By Rene Ferran | For The Oregonian/OregonLive
Photos by Ken Waz, for The Oregonian/OregonLive
Aren’t all-star games supposed to be low-key affairs between two sides that just want to have fun?
Whatever preconceived notions fans might have held entering Hillsboro Stadium for Saturday night’s 72nd annual Les Schwab Tires Bowl were quickly tossed into the nearest trash can.
Soon after South Albany’s Oswaldo Ramirez kicked the ball through the North end zone to open the festivities, it became apparent this wasn’t your typical all-star game.
Tempers flared several times throughout the game, which wasn’t decided until Silverton’s Ben Willis sacked Jackson Laurent of Lake Oswego with 10 seconds left to seal the South’s 33-28 victory.
The chippiness even spilled into the postgame handshake line, with trash talk and offers to meet up in the parking lot being exchanged as the teams met at midfield.
Running back Jobadiah Malary of Barlow chalked it all up to “just a bunch of competitors going at it,” but players from the South team pointed to several other factors as well – geography, 5A vs. 6A (the North had two players from 5A schools; the South had 20), and the perceived talent gap.
“They have a ton of guys committed to a bunch of big schools,” said Eagle Point receiver Noah Page, who will play slot for New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college in Roswell. “But we have a ton of talent on our team, too.”
That included Page, who earned MVP honors by catching six passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns, setting the tone on his first score by breaking two tackles and sprinting to the end zone to put the South on top 24 seconds into the game.
“After that first one, I just kept rolling,” Page said. “I felt good.”
Wilsonville quarterback Nate Overholt, who set the single-season passing touchdowns record last fall in leading the Wildcats to the 5A title game, noted how the atmosphere surrounding the game changed during a week spent in the dorms at Pacific University.
“We’d get together at night, play video games against each other, and it started out fun, but eventually it got hostile,” Overholt said. “And this game, it got really hostile. All that talk about how 5A can’t play with 6A, it was nice to get that chance to see if that was true.”
Overholt, who is considering offers from junior colleges in California and Texas, finished 8 of 18 for 158 yards and two touchdowns while getting the chance to mix with players from all over the map – from Scappoose (Connor McNabb) to Medford (North Medford’s Elias Spence) and Bend (Mountain View’s Forrest Love).
When asked how Wilsonville ended up with the South squad, Overholt smiled.
“I was thinking the same thing, actually. There was us, Tigard, Tualatin … but you know what, I ended up liking my team a lot. The whole 5A/6A rivalry, I liked it a lot.”
While there were some feisty moments throughout the game, for many of the players, the friendships forged over the past week will be what they take away most from participating.
Malary, who will play at Portland State in the fall, thought he’d spend the week just hanging out with his Bruins teammate Jared Eggleston. That quickly changed.
“The coaches at dinner Monday night said that you’ll form bonds here that last a lifetime, and that’s really true,” Malary said. “Guys that had been enemies all through high school became my friends this week. You find out they’re just regular guys who are fun to be around, and I want to keep them around for a long time.
“This was the best week of my entire life.”
For many players, the week also marked the end of their high school playing career. Willis, who will throw the shot, discus and hammer at Utah State next year, had come to terms with that realization months ago.
Still, with the game hanging in the balance in the final seconds, he ignored his coaches telling him to stay on the sideline and took the field for the final fourth-down play.
“I got it done and sealed the deal,” Willis said. “That was super cool.”
Lake Oswego linebacker Gabe DeVille, who starred for the 6A state champions in the fall, hadn’t figured to play ever again before heading to the University of Oregon. He enjoyed having one last swan song, making seven tackles to share team-high honors for the North with Eggleston, then exited the field with no regrets.
“I’m ready to close the book and go to the next chapter,” DeVille said.
Page’s first touchdown followed an interception on the game’s first play by Wilsonville’s Trevor Antonson.
His second, a 72-yard bomb from Churchill’s Demontre Thomas II, came after a chop block penalty wiped out a 60-yard pass to McMinnville’s Colton Smith. Page saw that the safety was cheating off him, leaving him one-on-one with a linebacker in coverage.
