All-Area football: Braden River’s Knowledge McDaniel is offensive player of the year

The Bradenton Herald is unveiling its All-Area selections for the 2017 high school fall season. The football offensive team is listed below:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Knowledge McDaniel, junior, Braden River

Position: Wide receiver

To his credit: Few teams could slow McDaniel this season. Sharing the spotlight with other Braden River weapons such as running back Deshaun Fenwick, who signed with South Carolina, McDaniel was an absolute beast when the Pirates needed him. He garnered Spectrum’s player of the game honors in a victory over Palmetto, when the Tigers struggled to tackle him. Against eventual state champion Venice in a second-round playoff game, McDaniel exceeded 200 receiving yards for the fourth time in 2017. McDaniel, who has several Division I offers, finished the year with 75 catches for 1,360 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also added four scores and 245 yards on the ground.

FIRST TEAM

QB: Bryan Gagg, junior, Braden River

Completed 128 of 188 passes for 2,253 yards with 28 touchdowns against just five interceptions.

RB: Deshaun Fenwick, senior, Braden River

Carried the ball 162 times for 1,401 yards and 14 touchdowns. The South Carolina signee also added 260 receiving yards on 14 catches for three scores.

RB: Bryce Williams, senior, Cardinal Mooney

Signed with Minnesota; Williams was the driving force behind the Cougars’ offense this season. He had 150 carries for 1,286 yards and 13 touchdowns.

RB: Chase Brown, senior, Saint Stephen’s

The Western Michigan signee was a blazing fast and physical runner that garnered 15 total Division I offers. He had 1,508 rushing yards on just 95 carries with 27 touchdowns while playing mostly two quarters in many blowouts this season.

WR: Irone Jackson, freshman, Manatee

Already with considerable height as a freshman, Jackson emerged as a go-to weapon for the Hurricanes’ offense for years to come. Averaged 10 yards per touch this season, including a big receiving game in the playoff loss at Kissimmee Osceola.

WR: JT Galloway, senior, Southeast

Explosive in the Seminoles passing attack, former head coach Rashad West described Galloway as a great kid, hard worker and tremendous leader.

TE: Mickey Koczersut, senior, Lakewood Ranch

Caught 21 passes for 346 yards with three touchdowns.

OL: Brendan Bengtsson, senior, Braden River

The anchor on Braden River’s solid offensive line, Bengtsson aided a ridiculous offense that opened holes for Deshaun Fenwick and pass protected for Bryan Gagg.

OL: Diamante Isom, junior, Bradenton Christian

Was a first-team SSAC All-Conference selection after the 6-foot-1, 315-pounder graded out as an ‘A’ for the season.

OL: Jeremiah Bartholow, senior, Manatee

On a young offensive line, Bartholow was the glue. He registered 27 pancake blocks, allowed just one sack and graded out at 85 percent for the season.

OL: Eriq Porter, senior, Palmetto

As the Tigers offense gained more experience and continued rounding into form, there was one constant rock: Porter. His play on the line was steady all season and contributed to an invite into the annual FACA North/South All-Star game.

OL: Devin Logan, senior, Southeast

The Seminoles scored in bunches at times this year, and Logan was a key figure on the offensive line providing holes for Latrell Peavy and passing protection for Alex Taylor. The best performance came in the season finale where Peavy tallied a program-best 400 rushing yards en route to a program record of

K: Freddy Manriquez, senior, Palmetto

A splendid career that saw him establish the new longest Palmetto High field goal in program history as a junior, Manriquez connected on 13 of 17 field goals with a long of 48 yards this season.

ATH: Keyon Fordham, junior, Manatee

A finalist for the Florida Dairy Farmer’s Class 8A player of the year, Fordham did everything for Manatee in just six games. Despite the limited action due to injury, he played QB, WR, KR and P and tallied 339 passing yards, averaged 11.2 yards per carry, averaged 40 yards per punt and had 10 total touchdowns with 917 total yards.

ATH: Fred Billy, senior, Saint Stephen’s

Ran for 1,337 yards on 88 carries with 20 touchdowns, while adding 714 passing yards, a punt return for a touchdown and finishing his career with more than 100 touchdowns en route to finishing runner-up as the Florida Dairy Farmer’s independent class player of the year.

HONORABLE MENTION

Bayshore: Edwin Crespo, senior, OL; Jassiel Velez, senior, OL

Braden River: Craivon Koonce, senior, WR; Travis Tobey, sophomore, TE; Luke Andrews, senior, OL; Daniel Galvin, junior, OL; Cam White, junior, RB

Bradenton Christian: Bathie Thiam, senior, ATH; Josh Ingram, senior, OL

Lakewood Ranch: Travis Freeman, junior, K

Manatee: Josh Booker, senior, RB; Javarious Pollock, senior, WR; Axel Laprevue, sophomore, K

Palmetto: Anthony Marino, junior, QB; E.J. Davis, senior, RB; Johnnie Jones, junior, RB; LaJohntay Wester, sophomore, WR; Kobe Mays, sophomore, WR

Saint Stephen’s: Dylan Davis, sophomore, OL; Demetrius Davis, senior, WR; Dalton Francis, junior, OL

Southeast: Alex Taylor, senior, QB; Latrell Peavy, senior, RB

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 1:29 PM with the headline "All-Area football: Braden River’s Knowledge McDaniel is offensive player of the year."