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Sports

FOOTBALL: South All-Stars Win 37th Charlie Wedemeyer High School Football Game

Harms and Bono each throw a pair of touchdowns in all-star tussle held at Spartan Stadium in San Jose on Wednesday night.

A collection of the Central Coast Section’s finest high school senior football players from the 2010 season gathered at Spartan Stadium Wednesday night for the 37th annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star football game.

Behind two touchdown passes from Piedmont Hills High quarterback Jason Harms and a nifty rushing touchdown from Valley Christian-San Jose quarterback Zach Vaiana, the South All-Star team led wire-to-wire and defeated the North All-Stars 24-13 on a perfect summer evening for some football.

The Patch coverage area was well represented in the game. Gilroy High grads Eric Vegas and Cordero Gonzales each suited up for the winning South team. Branham High offensive lineman Steven G. Garcia also got to walk off the field a winner, playing center for the red-clad South squad Wednesday night.

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Vegas, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound inside linebacker, helped the South defense hold the North offense to only five yards of total offense in the first quarter.

“It felt really good to end my high school football career with a win,” Vegas said. “Even though we haven’t played together much, our defense really played well together. We were wrapping up and swarming to the ball.”

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The North roster was littered with Patch players, highlighted by a handful of members from the 2010 CIF State Champion Palo Alto High football team.

Paly quarterback Christoph Bono, along with wide outs Maurice Williams and DeVante Adams all were starters on offense.

Bono was his usual deadly accurate self, finishing the night 14-of-16 passing with 146 yards and two touchdown passes in two and a half quarters of work.

“It’s tough to go out like this being on the wrong side of the score, but it was still a great experience to get to know a lot of great guys that I hadn’t met before,” Bono said. “It was a great experience overall.”

Other Patch players that suited up for the North were: Martin Aycott Jr. (Los Altos), Alex Oxo (Del Mar), Casey Mintz (Prospect), Brady Wood (Cupertino), Josh Jackson (Gunn), Nehemiah Tia (Westmont), Kyree Rhodes (Homestead), Anthony Paz (Milpitas), Grant Manley (Monta Vista), Michael Cullen (Palo Alto), Kenny Hannan (Leigh), Clay Jones (St. Francis-Mountain View), AJ Monroe (St. Francis-Mountain View), Taig McNulty (Los Gatos), Lemaki Musika (Milpitas), Sam Mapa (St. Francis-Mountain View), Ryan Blodgett (Homestead-Cupertino), Blair Gardner (Los Gatos), Eddie Carrillo (Milpitas), Brett Hughes (Mountain View), Preston Rind (Los Gatos) and Chris Chang (St. Francis-Mountain View).

The South led 7-0 after one quarter of play and added a second touchdown off the Vaiana touchdown scamper.

With the North offense dormant for much of the first half, the North got things moving behind the sturdy frame of Westmont High-Campbell tailback Alex Kamara. Kamara broke off runs of 11 and eight yards during the scoring drive for the North.

“That drive we got the momentum going a little,” Kamara said. “I thought we were just going to keep doing that. Our defense didn’t get the stops we needed tonight. I stood by my coaches and told them I could go in and help out on D, but they wouldn’t let me.”

 Bono scrambled from the middle of the field towards the North sideline before finding Archbishop Mitty running back Rocky Meszaros in the back corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown. The score cut the South lead to only 14-7 with 3:30 left in the half.

After back-to-back punts, the South received the ball with 16 seconds left on the clock. Two plays later, the South had put six more points on the board, landing a crushing blow to the North’s newfound momentum.

The two-play, 65-yard drive, only took 14 seconds off the clock and proved to be a negative turning point for the North after the game.

“We didn’t execute the way we needed too,” Paly wide out Adams said. “We couldn’t really stop them tonight.”

A 45-yard field goal put the South ahead 24-7 with 7:37 to go in the game. Bono found Adams for a 12-yard touchdown with a little over four minutes left to go in the game.

However, there wouldn’t be enough time on the clock to aid any late heroics by the North on this night.

Chang (St. Francis), Musika (Milpitas) and Rind (Los Gatos) all recorded sacks in the game for the North. Adams led the North with six catches for 59 yards and one touchdown.

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