In Saturday’s DII All-Star Game at Trojan Field, the DII West squad used a heavy dose of jet sweep shovel passes on their way to a 22-0 lead by the early part of the third quarter, holding on for a 28-14 win in the end.
It was a slow start for both the East and West offenses on Saturday afternoon. Each team was held scoreless in the first quarter. The East punted on their first drive and the West took over at their own 20. After an eight-play drive, much like the Division I game for the West, an incomplete shovel pass was ruled a fumble and recovered by Zakary Kirkpatrick of St. Paul at the East 5-yard line.
The East was forced to punt again and on the second drive for the West, after 10 plays, Grayson Shoemaker of Lebo intercepted a pass from West QB Owen Reece of Hodgeman County with 1:13 left in the first quarter.
Going into the second quarter scoreless, the East had a turnover on downs and the West put together their first scoring drive. The seven-play trek was capped by a three-yard touchdown run by Eli Lang of Minneola, giving the West a 6-0 lead.
The East was forced to punt again on their next possession and the West added to their lead. Another 7-play drive was finished with a 15-yard shovel pass for a touchdown from Reece to Lang. A shovel pass from Reece to Mason Baker of Thunder Ridge on the two-point conversion put the West up 14-0 with 2:13 left in the first half.
The East was driving on their next possession, but Bucklin’s Andrew Bowman stepped in front of a pass from East quarterback Doak Guttery of Osborne at the West 5. After a big return, the West had the ball at their own 34 with 33 seconds left, but a deep pass from Reece was intercepted by Shoemaker as the first half expired with the West still holding the 14-0 lead.
In the second half, it looked like the West may run away with the game. Their first possession of the third quarter resulted in a nine-yard touchdown run from Lang and Reece found Baker on another shovel pass for the two-point conversion to put the West up 22-0. The ensuing kickoff saw the West recover an onside kick with 8:35 left in the third quarter. However, going for a deep shot on the first play of the next possession, Shoemaker found the ball again for the East, registering his third interception of the game, which tied the 8-Man All-Star Game record.
The interception turned the momentum to the East side as they needed just four plays to get into the end zone for the first time. Lakeside running back Ian Kresin scored on a 27-yard run to cut the lead to 22-6 with 6:48 left in the third.
The West had to punt on their next drive but still held a 22-6 lead after three quarters. However, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Guttery found Axtell’s Grady Buessing on a TD pass on 3rd & Goal at the 16-yard line. Wyatt Collins of Canton-Galva caught the two-point pass to get the East within a possession at 22-14 with 11:52 left in the game.
Feeling the momentum drifting away, the West stepped up quickly. On the first play after the East got within a possession, Reece found Lang on a 49-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead back to two possessions at 28-14.
The East had two more opportunities, but due to an injury, Guttery exited the game at QB. Stafford’s Jimi Oleson intercepted Linn’s Gavin Turk on one possession and he also deflected a reverse pass from Grady Buessing near the goal line on the final drive. The West picked up two first downs on their final drive and ran the clock out for the 14-point win.
The West racked up 327 yards of total offense. Reece, Lang and Baker were the standouts for the day. Thriving on the shovel pass, Reece went 23-30 for 236 yards with two touchdowns. Baker had 14 catches for 113 yards and Lang had five catches for 88 yards and two scores. He added two touchdowns on the ground and finished with 104 total yards on offense. The East put up 272 yards of offense with 221 on the ground. Kresin led the way with 150 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown. Guttery completed four passes for 51 yards and a score and all four catches were made by Grady Buessing.
The West has now won four of the last five games in the DII All-Star contest, closing the East’s series lead to 13-10 overall.
Scoring Summary
2nd, West: Lang 3 run (pass failed), 7:41 (6-0 West)
2nd, West: Lang 16 pass from Reece (Baker pass from Reece), 2:13 (14-0 West)
3rd, West: Lang 9 run (Baker pass from Reece), 8:36 (22-0 West)
3rd, East: Kresin 27 run (run failed), 6:48 (22-6 West)
4th, East: Grady Buessing 16 pass from Guttery (Collins pass from Guttery), 11:52 (22-14 West)
4th, West: Lang 49 pass from Reece (run failed), 11:37 (28-14 West)
DII All-Star Game Stats:
East West
Total Offense: 272 327
Rush Offense: 221 91
Pass Offense: 51 236
Penalties: 4-41 2-18
Score by Quarters:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
East 0 0 6 8 14
West 0 14 8 6 28
Individual Rushing:
East: Kresin 12-150, TD; Turk 15-59; Kirkpatrick 1-6; Guttery 8-6; Grady Buessing 1-4; Collins 1-(-4)
West: Reece 14-44; Jellison 2-24; Lang 7-16, 2 TD; Dunham 2-5; Rathgeber 1-2; Schmidtberger 1-0
Individual Passing:
East: Guttery 4-17-51, TD, INT, PAT; Turk 0-1, INT; Grady Buessing 0-1
West: Reece 23-30-236, 2 TD, 3 INT, 2 PAT; Lang 0-1
Individual Receiving:
East: Grady Buessing 4-51, TD; Collins PAT
West: Baker 14-113, 2 PAT; Lang 5-88, 2 TD; Chamberlain 2-29; Bowman 1-18; Uhl 1-4