“I told my coach, and he said that he saw the same thing,” Page said. “So, on that play, I got past him, and there was no one within 10-15 yards of me.”
The North got on the scoreboard on its next possession on a 13-yard fade pass from Liberty’s Brad Norman to Southridge’s Keyvaun Eady, but the South immediately answered as Thomas again found a wide-open Page deep in the secondary for a 50-yard score.
The North closed the gap to 20-15 just before halftime on a 6-yard pass from Laurent to Reynolds’ Kehdon Fletcher. The South restored its two-score advantage on its opening drive of the second half, with McNabb running in from the 1.
Grant’s Marcus Harris flashed the speed that allowed him to finish third in the 100 meters and second in the 200 at the 6A state track meet last month, returning a punt 90 yards for a touchdown to get the North within 26-22.
The teams exchanged missed field goals before the South hit on another big pass play – this one a 59-yard strike from Overholt to Love – to take a 33-22 lead into the final quarter.
The North closed the scoring on the first play of the fourth quarter on a 4-yard pass from Laurent to Fletcher. It had four more chances for a go-ahead score, the last coming after holding the South in the red zone with 33 seconds left.
But after three incompletions, Willis came in on Laurent untouched and put the finishing touches on the victory, which evened the all-time series record at 34-34-4.
“We knew things would get chippy, real intense. You can see, it came down to the final play,” said Malary, who ran for a game-high 83 yards and earned North Back of the Game honors. “We’re upset that we couldn’t pull out the win. But at the end of the day, only one team can win.”
Eggleston, who also had seven tackles, including three for loss and a sack, was North Lineman of the Game.
Sherwood’s Carter Atkins (six tackles, two for loss, 1½ sacks) was named South Lineman of the Game, and West Albany safety Cassius McGinty (game-high 11 tackles, interception, pass breakup) was South Back of the Game.
***
SOUTH 33, NORTH 28
North 8 7 7 6 -- 28
South 20 0 13 0 -- 33
First Quarter
S—Noah Page 34 pass from Nate Overholt (Oswaldo Ramirez kick), 14:36
S—Page 72 pass from DeMonte Thomas (kick failed), 5:26
N—Keyvaun Eady 13 pass from Brad Norman (Eady pass from Jeff Nelson), 2:32
S—Page 50 pass from Thomas (Ramirez kick), 2:14
Second Quarter
N—Kehdon Fletcher 6 pass from Jackson Laurent (Nelson kick), :57
Third Quarter
S—Connor McNabb 1 run (kick failed), 12:27
N—Marcus Harris 90 punt return (Nelson kick), 10:05
S—Forrest Love 59 pass from Overholt (Ramirez kick), 2:44
Fourth Quarter
N—Fletcher 4 pass from Laurent (run failed), 14:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—North, Jobadiah Malary (Barlow) 19-83, Eady (Southridge) 3-13, Kadin Williams (Sunset) 3-10, Brad Norman (Liberty) 6-9, Aidan Maloney (Liberty) 2-6, Laurent (Lake Oswego) 5-(minus 30). South, Elias Spence (North Medford) 9-39, Malcolm Stockdale (Tigard) 10-32, Colton Smith (McMinnville) 1-26, McNabb (Scappoose) 1-1, Thomas (Churchill) 3-(minus 10), Overholt (Wilsonville) 7-(minus 15).
PASSING—North, Laurent 16-29-1-181, Norman 6-11-0-75, Fletcher (Reynolds) 0-1-1-0. South, Overholt 8-18-0-158, Thomas 7-10-1-231.
RECEIVING—North, Eady 4-28, Ethan Edgerly (La Salle) 3-49, Aaron Krause (Sunset) 3-32, Maloney 3-31, Fletcher 3-29, Williams 3-5, Ethan Wilborn (Beaverton) 1-59, Dominic Funk (Forest Grove) 1-21, Malary 1-5. South, Page (Eagle Point) 6-224, Love (Mountain View) 3-73, Blake Davis (Pendleton) 2-23, Spence 1-51, Myles Westberg (West Albany) 1-24, Jonah Gomez (Wilsonville) 1-0, Stockdale 1-(minus 6).
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