North Optimist football All-Stars led by Bee All-Metro QBs with more to prove
The thing about quarterbacks is they tend to keep tabs of each other, even if they hardly know one another.
Take Aidan Lopez and Mason Susnara, two regulars to The Sacramento Bee’s All-Metro football teams in recent seasons and guys who appreciate the craft of a touch pass, a deep bomb on the money and a spirited rally.
Lopez set passing records for the Casa Roble Rams of Orangevale and was The Bee’s 2025 Offensive Player of the Year. A two-time Bee All-Metro All-Purpose performer, Susnara on Thanksgiving weekend at Hughes Stadium engineered the gritty late drive with deft passing and poised leadership to set up the Roseville Tigers of Placer County for the game-winning field goal to lift his Placer County program to their first CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship since 1987.
The seniors followed each other from afar and up close, including a team scrimmage on the eve of the 2025 season. Now they’re teammates, offsetting the evening chill with hot passing in North practice sessions the last week or so in leading the charge for the North squad as it readies for the South in the 66th Optimist All-Star Football Classic.
The charity event for Sacramento-area seniors kicks off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Granite Bay High School.
And there’s this: Lopez and Susnara still have plenty to play for and plenty to prove. Both were deemed not quite tall enough or fast enough to garner Division I college recruiting interest in a sport where so many colleges retool rosters through the transfer portal. Never mind the production, the game film, the immeasurables and more. The 6-foot-2 Lopez and 6-2 Susnara are motivated to maintain momentum, inspired by their fathers, one-time high school quarterbacks — Michael Lopez and Zach Susnara.
“I think we both play with a chip on our shoulder — not big enough or whatever,” Lopez said. “Mason and I are in the same position. We’ve done all the right things. We just play, and we want to play in college somewhere.”
Lopez’s father played quarterback for Division III Occidental College in Los Angeles. Susnara’s father played briefly in high school, at Casa Roble in the early 1990s of all places, and the sons continuously thank their parents for their backing.
Despite offers to play for Division II or III programs across the country, the quarterbacks said this week that they are leaning toward the regional junior college route, or for a Northern California JC program, as the two-year level of ball has proven to be a boom for prep players in this state for decades.
“We just want to play,” Susnara said.
Susnara competes as if he’s still making up for lost time. He missed the season’s first four games with a fractured foot, suffered against Casa Roble in that late-summer scrimmage. It pained Susnara all the more to not be active. Then he keyed Roseville’s memorable season upon his return, and winning cures a lot of hurt.
“It was hard to sit and watch,” Susnara said.
While Susnara grew up in Roseville and was a Tiger all four years in high school, Lopez was a transfer who arrived on Casa Roble’s San Juan Unified School District campus before his junior season. He came from Folsom High, a haven for quarterbacks since 2009, but they can’t all play at once. And no one was going to beat out Ryder Lyons, the 5-star prospect and a three-time Bee Player of the Year, including overall All-Metro MVP in 2023 and 2025.
Lopez needed a few weeks to settle in at Casa Roble as a junior for a playoff team, and then he flourished as a senior. In 13 games, Lopez passed for 3,489 yards and 36 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He played hurt, he played inspired, and he dazzled with touch passes or laser strikes for a Rams team that went 11-2 and played for the CIF section Division V championship.
Susnara in 10 games — his team played 14 — passed for 1,772 yards and 21 touchdowns. Though those numbers aren’t as prolific as other regional passers, his leadership was without measure. Roseville went 11-3 and advanced to a CIF Northern California title game to punctuate the program’s best season in nearly 40 years.
Both players expressed pride in their senior seasons and their prep careers in general, with the shared aim of finishing with a victory over the South All-Stars. The North is coached by Granite Bay coach Joe Cattolico, a run-first coach who will go to the air because it’s there. He likes the leadership of his two All-Star passers. The North staff includes Chris Horner, the Casa Roble coach who raved about Lopez and Susnara as “great kids and great players.”
Winter football fun
What: 66th Optimist All-Star Football Classic
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Granite Bay High School
Tickets: $10, sold by players or at the stadium
Why: Ticket sales help boost Camp Ross Relles for physically, economically and socially disadvantaged children.