Eastern superiority
Ventura County High School All-Star Football Game a defensive affair
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers PEOPLE MOVER- Simi Valley's Brian Grace plows through the West's defense Saturday in Moorpark.

On the second play of the Ventura County High School AllStar Football Game at Moorpark High on Saturday night, West running back Raynard Pamilton from Pacifica High ran a reverse for a 27-yard touchdown to put his team on the scoreboard first.

At that point the West's offense was confident and on a roll. They were also done scoring for the night.

For the next 47 minutes and 19 seconds, the East defense held the West off the scoreboard, limiting the West to three first downs the rest of the game en route to a 10-7 victory for the East.

In fact, the West could only muster 23 total yards in the second half, which was culminated in an interception by East defensive back Josh Irvin from Agoura High, sealing the win for the East.

"They (the West) were pretty much overloading on one side of the field and really favoring me," Irvin said. "With them favoring me, I kind of sneaked in and made the play for the win. It was definitely the best way to end my high school career."

Another player concluding his high school career on a good note for the East was quarterback Darren McGee from Oak Park, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

McGee was 11-for-15 passing for 109 yards and a touchdown to his Oak Park teammate, Kyle Benton. Benton's touchdown in the third quarter tied the game at seven with 4:01 remaining in the quarter.

"It was a play our coach made up in practice this week," McGee said. "I was just glad I got to throw it to my favorite receiver."

Although McGee was named MVP, he and fellow East quarterback Ryan Cloney from Thousand Oaks struggled in the first half by throwing a combined five interceptions. Angel Morales of St. Bonaventure and Victor Juarez of Channel Islands had two interceptions each for the West. Glenn Wakam of St. Bonaventure added an interception of his own.

"I don't think our offense struggled in the first half," East head coach Todd Borowski said. "We put up some good drives but would have them end because of turnovers. The second half was turnover-free for us, and we were able to put up some points because of it."

McGee said Borowski talked to him and Cloney before the second half began.

"He just told us to calm down and make our reads a little quicker," McGee said. "If we did that, we would be fine."

After McGee's 21-yard touchdown to Benton, the East held the West to a three-and-out. The West then started an 11-play drive on its own 31-yard line that resulted in a 32-yard field goal by Newbury Park's Anthony Leonardi to put the East up 10-7 with 7:30 remaining in the game.

The West would put together one more comeback attempt with under a minute left in the game, but when Rio Mesa's Shane Austin's pass was intercepted by Irvin, the contest was over.

After the game, players like Moorpark High's Dakota Holland reflected on how much they will miss playing high school football.

"It was fun to finish my career here at my home field of Moorpark," Holland said. "I'm going to miss the lights and the Friday night games here playing with teammates such as Nick (Karam) and Tom (Mouwen). I think everyone here wishes that it wouldn't end and that we could keep playing."

Austin, who will be headed to the University of Hawaii in the fall, said it was exciting to play on the field one last time with some familiar faces.

"It was great this week playing with all these great athletes from around the area," Austin said. "It would have been nice to win, but it wasn't as serious as a league game might have been. The important thing was for everyone to have a good time."

Simi Valley running back Brian Grace will be going to UCLA this fall but said that most likely he will not be playing football and instead will concentrate full time on academics. With Grace possibly playing the last football game of his career, he said it was nice to get to play for his Simi Valley head coach one final time.

"There were a lot of emotions going tonight for me," Grace said. "I think this is a better way for me to end my career rather than the heartbreaking loss to Royal I was a part of at Simi back in October.

"The practices were awesome and fun this week with Coach Borowski. I may walk-on at UCLA, but if this is the end it was a great way to end it this week."

Borowski said working with the East team was a pleasure.

"I had a great time coaching these kids, and it's hard to say goodbye to all of them," Borowski said. "You would tell these kids how to do something just once, and it would get done. They picked up everything real fast and hardly ever made mistakes."

The game also served as a chance to present George Contreras with an award from the Ventura County Coaches Association (VCCA). Contreras is a former coach at Westlake High and Rio Mesa High as well as president of the VCCA.