WEST PALM BEACH – Numbers only tell one part of the story, while the other part has to be told with the eyes.
When watching Cardinal Newman running back Chris D’Or play, so many traits and talents that you look for in a running back stand out.
Watch D’Or play and his quickness and vision will immediately stand out. He quickly finds a hole and attacks it, using his speed to get past defenders around him.
When necessary, D’Or is able to make defenders miss with ball carrier moves in the open field, creating big-time plays.
This blend of talent is one of the deciding factors in naming D’Or our Offensive Player of the Year.
D’Or, who was named a finalist for the Lou Groza Player of the Year, finished the season with 1,505 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on 176 carries.
His talents helped propel Cardinal Newman to a 7-3 final record and the No. 3 seed in Class 3A-Region 3 playoffs.
D’Or made impacts both in the beginning of the season and in the late-season push.
In Cardinal Newman’s Week 2 victory over John Carroll Catholic, D’Or ran for 224 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries. He also added two receptions for nine yards.
Late in the season, D’Or did it again to help push Cardinal Newman over American-Heritage Delray, 35-21.
On 19 carries, D’Or ran for 148 yards and a trio of touchdowns, including a 50-yard touchdown where he showed both his quickness and ability to make his opponents miss.
Although D’Or ended up beating out American Heritage-Delray wide receiver Andison Coby and Jupiter quarterback Johnathan Mosley, it was never a clear-cut choice.
Coby finished the season with 1,010 receiving yards (best in Palm Beach County) and eight receiving touchdowns, all while playing with three different quarterbacks.
Mosley, who won the Lou Groza Player of the Year, had a game that will be almost impossible for anyone to replicate. In what was probably the best single-game quarterback performance in Palm Beach County high school football history, he came up with a whopping 554 all-purpose yards and nine total touchdowns in Jupiter’s Week 11 home victory over South Fork (61-47).
While both Coby and Mosley made strong cases for themselves, D’Or pulled it out because of his rare blend of talents at running back and his own impressive statistics to back up what we saw on film.
Photos: Keith Forde
