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Wyatt Drenner and Jake Pearce collectively celebrated maybe the best second of their soccer careers a yr in the past.
The 2 longtime mates had been on the soccer area at San Marin Excessive on Dec. 11, 2021, when the Mustangs protection rushed Independence quarterback Ladon Denmark, forcing him to make a last-minute desperation move that was knocked away, sealing the Mustangs’ first CIF State championship in class historical past.
Because the Mustangs ready for Spring exercises, seniors Drenner and Pearce realized that they had yet one more probability to recapture the hearth and glory from that 2021 championship season.
“I’ve all the time cherished soccer. I used to play youth soccer on this area,” Drenner stated. “Ever since I used to be 6 years outdated, I’ve been centered on soccer, taking issues to the following degree, from Pop Warner, then with San Marin. The previous couple years as a sophomore and a junior have positively been laborious work, however it’s price it to get the place we’re proper now.”
The strain will likely be on the line of defense to cease Southern California Regional champion Granada Hills’ vaunted run sport in Saturday’s CIF State Division 4-A title sport at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
“Wyatt being the center linebacker and the captain of our protection, and me being a frontrunner of our line of defense, we’ve taken quite a lot of satisfaction in our run-stuffing and the way good our entrance seven is and our protection total,” Pearce stated.
The Mustangs misplaced key members of their beginning line of defense to commencement after final season, however San Marin had a powerful basis because the crew started rebuilding the wall. Linebackers Drenner and Wesley Garton and defensive lineman Jake Pearce established the tone for a protection that has allowed fewer than 100 speeding yards per sport this season.
Regardless of a 21-14 loss to Acalanes to open the 2022 season, and a high-scoring 37-34 victory over Analy in Week 2, Pearce noticed one thing that made him smile with confidence.
“With Wyatt having performed defenseman with me final yr, I knew he was an athlete,” Pearce stated. “When he made the transition to linebacker, after watching him the primary couple of video games, the way in which he performed over the sector, his pace and data of the sport, I knew we had been going to have a superb season. Wyatt was actually firing on all cylinders.”
San Marin’s protection rapidly strengthened and have become one of many stingiest models in Northern California, permitting simply 81 factors over the following eight video games to shut out the common season.
Pearce, Drenner and Garton had been rewarded as All-MCAL first crew picks this season — the second time in a row for Pearce. Defensive lineman Matt Giomi was named to the All-MCAL second crew.
“That is the perfect line of defense I’ve ever performed with,” Drenner stated. “I’ve quite a lot of respect for the seniors and the coaches who’re doing a superb job conserving us aggressive and ensuring youthful gamers are prepared for subsequent season.”
Drenner, a junior guard on that 2021 State Division 5-AA title crew, is again proper the place he feels he belongs — in the midst of all of the motion on the line of defense because the Mustangs look to win one other title.
“This yr I positively really feel extra comfy and assured,” Drenner stated. “I really feel like I’m enjoying good. That is what I’ve all the time envisioned, excelling at center linebacker, at what I wish to do. The transfer to center linebacker has positively made me happier total, which I believe helps encourage me as a participant.”
Regardless of enjoying center linebacker just about since he was sufficiently big to put on shoulder pads and a helmet, Drenner needed to get used to a unique place final yr.
“Final yr, I did my job, however I felt like I wasn’t doing my finest,” Drenner stated. “I took it upon myself to get in the appropriate athletic form to play center linebacker as a result of I knew that was extra my pure place.”
The transfer has actually paid off for Drenner and the Mustangs. Coaches heard reward for the San Marin senior defensive core earlier this week when faculty scouts from Western Oregon, Nevada-Reno and Lewis and Clark dropped by to view the Mustangs in observe.
“Wyatt expressed to me that he needed to play center linebacker and within the offseason he did what he must do, he misplaced weight and gained pace,” San Marin head coach Dom DiMare stated of Drenner, who’s listed at 6 ft, 185 kilos however presents a extra intimidating determine on the road. “He stepped it up a notch. He put the work in and he grew to become a scholar of the soccer sport as effectively. He watched quite a lot of movie on opposing offenses and he’s gotten higher.”
And alongside the way in which, he has worn the mantle of captain, not simply as a patch or a title, however as a duty and an obligation to his teammates this season and for future seasons.
“There are guys who lead by yelling and screaming and there’s guys who lead by their actions, and that’s Wyatt,” DiMare stated. “He’s very quiet, reserved, however he’s a frontrunner.”
After which there’s that look, the look that teammates would possibly discover embarrassing, however can also be a educating software.
“He offers you that look to let you realize you’re doing the fallacious factor,” DiMare stated. “In observe, it’s full pace, nonstop each rep. He works each rep prefer it’s the final rep. He does every part proper.”
And Drenner and Pearce wish to make certain the blokes who will inherit their positions subsequent season know what to do, and learn how to do it.
“This place is sort of the anchor, conserving everyone collectively,” Drenner stated. “Enjoying center linebacker is greater than only a place. It’s about being a frontrunner, ensuring I’m doing my job and everybody else is doing theirs. It’s about making issues occur and that’s what I really like about it a lot.”
Simply as Drenner discovered from 2021 MCAL Defensive Participant of the Yr Nate Burger, he and Pearce have taken a few of their teammates beneath their wings. On Saturday evening, they hope to share the identical feeling championship feeling the Mustangs loved a yr in the past.
“Our motto final yr was to play the final sport as if it was going to be my final season,” Pearce stated. “Now that it truly is our final sport, it’s going to be troublesome to say goodbye to every part. However you realize it makes it loads simpler when you realize the following class has every part effectively in hand.”
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