BOCA RATON – Roderick Parker has made progress in his sophomore season at St. John Paul II.

After seven games played, he has emerged into one of the Eagles defensive leaders, as evidenced by his 36 total tackles, two forced fumbles, and one pass breakup on defense. The 5-foot-8, 168-pound linebacker also blocked three punts this season, including two of them in his team’s Class 3A play-in game against Everglades Prep Academy (Homestead) this past Friday night (Nov. 6).

In addition to his two blocked punts, Parker added two tackles to help his team score a 49-0 blowout win in the process.

“I had a good performance,” Parker said. “But next time, I’m gonna have to do more than I did last game.”

Junior defensive back Kevin Braggs spoke on Parker’s outing from last week.

“Rod is player with so much potential, and Friday night he showed a lot of it,” Braggs said. “He made some big time tackles and had both of our blocked punts. We all trust Rod to fulfill his job at linebacker and make the plays we need him to.”

Parker will get another opportunity to shine this Friday night (Nov. 13; 7:30 p.m. kickoff) in the 3A-Region 4 quarterfinal round against Cardinal Newman.

This will be a rematch from earlier this season, when the Eagles fell in a 25-12 road loss to the Crusaders.

PHOTO CREDITS: Keith Forde