Tanner Hoskins – QB – Tillamook
Three touchdown passes for Hoskins in a week one performance that featured his ability to create with his legs more than his arm. Hoskins was regularly on the run from Marshfield defensive linemen but was able to escape virtually every time and create big plays off-schedule. Purely on an athleticism basis, he is bound to be one of the best on the field no matter who the Cheesemakers matchup with, which showed against Marshfield.
Nick Hudson – QB – Marist
The kid is special. Any collegiate coach not giving him a serious look right now while he is a Junior is going to miss out when everybody else is already in line when he is a senior. Five touchdown passes in a highly contentious, highly important non-league game that went down to the wire. Another performance like this one next week against Springfield–which has its own backstory and off-field throughline–could be enough to start seriously asking the question of if he is a top-10 quarterback in the state regardless of level. 6-3, athletic, and has a cannon of an arm; What’s not to love about him?
Devin Martin – RB – Harrisburg
Martin might be the most unassuming of the top-tier 3A running backs. Evidence to that is the fact that, as ridiculous as it might sound, Martin had a somewhat quiet 260 yard and five touchdown performance against North Marion. No long breakaway touchdowns, no 4+ broken tackle runs, just consistently getting the most out of a play behind the various pulling lineman Harrisburg has made a staple of in their offense. Martin is closer to a wing-t fullback than a zone scheme speedster, but nonetheless showed balance between power running and the speed that he does have in week one.
Colten Stepleton – QB – Vale
Vale has a phenomenal football team, there are some tremendous athletes on both sides of the ball for the Vikings, but Stepleton drove the bus and turned their game against Santiam Christian–a well coached, talented team in their own right–into a blowout even before the halftime break. Five touchdowns of his own creation against a well coached team is worth seven or eight against a poorly coached one. His legs, his arm, and his ability on defense right now put him in the leading position for POTY. Another dominating win over Baker in week three, which inherently would mean another great performance by Stepleton, might put Vale at the #1 spot in 3A the rankings.
Zach Smith – RB – Dayton
The next person to tackle Smith while falling forward rather than backwards will be the first. Two touchdowns and a litany of broken tackles helped fuel Dayton’s 38 point opening offensive performance against Yamhill-Carlton. Smith, a leading candidate for OPOTY, looked just as hard to tackle in space and in a box as he did last fall. Smith doesn’t have the separation speed to be a surefire game-changing back, but he has the strength and tackle shaking ability to ensure every defense Dayton goes against this season has to play to stop him first. Yamhill-Carlton did not come close to stopping him.
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