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Huskies Offer High-Scoring and Youthful Illinois Tight End

The sophomore from Marian Central Catholic High had 16 touchdown catches last fall.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer High-Scoring and Youthful Illinois Tight End
Huskies Offer High-Scoring and Youthful Illinois Tight End

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Washington Huskies

Christian Bentancur typically lines up wide for Marian Central Catholic High School's spread offense, hugging the sideline while presenting a nightmarish match-up for any defensive back who valiantly tries to cover him.

He's 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds — and considered a tight end.

In Woodstock, Illinois, 40 miles northwest of Chicago and near the Wisconsin state line, Bentancur is just now finishing up his sophomore year of class.

At Marian Central, he was the central figure in the Hurricanes' imaginative offense, catching a compelling 53 passes for 1,165 yards and 16 touchdowns.

After one look at this kid's highlight tape, University of Washington coach Kalen DeBoer and his offensive coaches must have been rubbing their hands together, considering what they could do with him in their high-octane attack.

On Thursday, they offered Bentancur from the Class of 2024 a football scholarship, his sixth overall, joining Nebraska, Penn State, Iowa State and Michigan. 

Bentancur proved downright unstoppable in the open field as a 10th-grader. He beat double coverage in the end zone on fade routes. He stiff-armed clingy defensive backs into the ground. He bounced off a lot of would-be tacklers to find the end zone. Of course, he's a sure-handed guy.

"I feel like my biggest trait is my mix of size and speed," he told deepdishfootball.com.

Curiously, as good as the tight end was, his football team struggled to a 4-5 record. 

A two-year starter with two seasons to go, Bentancur has 89 catches and 24 touchdowns well in advance of becoming an upperclassman. His receiving numbers should be astronomical by the time he picks a college destination.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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