Hyepock will play, will Servite pay?

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When Servite, ranked No. 11 by The Times, takes on No. 3 Orange Lutheran tonight/Friday at Cal State Fullerton, the Friars are likely to find the kitchen sink waiting for them. Blake Hyepock, the senior quarterback who missed last week’s game against St. John Bosco because of an ‘illness,’ was cleared to play this week. Turns out that Hyepock had pneumonia.

Servite probably won’t be too upbeat about the news, but I’m glad; no sense in having these big-time games swayed by something as major as a missing quarterback. Much better to have them determined by the guys who put their teams in the positions of power to begin with.

Hyepock really has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the season. He had never started a high school football game before beating out sophomore Bobby Wheatley as successor to Aaron Corp, last year’s Times player of the year. Hyepock has completed 60% of his passes, has averaged 206 yards a game, and has nine touchdowns with only one interception. Among quarterbacks with at least 10 attempts per game, he has the eighth-best quarterback rating (129) in the Southern Section.

He is also about as understated and reserved a player as you will find, which makes sense, considering who’s his role model.

- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.jamesdeangallery.com