OFF TO THE RACES—Simi Valley High senior wide receiver Adam Schechter has room to run during a punt return at last weekend’s Ventura Country High School All-Star Football Game. JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers Twenty years from now, when the score of the 37th annual Ventura County High School All- Star Football Game is long forgotten, those who were in attendance will remember Joey Eckert’s breathtaking fourth quarter punt return to paydirt.

In what proved to be the final points tallied during his East squad’s 29-27 defeat to the West at Moorpark High, Eckert, a senior safety for the Musketeers, electrified the crowd with a 77-yard touchdown jaunt straight out of an NFLfollies film.

With the East trailing 29-20 and less than three minutes remaining in the contest, Eckert stood near midfield ready to receive a punt. The snap, however, sailed over the punter’s head, sending the kicker scrambling to retrieve the ball.

“I didn’t think he was going to get the kick off, so I started to creep up a little bit, maybe 10 or 20 yards,” Eckert said. “I was thinking, ‘He’s not going to kick this. He won’t kick it.’”

The punter scooped up the pigskin and bombed the ball deep down field, sending Eckert scrambling toward his own end zone.

Upon descending to the turf, the ball took a fortuitous bounce, going straight up and gracefully landing in Eckert’s paws. He quickly dodged a defender and sprinted along the East’s sideline, sidestepping would-be West tacklers en route to the end zone.

“I don’t know if anybody saw me, but I was jumping up and down on the sideline, screaming like a little girl,” said Moorpark quarterback Brody Rohach, signal caller for the East.

“It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Somehow, some way Eckert crossed the goal line before he could be wrangled to the ground. Out of breath and on Cloud 9, he was quickly mobbed by teammates.

“I can’t remember the last time I scored a touchdown,” Eckert said. “I think it was freshman year. It’s been awhile, for sure. It was nice, though, being that this was my last game on this field.

“I’m going to brag about it for a long time.”

Bragging rights on this Saturday night, however, belong to the West and St. Bonaventure quarterback Logan Meyer, named the game’s Most Valuable Player after completing 16-of-19 passes for 207 yards with a pair of touchdown tosses.

With the West trailing 6-0 following two first-quarter field goals from East place kicker Zack Hoffmann of Thousand Oaks, Meyer connected with St. Bonaventure wideout Tieler Souza on a 31-yard scoring strike to make it 7-6 West with 3:39 remaining until halftime.

On the ensuing East possession, Rohach was sacked and lost the ball deep in his own territory. Oxnard lineman Adrian Moran gained possession, setting up a 14-yard touchdown run by Hueneme’s Trashaun Nixon to make it a 14-6 West advantage.

The second-quarter headache continued for the East as the West once against gained possession of a bad snap at the East 5-yard line. This time, however, the West was stopped short of the goal line on four consecutive tries.

The East’s hiking woes didn’t go away on its next possession as a first-down snap went out of the end zone for a safety and a 16-6 West cushion.

When the West got the ball back on a free kick following the safety, Camarillo quarterback Jeff Mathews drove his squad down the field for yet another score.

Facing a heavy pass rush with less than 10 seconds remaining in the half, Mathews connected with his Camarillo teammate, wideout Ryan Molesworth, for a 13-yard touchdown, increasing the West’s lead to 23-6.

“It was fun to be able to come out here and help my team out,” said Molesworth, who logged a game-high 115 receiving yards on six receptions and was named the West’s offensive player of the game.

Thanks to an All-Star rule that allows a team that’s trailing by nine or more points to regain possession of the ball following a score, the East held on to the pigskin the entire third quarter but was only able to find paydirt once, on an 8-yard pass from Rohach to Thousand Oaks’ Bobby Mullaney.

In the fourth quarter, Meyer and Souza connected for a second score, this time on a 38-yard pass play that put the West up 29-13.

Rohach, who finished 25-of-41 passing for 297 yards, found Simi Valley wideout Adam Schechter open for a 39-yard scoring strike with 6:11 remaining in the fourth quarter to bring the East within 29-20.

“It was a great game,” Schechter said. “I’m proud of everybody, all the guys I played with. The game was decided by two points. It doesn’t get better than that.”

Eckert’s late-game fireworks capped the night.

Rio Mesa linebacker Connor Benado and Moorpark wide receiver James Dearborn earned sportsmanship honors for their respective teams. Dearborn led the East with 112 receiving yards.

Logan Norris, a linebacker at Buena, and Thousand Oaks lineman Garrett Malone were recognized as top defensive performers, while Rohach was the East’s offensive player of the game.