By Andy Amey
TERRE HAUTE — Sometimes an all-star contest simply boils down to star power, and that seemed to be the difference Saturday evening at Terre Haute South as the North All-Stars defeated their South counterparts 32-16 in the fifth annual Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association All-Star game.
The eventual winners got three consecutive scoring drives in the middle of the game from three recently graduated high school quarterbacks playing three different styles of play, and the South team was unable to catch up the rest of the way.
“That’s pretty cool,” coach Herb King of Rockville, who directed the North team, said afterward. “We tried to adapt our offense to the style and temperament of each quarterback [Matt King of Rockville, Mitch Snyder of Casey and Landon Keith of West Vigo], and it was a neat thing to have the kids be able to do that.”
“Those are three very good [quarterbacks] and they did it in different ways,” agreed coach Steve Weber, who had directed South to its only win in the series last June. “[North is] a very good team.”
North had taken the halftime lead after matching South’s only scoring drive of the evening with the first of its three successful marches. Keith directed that one, mostly on the ground, and capped it with a 13-yard run on a fourth-and-2 situation with 2:36 left in the second quarter.
Union’s B.J. Howard nearly matched that drive with one of his own for South before intermission, completing one pass to Cloverdale’s Nick Keefer and two to Terre Haute South’s Michael Mardis to put his team in position to take the lead, but South ran out of downs and time as the half ended.
The home team on the scoreboard was still able to take the lead, however, because Terre Haute South’s Elias Brown returned the second-half kickoff 100 yards — that has to be a WVFCA record, because balls in the end zone are not returned by rule — to give his team a 13-12 lead.
It was short-lived. First King took the North team 80 yards in five plays, most of it on a 51-yard touchdown reception by North Putnam’s Jarrett Ban, who eluded at least two seemingly certain tackles before breaking away.
“I was just running my best,” Ban said later. “I got some great blocks.”
A three-and-out series by South set up a 70-yard, nine-play drive directed by Snyder, whose big play was a 27-yard completion to Terre Haute North’s Billy Sisson before West Vigo’s Kameron Silcock took the ball the last 16 yards on two straight running plays.
“Things just went south on us in that third quarter,” Weber said later. “We couldn’t get a drive going on [North] until it was too late.”
North’s final score was also by Ban, a 40-yard punt return sprung by a block from West Vigo’s Aaron Welch that was the loudest hit of the night. Howard directed one more drive into North territory that ended with a fumble recovery by North Putnam’s Josh Keyt with 3:30 left, although a penalty on a punt return enabled Greencastle’s Buzz Deer to add the game’s final points on a 34-yard field goal at the final buzzer.
“The kids battled,” Weber said, “and I hope they had fun this week.”
“I think [South’s] defense and our defense were the dictating factors,” Herb King said later, and it was the North defense that scored the game’s first touchdown.
South was pinned deep in its own territory after two North drives that didn’t produce points, and a sack by North Putnam’s Seth Vondesaar and Rockville’s Jake Lee had the home team inside its 10-yard line in the waning seconds of the first quarter.
Vondesaar also penetrated on South’s punt attempt, and when the snap was mishandled he was ready.
“I was just basically playing defensive end,” explained Vondesaar, maybe the game’s most prominent lineman — who also took a few turns on offense — after the game. “They snapped the ball, [the punter] fumbled it a little bit, I hit him and I fell on the ball in the end zone. I was joking with some friends of mine before the game and they told me I was going to score a touchdown.”
A 39-yard kickoff return by Red Hill’s Josh Hawkins got South’s offense under way, however, and Linton’s Keith Cunningham completed all four of his pass attempts on a 58-yard drive in nine plays. Terre Haute South’s Michael Mardis caught the touchdown pass with 8:20 left in the half, and Deer’s extra point put South ahead 7-6.
“We did a nice job containing their running game [42 yards in 30 carries for the game], and [South] did a good job in the first half containing our passing game,” Herb King said after the game, “but we were able to run the ball. In the second half they made their adjustments to stop the run, so we were able to throw better.”
