WV grad leads North to All Star victory

SCRAMBLE: North quarterback Josh Barrett checks his options Saturday during the Lions Northern California All-Star football game at Shasta High School. Barrett, of West Valley, was 11-for-18 in the passing game including 265 yards and four touchdowns. He earned the Ray Francis MVP trophy for his efforts.

The North team's size and the South team's athleticism were an even match all the way until the fourth quarter Saturday night at Thompson Field. In those final 15 minutes, the size got the best of the sizzle.

The North squad won the 32nd annual Lions All-Star Football Game 38-32 on the Shasta High School campus by using its power in clutch situations over the game's final possessions. And it happened on offense and defense.

The North broke a 32-all tie with 6:53 left in the game when Yreka High's Manny Barragan punched a dive play through the line and into the end zone from 2 yards out. It capped a drive in which the North went to its "1,500 line" and punished the South defense for 46 rushing yards on eight straight runs. After that, the defense made clutch plays to preserve the lead.

That drive, the penultimate of the night for the North, was the exception, though. Shaun Wood's squad didn't have the success it envisioned in bullying the smaller South team around through the first 50 minutes of play.

"You wouldn't have figured the pass-to-run ratio for us," said Wood, head coach at Modoc High in Alturas. "I wanted to do what we did on that (scoring) drive all night. We ran the same play over and over. (The South) didn't let that happen earlier."

Instead, the North managed just 97 rushing yards on 40 tries overall.

The offense ended up relying on the pass, and that's what put the North in the position to hang in there when the South appeared like it was ready to run away with the lead. North quarterback Josh Barrett of West Valley finished with an 11-for-18 night that included 265 yards and four touchdowns. He earned the Ray Francis MVP trophy for his efforts.

"There's a lot of guys who deserved it, definitely not a one-man effort," said Barrett, who's headed for Southern Virginia University. "I think the big guys up front won it for us."

Red Bluff receiver Cole McKenzie may have a stake in that conversation, though. McKenzie caught five Barrett passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns. He opened the scoring with a 26-yard TD reception that finished off a 4-minute, 49-second drive to start the game. The play-action pass found him in perfect motion in the back corner of the end zone.

With the game on the line, the South had one final chance to tie the game, or even to take the lead, as it marched in the closing minutes. Three incomplete passes started the drive but Hamilton High's Ryan Schimke was whistled for a late hit out-of-bounds after a third-down incompletion to set the South up with a first down at the North's 45. A pass for negative yardage and a run for no yards followed, then Turner ran for 10 yards, setting up fourth-and-2 from the 37.

Garcia looked to pass, released, and threw the ball right into the hand of West Valley lineman Al Doiron with 1:02 left. The turnover on downs secured the victory for the North.

"I had been trying to get one all night and I was so close," said Doiron, headed to UC Davis. "I tried to shed right on that play right when he started his eyes toward me."

Schimke had ended the previous South drive with an interception. Etna's Jordan Pehle-Munson also collected one at the end of the first half.

The win gives the North a 17-14-1 advantage in the all-time series.