De La Salle offensive lineman Cedric McDonald has played a different position in all three seasons as a Cavaliers starter.<\/p>\n
Currently serving as De La Salle\u2019s left tackle, the 6-foot-1, 285-pound senior shifted to the left side of the line this year after starting at right tackle as a junior and at right guard as a sophomore.<\/p>\n
McDonald anchors an experienced Cavaliers front five that features three seniors and two juniors.<\/p>\n
McDonald is accompanied by junior left guard Gerald Daniels and senior center Shamar Bridges, who are both three-year starters. The other senior starter is Dasean Nisby at right guard, a converted defensive lineman. Junior Gavin Blanchard starts at right tackle.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The offensive line) is probably the most consistent group on the team,\u201d coach Graham Jarrott said. \u201cCedric (McDonald) is incredibly versatile and super explosive; he\u2019s like a road grader. He\u2019s incredibly strong and continues to improve every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Run blocking is McDonald\u2019s strength. He has led a Cavaliers offensive line that has created a three-headed monster at running back led by senior Robert Lewis and juniors Eamon Williams and Charles Irvin.<\/p>\n
Jarrott credits Daniels as being the vocal leader of the line and said McDonald is \u201cthe guy we can count on when we need a tough yard.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald was an interior offensive lineman until making the a tough switch to tackle last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
De La Salle senior left tackle Cedric McDonald (left) and junior left guard Gerald Daniels (right).<\/p>\n
Spencer Urquhart<\/p>\n
\u201cAt left tackle, it\u2019s definitely different,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cStarting from the beginning of summer and even spring, I had to learn how to adjust to that. It\u2019s taught me how to be versatile on both sides, how to combat different types of defenders. I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve gotten the chance to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I love (playing next to McDonald),” Daniels said. “One of us makes a play, we get excited. That energy just feeds off, and we both start making nasty blocks.”<\/p>\n
Lewis and Williams each have more than 800 yards rushing on the season. De La Salle finished with 181 yards rushing in a 45-14 rout at Episcopal in the first round of the Division III select playoffs.<\/p>\n
Lewis had a team-high 101 yards on 10 carries in the victory.<\/p>\n
De La Salle led Episcopal by 32 points at halftime after scoring five touchdowns. Cavaliers sophomore quarterback Alericq Valentine, a first-year starter, completed 11 of 15 passes for 116 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
McDonald said he has matured into a better pass blocker.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Run blocking) has been second nature to me,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been explosive off the line. Blocking for Alericq this year, now I have to step up and be even more precise on my punch timing, my kicks, everything. I have to make sure he doesn\u2019t get touched.\u201d<\/p>\n
A tough nondistrict stretch resulted in an 0-5 start for De La Salle (5-6), which has won five of its past six games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in every game,\u201d said Jarrot, whose team travels to Crowley to face No. 2-seeded Notre Dame (8-2) at 7 p.m. Friday. \u201cI told them, \u2018If you guys can compete with those bigger schools, we should be ready when we get to the playoffs.\u2019 Notre Dame is an incredibly talented team. It\u2019ll be a tough test.\u201d<\/p>\n
A win would help No. 18 De La Salle reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"De La Salle offensive lineman Cedric McDonald has played a different position in all three seasons as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":392291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,12351,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-392290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hardwall","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115582253634200166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}