Prep football: Del Oro QB Caden Pinnick has breakout game in win over Menlo-Atherton
Caden Pinnick grew up going to Del Oro High School football games.
The 6-foot junior Golden Eagle has family ties to the Loomis school. His cousin, Stone Smartt, was one of the best quarterbacks in the school’s storied history.
Pinnick is living up to those large shoes left by his cousin. On Friday night at home, Pinnick threw for 235 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for a 25-yard score down the home sideline in a 42-13 win over Menlo-Atherton of the Bay Area.
“Growing up, coming here and seeing the lights, I wanted to be that guy,” Pinnick said. “I wanted to be that Stone Smartt on the field. Now that it’s here, it’s surreal. It’s me taking it in.”
He added, “(Stone) is the foundation. Him being a quarterback growing up (made me) want to be a quarterback, too. Him going to college and showing me the ropes, it was huge. Him being there helped.”
It blew the game open and got the crowd on its feet.
Menlo-Atherton features one of the top high school football wide receivers in America. That would be senior Jurrion Dickey, who is ranked as a 5-star prospect by multiple recruiting outlets. Dickey committed to Oregon over the summer.
The focus heading into the week was containing the star receiver. They limited him to four catches for under 50 yards. Golden Eagles senior Thomas Graham ll had the task of guarding Dickey most the night. On offense, he scored a 23-yard touchdown.
“He’s such a good player that you have to make sure you know where he is every play,” Del Oro coach Mike Maben said. “We’re double-teaming him and making sure we have a safety over the top of him. It’s doing the things we can do to shut him down.”
The Del Oro defense stepped up. Aaron Dabney-Unfried, Beaux Sauve and Brandon Hill all had interceptions. Del Oro’s Hill blocked a punt in the third quarter and Samuel Murray recovered it for a 5-yard touchdown.
The offense provided its fireworks, too. It paralleled the light show the Del Oro band performed at halftime. All the lights were shut off in the stadium for a special homecoming performance.
Golden Eagles running back Kainoa Acia rushed for 74 yards and had 84 yards receiving which included a 74-yard touchdown catch in the first half. Bradley West scored from 11-yards out and Tommy Poe had a 31-yard touchdown grab.
Del Oro is off to a 5-0 start for the first time since the 2018 season. The Golden Eagles went 0-5 during the COVID-19 shortened spring season and started 4-0 last season before losing to Granite Bay.
Del Oro has a bye next week before starting Sierra Foothill League at home against rival Granite Bay on Sept. 30.
The SFL features five teams in the top 8 of The Bee’s rankings in No. 1 Folsom, No. 2 Granite Bay, No. 4 Oak Ridge, No. 7 Rocklin and No. 8 Del Oro. As Maben said to his players in the postgame huddle, the second season starts now.
“We said last week there were no more easy weeks,” Maben said. “Every single week from now on is going to be a grind. Playing teams in the SFL is a tough one. Hopefully a game like this gets us ready for next week.”
Maben added, “The league is tough every year. Over the last 20 years, it’s probably been one of the toughest leagues in the state.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 11:01 PM.