West cruises to 3rd straight Sunshine Classic victory
EWING » Although the East defense did what it could, it simply wasn’t much of a competitive contest in the Sunshine Football Classic at the College of New Jersey last night.
Rolling to its third straight win, the West posted a comfortable 24-7 victory over the outmanned East in the 21st year of this annual charity event.
In addition to largely controlling the play up front, the West had more firepower in its backfield and also got a huge effort from a secondary that recorded five interceptions.
The tone was pretty much established right away when the West opened the game with a beautiful 80-yard, 16-play drive that consumed over nine minutes on the block.
North Hunterdon’s Mitchell Finnegan provided the bulk of the running on this drive and Ewing High’s Edamiyon Doggett (9-for16, 119 yards) provided the passing.
Headed to Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pa., and named the game’s Most Valuable Player, Doggett completed four passes in this stretch, including two on which he was able to use his speed to scramble out of the pocket.
Completions to John Owens, Tanner Adamczyk, Isaiah Miranda and Tyquan Parker allowed the West to reach the 4 yard line before Finnegan finished it off with a twisting run into the end zone.
The East defense held the next time the West got the ball, but a fumble recovery by Blake Becker off a sack shortly had the West back in business at the East 40 yard line at the start of the second quarter.
Behind the hard running of Hopewell’s Jack Ottinger, the West reached the 3 yard line before a holding call forced them back and to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Rory D’Alesandro.
Now trailing 10-0, the East offense finally got going behind the passing of Scott Cochrane. His four completions allowed his team to reach the West 4 yard line with less than a minute remaining in the second quarter.
It all came to naught, however, when Cochrane was sacked for a 7-yard loss and then his pass into the end zone on the last play of the half was broken up by Hunter Meyer-Hanover.
The East initially appeared to get a spark when Reidgee Diamanche returned the second half kickoff 41 yards, but this was wiped out by a personal foul.
Even worse, from an East perspective, Meyer-Hanover then intercepted a pass to set the West up on the East 32 yard line. Four plays later the lead was up to 17-0 when Adamczyk made a sensational diving catch on a 21-yard pass from Doggett in the corner of the end zone on one of the plays of the night.
Another sensational play shortly followed when Parker made a one-handed interception along the sideline to halt an East mini drive into West territory.
It only got uglier from there when Gavin McKenzie intercepted yet another East pass.
Just when it appeared the game would lack any kind of drama, the East finally struck after a short punt set it up deep in West territory.
It was a bit of trickery that did the job when Kyle Twamley caught a 29-yard pass from Cochrane on a reverse play.
It proved to be only a temporary reprieve.
Under college all-star exhibition rules, the East received the ensuing kickoff because it still trailed by nine points.
But before you could even say comeback another interception followed, this time by Miles FyeMoore to the East 36 yard line.
Two plays later the score was 24-7, courtesy of a 14-yard burst up the middle by Trenton High’s Thomeir Richardson in which he shook off several tackles en route to the end zone.
From there, the West got a fifth interception when Finnegan picked off a pass at the end of the third quarter and very little of note happened in the final 12 minutes that ended with the West running out the clock in East territory.
West East 73140—24 0070—7
W-Finnegan 4 run (D’Alesandro kick) W-D’Alesandro 27 field goal W-Adamczyk 21 pass from Doggett (D’Alesandro kick)
E-Taylor Twamley 29 pass from Cochrane (Mathews kick)
W-Richardson 14 run (D’Alesandro kick)