Most everyone reading this probably has a favorite football dynamic duo. It could be Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, Max Montoya and Anthony Muñoz, even Sauce Gardner and Coby Bryant.
Football, which many would call the ultimate team game, doesn’t work without great combinations of players. A great quarterback is nothing if his receivers can’t catch the ball. A great cornerback can only do so much if the other team is attacking his much weaker counterpart across the field. A team with two great edge rushers causes far more serious headaches for opposing offenses than a team with just one.
Around Greater Cincinnati this year, the high school football scene features dozens of exciting dynamic duos, far more than will fit on this list.
Here are the top 10 for the 2024 season.
10. Lakota West LBs Grant Beerman and Cam Thomas
Beerman and Thomas make up arguably the most fearsome pair of linebackers in the state for this upcoming season. Beerman, a rising senior, is a three-star recruit who has committed to Purdue. Thomas is a four-star recruit and the nation’s 18th-best linebacker in the class of 2026 according to 247Sports.
Beerman led Lakota West in tackles last season and finished with 3.0 sacks, 12.0 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. A further breakout is expected from Thomas in his junior season, but he finished last season with 4.5 sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and two interceptions. Beerman and Thomas are 6-foot-4 and 6-2 respectively, and each weighs about 220 pounds. Offenses are not going to look forward to playing Lakota West this season.
9. Moeller TEs Cooper McCutchan and Sam Hamilton
Neither McCutchan nor Hamilton saw much action on varsity last season, but the pair of future Division I tight ends is expected to take on a much bigger role this year. Both rising juniors, McCutchan and Hamilton are rated the class of 2026’s 33rd and 37th best tight ends in the nation, respectively. Both 6-4 and over 220 pounds, they’ll be two huge and athletic targets for Moeller star quarterback Matt Ponatoski. They figure to be great blockers as well.
8. St. Xavier QB Chase Herbstreit and ATH Daniel Vollmer
Junior Daniel Vollmer is a quarterback by trade and a very good one. He’s already racked up offers from Cincinnati, Indiana, Duke and Harvard. Herbstreit will be the starting quarterback for St. Xavier in 2024, his senior season. He finished 2023 with over 1,500 passing yards and ten touchdowns to eight interceptions. There’s a good chance he will break out in 2024 with a full season as a starter under his belt.
Vollmer lined up behind the center last season mostly on designed running plays last season and ended up finishing fourth in the Greater Catholic League (GCL) with 765 rushing yards. He said that he hopes to have a Deebo Samuel-type role in the Bomber offense this season, a major threat out of the backfield and out wide.
7. Kings QB Grant Nurre and WR Nate Lyman
Nurre, a 6-3 rising junior quarterback, still hasn’t seen his recruiting trail light up, but he made a good case for it last season. As a sophomore, he threw for 2,282 yards and 23 touchdowns while surrendering just five interceptions.
Lyman is a 6-2 senior receiver who’s committed to Eastern Michigan. He chose the Eagles over Toledo, Army, Navy and most of the Ivy League. He led the Eastern Cincinnati Conference last season with 1,314 receiving yards and 19 receiving touchdowns (the next closest was Anderson’s Trace Jallick with 12).
Kings finished 6-6 in 2023, but with a more experienced quarterback and Lyman a year older, don’t be surprised to see a breakout campaign.
6. Anderson QB Justice Burnam and WR Trace Jallick
Burnam’s 4,186 passing yards and 41 touchdowns led the ECC in 2023 by nearly 1,500 yards and 20 TDs. Jallick was his top receiver, finishing with 1,267 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
Brody Berg, who tore up the field last season for Anderson to the tune of nearly 2,500 all-purpose yards and 42 total touchdowns, has graduated, so it will be interesting to see how the Anderson offense functions without its top threat. Jallick is a good bet to step up even further in his senior season.
5. Cooper QB Cam O’Hara and RB Keagan Maher
Cam O’Hara is currently listed by 247Sports as the 36th-best quarterback in the country in the class of 2026. Going into his junior year, he’s already had a great high school career. As a freshman in 2022, O’Hara threw for 1,510 yards and 16 touchdowns with just three interceptions. As a sophomore, he followed that up by throwing for more than 3,300 yards and 47 touchdowns with just seven interceptions.
Maher averaged 6.5 yards per carry and finished with 18 rushing touchdowns, also as a sophomore, in 2023. He added nearly 400 receiving yards and four touchdown grabs. The Cooper backfield is sure to be one of the most exciting in the area in 2024.
4. Anderson LB Antwoine Higgins and CB Ace Alston
At this time next year, these two will likely be even higher on this list. They’ll have another season to move up the ranks even after that.
The rising sophomores are some of the best recruits in the state for the class of 2027. Alston has already earned 14 Division I offers from schools including Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Higgins has received 18 Division I offers from the likes of Arkansas, UC, Michigan, Oregon and Tennessee.
Both played large roles in the Anderson defense as freshmen. Last year, Alston had 11 pass breakups and an interception, and Higgins had 53 tackles, one-and-a-half sacks, six tackles for loss, four passes defended and an interception. Higgins especially already has Division I size, listed at 6-3, 215 pounds. Offensive coordinators in the ECC will have some sleepless nights as they prepare for the Anderson Raptors.
3. Beechwood WR Tyler Fryman and QB Clay Hayden
Hayden, a rising senior, and Fryman, a rising sophomore, will hope to improve even further on their explosive connection in 2024. Hayden finished third in Kentucky with 3,490 passing yards in 2023, and he added 46 passing touchdowns to just five interceptions.
Fryman, a two-sport star already committed to play baseball at Louisville, had 1,052 receiving yards (22.4 yards per reception), 191 rushing (10.6 yards per carry) and 18 touchdowns as a freshman. He also had three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
2. Moeller QB Matt Ponatoski and WR Jovan Love
Ponatoski broke Moeller’s record for single-season passing yards as a sophomore in 2023, finishing with 3,334 yards through the air and 29 passing touchdowns. He gets most of his starting offensive line back and his top receiver, Jovan Love. The 6-3 Love will be a senior in 2024 after leading the GCL in receiving yards (941) and tying for the lead in receiving touchdowns (nine) in 2023.
Moeller also has a pair of Division I players on defense who just missed out on this list ‒ safety Micah Rice, a Louisville commit, and edge rusher Jonah Hayes, who is committed to Northwestern. Maybe the most talented team in the area, big things are on the horizon for Moeller football in 2024.
1. Winton Woods edge rushers Justin Hill and Jaylen Mercer
It’s not going to be fun to line up across from the 6-3, 220-pound Hill or the 6-5, 230-pound Mercer in 2024.
Most people already know Justin Hill, the Alabama commit who led the ECC in sacks with 13.0 last season and finished second in tackles for loss with 16.0. People who don’t yet know Mercer will soon. He didn’t play much on varsity last year as a freshman, but still he’s already racked up offers from Penn State, Tennessee and USC.
The two will make up one of the most formidable pass-rushing duos in the state in 2024.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati high school football’s best dynamic duos in 2024
