Dennie plays through the pain for Nordhoff | Prep football notebook

Michael Dennie’s high school career was supposed to be over.

The record-breaking Nordhoff High quarterback broke the thumb in his throwing hand in practice on Oct. 7.

“It was in a lot of pain the first week or two,” Dennie said.

But nothing compared to the pain of missing out on the end of his senior season.

“All I did was keep moving it,” Dennie said. “We took it to the doctor and they didn’t want me to play on it, but I was like, ‘I have to come back to help out.’ ”

So he began bugging head coach Dillon Lowen during practice, chucking a ball and saying, “Look, I can throw.”

“It shocked me that he was able to throw the ball,” said Lowen.

With receiver Jonathan Verduzco at quarterback, Nordhoff beat Channel Islands and Santa Clara to improve to 8-0.

But as the de facto Citrus Coast League title game against Grace was slipping away on Oct. 23, Lowen turned back to Dennie.

He struggled in the 35-14 loss, completing 16 of 35 passes for 134 yards.

But with a brace and athletic tape supporting his injury, Dennie proved he can throw, even down the field.

“It is pretty crazy,” Lowen said. “The kid has two fractures in his thumb that are going opposite ways.”

Dennie stretches and exercises the hand every day.

“I work it out until it gets tired and I can go longer and longer every day,” said Dennie. “You just get through the pain. … I only feel it if I try to squeeze super hard and I don’t need to do that.”

Taking a snap has surprisingly not been an issue.

“I’ve been able to get the hand strong enough to even catch with one hand again, although Coach gets mad when I do that,” Dennis said. “So I’ve stopped doing it.”

Dennie looked more like himself in a 41-0 win over Carpinteria in the regular-season finale, completing 18 of 30 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns.

“I believe in him,” Lowen said, “whether he’s hurt or not.”

Dennie has thrown for 1,956 yards and 24 TDs with just four interceptions as a senior. His 56 career TD passes are a school record. His 4,769 career yards are just 19 short of Tanner Workman’s school record.

But Dennie has bigger goals in his sights.

“It’s my senior season, last chance to play with the guys,” Dennie said. “We all have this goal of going 16-0, winning CIF and going to state. We can’t go 16-0 anymore, but we can still do everything else … and be one of the greatest teams in Nordhoff history.”

Nordhoff (9-1) opens the CIF-Southern Section Division 11 playoffs on Friday, Nov. 6, at Fountain Valley-Los Amigos

“It’s pretty healthy now,” Dennie said. “We’ll see what’s up when we get the X-rays (later this month), but I think it’s healed or almost healed.”

Growing pains

Perhaps the most surprising development of the last two weeks of the regular season was Westlake (7-3) losing back-to-back games to slip to third in the Channel League.

The Warriors had won 17 of the first 19 games of Rick Clausen’s tenure as head coach, before suffering a pair of dramatic losses — 13-10 at Santa Barbara and 29-27 to Moorpark in overtime.

“We’re going through some growing pains,” said Clausen. “Are we good, yeah. Are we playing good? At times. When we’re not playing good, it’s bad.”

Losing running back Nazir Esanbor and receiver Demare Dezeurn to torn ACLs in Week 3 and Week 5 has made the Warriors less explosive. Starting quarterback Ford Green hasn’t taken a snap since Week 4.

“We’ve lost some dynamic playmakers,” Clausen said. “That’s hurting us. … We’re not consistent enough on offense right now to overcome mistakes (like) last year.”

Quarterback Hendrix Tucker is one of four freshmen starting on offense.

Westlake will travel south on Friday, opening the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs at Dana Hills, which is coached by former Westlake coach Tony Henney.

Dana Hills (8-2) finished third in the Foxtrot League, beating fourth-place Laguna Beach, 31-7. Westlake beat Laguna Beach 28-23 on Sept. 10.

“We are what we are right now,” said Clausen. “We’re young at places you don’t want to be young at this point of the season.”

Section leaders

Camarillo senior Brad Barlow finished fourth in the CIF-SS in passing, throwing for 3,103 yards.

Ventura County’s regular-season leader completed 223 of 327 passes for 28 TDs and five interceptions.

Pacifica’s Taylor Lee (17th, 2,411), Grace’s Riley Williams (18th, 2,410) and Calabasas’ Dominik Hardy (19th, 2,375) also finished in the top 20.

Hueneme’s Kelechi Ofoego finished 19th in the section with 1,248 yards rushing.

Grace’s Charlie Martinez was seventh in the section with 21 touchdowns and 10th with 1,173 yards receiving. Calabasas’ Kingston Celifie was 19th with 986.

Oxnard’s Alder Kubic was seventh in the section in tackles with 126. Pacifica’s Isaiah Phelps was 11th with 124 and Pacifica’s PeeWee Wilson was 20th with 114.

Agoura’s Will Gelt was 17th in the section in sacks with 10.

Grace’s Reece Boyles was the section co-leader in interceptions with seven. Rio Mesa’s Neo Lewis was tied for 16th with five.

Pacifica’s David Carranza was tied for third with 10 field goals. Buena’s Dylan Ragazzo was tied for 16th with six.

Joe Curley covers football for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook, Bluesky and TikTok.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Dennie plays through the pain for Nordhoff | Prep football notebook

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