Top Quarterbacks in Orange County (6-10)

Orange County has produced outstanding quarterbacks in its history. Former USC quarterback and Buffalo Bills starter Rob Johnson played his high school years at El Toro High. Heisman Trophy winner and former Bengal Carson Palmer was dominant at Santa Margarita before he had success on Saturdays and Sundays. Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley donned the three stripes at Mater Dei before their dominant years at USC. Mark Sanchez was winning CIF championships at Mission Viejo before he led the Jets to an AFC championship. Sam Darnold was enjoying cool Friday nights at San Clemente before excelling at USC and becoming a first round draft pick. You get the picture. Orange County is once again loaded with top tier talent at quarterback. This list of top signal-callers this upcoming season was decided based on past performance, team success, future projections and college appeal. Earlier this week, I highlighted the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2020/09/top-quarterbacks-in-orange-county-11-15/">quarterbacks ranked 11-15 in Orange County</a>. Here are five of the top 15 quarterbacks in Orange County for the upcoming 2021 football season: <strong>10. Daylen Pedroza, Orange, Orange, 2021</strong> Pedroza came up on my radar two years ago entering his sophomore season at the North OC Shootout passing tournament at Sunny Hills. The Panthers did not win the tournament but the talk of the day was Orange and their sophomore quarterback people were comparing to Tim Tebow. Pedroza is built like a linebacker, has the speed of a running back and an accurate arm. The lefty had 39 touchdowns last season (23 passing, 16 rushing), completed 72 percent of his passes for 2095 yards and rushed for 816 yards. If Orange played in a more competitive league, Pedroza would get more recruiting attention. He has offers from Lake Erie, Whittier, St. Francis and Bethel College. https://twitter.com/InlandFieldhaus/status/1195548115186503687?s=20 <strong>9. Hudson Jones, San Juan Hills, San Juan Capistrano, 2021</strong> When Jones made his first start at San Juan Hills in 2018, he appeared undersized and the Stallions didn’t ask him to do much. As a junior last season, he grew, threw a much more accurate ball and led the Stallions to a CIF-SS Division 4 championship. He completed 71 percent of his passes for 2,599 yards, 33 touchdowns and just five interceptions. His best games were against elite teams like Orange Lutheran, Edison and Hart. Jones is losing his best offensive weapon in Joey Hobert, but he will be able to move the ball for the Stallions and his growth over the past two seasons has been tremendous. https://twitter.com/SouthOCsports/status/1198066264180051968?s=20 <strong>8. Lachlan Van Rosmalen, San Clemente, San Clemente 2022</strong> Rosmalen is the only quarterback on this list who is yet to play a varsity snap. He makes the list due to the pedigree of the school he came from and the reputation of developing quarterbacks at San Clemente. Rosmalen was the JV quarterback at St. John Bosco last season and learned from DJ Uiagaleilei, the top quarterback in the nation last season. Six of the last seven quarterbacks to play at San Clemente have gotten Division 1 scholarships. Rosmalen has a big arm, reads defenses well and isn’t fast enough to be a great runner, but moves well laterally and throws well on the run. Rosmalen will garner national recruiting interest after a successful season at San Clemente. https://twitter.com/Lachedandloaded/status/1295017439927779331?s=20 <strong>7. Dartanyon Moussiaux, Capistrano Valley, Mission Viejo, 2021</strong> Moussiaux has the most passing yards of any returning quarterback in the competitive South Coast League, including Utah commit [player_tooltip player_id="25053" first="Peter" last="Costelli"] who will appear later in this list. He is 6-foot-5, 200 pounds and was named “King of the Desert” at the 2020 Las Vegas Throw Down competition earlier this month. Moussiaux threw for 2,139 yards and 20 touchdowns. His best game came against Trabuco Hills, when he completed 83 percent of his passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns, which is interesting because his biggest competition for a Sea View League championship this season is Trabuco Hills. Moussiaux has an offer from Lake Erie College. https://twitter.com/D_Moussiaux/status/1293963554068951040?s=20 <strong>6. [player_tooltip player_id="25295" first="Logan" last="Gonzalez"]/[player_tooltip player_id="25368" first="Carson" last="Conklin"], Orange Lutheran, Orange, 2022/2023 </strong> These two quarterbacks split time at Orange Lutheran last season and are both drawing heavy recruiting interest. Gonzalez fared very well against Vista Murrieta and Santa Margarita last season as a sophomore. He is 6-foot-3, 190-pounds and has an offer from Nevada and interest from over a dozen other schools. Conklin played in 9 games for the Lancers as a freshman and playing as a freshman in the Trinity League and Division 1 playoffs is impressive. He is 6-foot-1, 180-pounds and has offers from Arizona State and Kansas. Both quarterbacks could start for most of the programs in the state and it will be interesting to see how playing time is divided between the two this season. https://twitter.com/ocvarsityguy/status/1165092690679095297?s=20 https://twitter.com/QBHitList/status/1289675535275003905?s=20