Silcock and Keith combined for 93 yards as the game’s two top rushers, with Silcock also adding 36 yards on three shovel-pass receptions.
“West Vigo all the way,” the Viking fullback said afterward, also pointing out the big block by Welch. “We love to come out and hit people in the mouth. That shows in my running style and Landon’s running style.”
Silcock and Cunningham were winners of the Sir Thomas scholarships chosen by the respective coaching staffs and sponsored by Sir Thomas Automotive.
“I want to thank the coaches; it’s an honor to receive [that scholarship],” Silcock said. “Everybody played hard tonight, and I made a lot of friends. It was a fun week and a great time.”
“It’s a great feeling for the last game of my high school career,” said Ban, who — along with Terre Haute South’s Josh Bridwell — received a Pete Varda Scholarship selected by his teammates. “I want to thank my teammates again; it was great being with them.”
The Brett Eitel Memorial Scholarship, presented in memory of the former Marshall High School player, is presented to the top scholar among the all-stars and posed a pleasant dilemma this year. So many scholars were nominated that the award was doubled and divided four ways — among Oblong’s Kurtis Legg, Linton’s Jordan Tharp, South Putnam’s Conor Frame and Snyder. “All four had at least a 3.967 grade-point average,” game director Tom Jones noted.
Halftime ceremonies also recognized the four newest members of the WVFCA Hall of Fame — Jerry Anderson, Jim Hartman, Gene Shike and Al Werneke.
North 32, South 16
North All-Stars 6 6 13 7 — 32
South All-Stars 0 7 6 3 — 16
North — Seth Vondesaar (North Putnam) fumble recovery in end zone; mishandled snap, run failed, 0:11.6 1st
South — Michael Mardis (Terre Haute South) 10 pass from Keith Cunningham (Linton); Buzz Deer (Greencastle) kick, 8:20 2nd
North — Landon Keith (West VIgo) 13 run; kick failed, 2:36 2nd
South — Elias Brown (Terre Haute South) 100 kickoff return; kick blocked by David Woodason (Terre Haute North) and Corey Crowder (Northview), 11:44 3rd
North — Jarrett Ban (North Putnam) 51 pass from Matt King (Rockville); Wade Bush (Terre Haute North) kick, 9:07 3rd
North — Kameron Silcock (West Vigo) 3 run; kick failed, 4:35 3rd
North — Ban 40 punt return; Bush kick, 4:11 4th
South — Deer 34 FG, 0:00 4th
North South
First downs 18 13
Rushes-yards 26-139 30-42
Passing yards 187 140
Comp-Att-Int 17-30-0 14-21-0
Return yards 46 4
Punts-avg 3-36.3 5-36.6
Fumbles-lost 3-0 5-2
Penalties-yards 6-70 8-75
Individual statistics
Rushing: North — Silcock 7-48, Keith 7-45, King 4-17, Ban 3-12, Josh Rodebaugh (Cumberland) 4-10, Mitch Snyder (Casey) 1-7. South — B.J. Howard (Union) 13-24, Ashton Marshall (Greencastle) 2-12, Logan Chesterfield (Union) 1-8, Mickey Tosti (Linton) 2-7, Gene Bradford (Sullivan) 3-7, Zach Hodson (Robinson) 1-1, Ty Fitch (Olney) 2-0, Cunningham 5-minus 8, Team 1-minus 9.
Passing: North — King 7-12-0-99 yards, Snyder 9-15-0-77, Keith 1-3-0-11. South — Howard 9-15-0-100, Cunningham 5-6-0-40.
Receiving: North — Ban 4-79, Frank Willis (Terre Haute North) 4-28, Silcock 3-36, King 2-12, Robert Clevenger (Rockville) 2-minus 4, Billy Sisson (Terre Haute North) 1-27, Rodebaugh 1-9. South — Mardis 5-56, Nick Keefer (Cloverdale) 4-50, Chesterfield 3-17, Jordan Tharp (Linton) 1-12, Dylan Walker (North Central) 1-5.
