Sunday, July 22, 2001

Second half onslaught pushes West past East

By John Montgomery
Staff Writer

FOSTORIA - West assistant coach Mike Cool made the challenge at halftime and his team responded, rolling up 34 unanswered points to pound the East 40-16 and claim their third straight win Saturday in the annual Fostoria Athletic Boosters East-West All-Star Game.

"Coach Cool had a nice 'fire up' speech at halftime," West head coach Kris Alge of McComb said following the game. "He pulled the kid from Vanlue (Neil Duffman) over and said 'He wants to win so bad and he's got a heart and now let's everybody play with heart.'

"I don't know, it gave me goosebumps," Alge said. "I was fired up, I thought it was October playoff time."

Apparently, so did the West's players.

Elmwood's Jesse Wise sprinted 45 yards with 4:10 left in the third quarter to cut the East's lead to 16-13.

Then, on the East's first offensive play after that, Findlay defensive back Josh DiBenedetto picked off a pass by Upper Sandusky quarterback Aaron Leitzy and returned it 24 yards untouched for another West score.

That only put the West up 20-16 with 3:55 left in the third, but it signalled the end of the East's threat to win.

"I think that was a big one, when DiBenedetto picked. That was a big one because I think we'd scored and Di intercepted," Alge said. "That was definitely big when he came up and picked it. I think out bench just erupted."

While the West's spirits went up, the East's fell.

"That intercepted pass that went for a score, I thought that kind of broke our back," said East coach Coby Coburn of Fostoria St. Wendelin. "We lost composure then; concentration went right down."

Things continued to go down from there for the East.

Wade Kuns of Fremont St. Joseph fumbled away the ball on the East's second offensive play of the next drive and the West cashed in with a 2-yard TD pass from Eastwood's Justin Shank to Ottawa-Glandorf's Chris Kuhlman for a 26-16 lead.

The West then forced the East to turn the ball over on downs, setting up a 64-yard scoring rumble by Wise on the West's first offensive play of its next series to make it 33-16.

Wise ended the game with 109 yards on five carries and earned the West's Andy Bish MVP Award, named in honor of the Elmwood graduate who died in a car accident days after playing in the 1992 All-Star Game.

Coburn said the East had prepared for Wise as a runner, but just couldn't stop him.

"We knew they had the sprint draw," Coburn said. "It's a draw play and there's nothing fancy in that play at all. That's just a lot of ability by a kid that's a scatback and he did a super job."

Questionable calls from the officials also had the East team reeling, and they never really recovered. Coburn said that definitely had an impact in the final score.

"It was an all-star game and it was their first game of the year," he said of the officials. "I don't want to sound like sour grapes on a ball game. They (West) played a heck of a second half.

"I don't want to take that away from them. But I want to look at the films, too," he said with a chuckle.

"The refs had talked about some of our kids talking and so forth. We told them to settle down and they settled down, way too much," he said. "Then the ball got rolling and it got out of hand."

Emotions played a large part in some of those East penalties.

Alge said he noticed that players from both sides were talking it up quite a bit, but said that was to be expected because it was the last time many of them would ever be on a football field and they all wanted to go out as winners.

"There was a little bit of jawing on both sides. I think these kids are competitors, coaches are competitors," he said. "We're friends before and after the game, but when we're on the field we're competitors and that's why you play the game of football.

"We wanted to have fun, but we also wanted to win, too," Alge said.

The West's final score came with four minutes to play when Liberty-Benton quarterback Michael Perkins hit Van Buren's Marc Edgell with 7-yard TD pass.

The East opened the scoring with a 26-yard pass from Fostoria High quarterback Dane Bringman to Columbian receiver Drew Hanley with 11 minutes left in the first half. Following a West penalty on the PAT try, Bringman ran in the conversion to put the East up 8-0.

The West closed to within 8-6 at the 7:15 mark when Shank hit Kenton's Chad Baughman over the middle and Baughman weaved his way downfield for a 39-yard TD. The West missed the PAT kick.

The East answered with a 75-yard scoring drive that chewed 7:08 off the clock, ending when Kuns powered in from 2 yards out.

Bringman dropped the snap on the ensuing PAT kick attempt, but bulled his way up the middle to help the East take a 16-6 halftime lead.

He earned the East's Tommy Latham MVP Award after hitting on four of his 11 passes for 84 yards and running for another 16.

Shank ended up connecting on 16 of his 22 passes for 174 yards for the West. Baughman hauled in five passes for 101 yards.