OC All-Star Football Game

The 50th OC North-South All-Star Football Game concluded with the South & Coach Brian Barnes breaking the two-year losing streak to the North & Coach John Barnes. The Offensive Player of the Game Scotty Williams is interviewed.

A near sell-out crowd packed the Orange Coast College's LeBard Stadium. It was an impressive showing, seeing as how the OC Fair kicked things off on Friday. This wasn't a typical Pro-Bowl football game with phantom tackles, and dancing on the sidelines. I was surprised (and dismayed) to see how many timeouts were taken, as well as trick plays. The North just couldn't keep up with the South though, and this game was over at the end of the 1st quarter.

Brian Barnes gets one over on his father yet again, but his former player, Tesoro's Preston King was seen in crutches after the game. He went down hard on tackle in the 2nd half, and hopefully this injury isn't too serious for the future San Diego State Aztec.

Defensively, the Southern team was outstanding. They were led by the defensive player of the game, Tesoro's Tanner Hodgdon. Irvine's Nik Abele, UCLA-bound, played very well along with Tustin's Chris Robinson (Washington).

I would've liked to see more running plays, as the North had Ronnie Hillman for goodness sakes! He scored twice, but it seemed like Coach Barnes was too busy trying to make his Los Alamitos connection work with Clark Evans (Colorado) and Darryl Jenkins. The North dropped a lot of passes too, so in some cases, they have no one to blame but themselves.

It was a great showing by the talent rich South, and depending on where that imaginary border is that divides Orange County, Southern football proved to be superior over the North.