Football: Schroeder quietly shreds defenses

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Some have been given the impression that Mater Dei’s Matt Barkley is the only quarterback in Orange County that we’re aware of given the amount of publicity he’s received the last few years, including a feature story on his rebound from a tough season-opening stretch in today’s Times.

That’s certainly not the case. Colorado-bound Clark Evans had an awesome season for Los Alamitos, Cal-bound Allan Bridgford broke all of Mark Sanchez’s records at Mission Viejo, Tesoro’s Robbie Picazo helped engineer an undefeated regular season and Matt Viles did some big things for Edison.

One quarterback I will admit to overlooking, however, is Dana Hills’ Sean Schroeder. All he did was help the Dolphins go 5-5 this season, one year after a dreadful 1-8-1 finish. Dana Hills did not make the playoffs out of the tough South Coast League, but the Dolphins had a season to be proud of.

And Schroeder had a lot to do with it, completing 65.5% of his passes for 2,826 yards and 31 touchdowns with eight interceptions. Against Tesoro, the top team in the South Coast League, Schroeder completed 26 of 37 passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. Those numbers compare favorably with those of Bridgford, who completed eight of 26 passes against Tesoro for 181 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions.

Schroeder is bound for Duke, a team I know well as a native of Raleigh, N.C., who grew up rooting for N.C. State (the Wolfpack has dominated the Blue Devils in football the last 15 or so years, though basketball is another matter). If Schroeder could help Dana Hills achieve respectability, I feel confident he has a good chance to do the same for the Devils, especially playing for Coach David Cutcliffe, who tutored Peyton and Eli Manning.

--Ben Bolch