to master than it looks, especially in high school football and especially so in a high school all-star game. The three guys — long snapper, holder and kicker — have not worked together for a long-enough period to develop that second-nature relationship. But we do have two outstanding kicker/punters in this game, and both were All-County — the North has Logan Sewell of Brea Olinda, the South has Luis Feinstein of University.
– Steve Fryer
Related:
• O.C. All-Star Game Insider
• O.C. All-Star game has makings of memorable battle
• How to avoid OC Fair traffic on the way to the game
• Q&A with South coach Jason Negro, part 2
• Gameday predictions from North’s Sean Kurtz
