Wright had an interception and four tackles in the secondary while ripping off a long kickoff return, helping the East roll to a 40-20 victory over the West at Kings.
“It’s a blessing,” Wright said. “I don’t know what to say right now, but I’m thankful and I’m going to keep working. I want more of this. I love it. Go Middletown.”
Lebanon inside linebacker Ryan Perkins also picked off a pass and had seven assists for the East, which outgained the West 458-201 in yardage.
“It’s amazing, getting to come out and play high school football one more time under the lights,” Perkins said. “Getting the win and getting to meet and play with some new guys was so much fun.”
The East leads the series 22-18 and has won eight of the last nine meetings, avenging a 63-43 defeat last year.
Talawanda’s J.D. Vonderheide was the West’s head coach. He’s now 0-4 as a coach at Kings Stadium.
“I feel bad about this one, but I don’t necessarily feel as bad as I do in the fall after a loss,” Vonderheide said. “I probably won’t lose much sleep over this. Actually, I’ll probably sleep pretty good tonight.
“Early on we took some shots because we wanted to get down the field, and we didn’t make the plays. We fought back, but momentum never seemed to go in our favor. If you piece parts of the game together, we probably played 2 1/2 really nice quarters of football. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough tonight.
“It was a really fun experience. I was glad to have the opportunity to get to know some of these kids. It was a pleasure to coach them.”
Milford quarterback Drew Ashcraft turned in a record-breaking performance for the East, completing 18-of-31 passes for 366 yards and five touchdowns. KeShawn Foley of Batavia notched three TD receptions, one from Withrow quarterback Tra’Von Barnes.
The West never led and trailed 13-0 in the first period. Its three quarterbacks — Edgewood’s Trace Reynolds, Lakota West’s Blake Darland and Harrison’s Jake Weber — combined to hit just 8-of-26 passes for 134 yards with three interceptions.
“Not winning definitely stinks, but just getting to play with those guys was a blast,” Reynolds said. “Coach Vonderheide is a great coach. He put us in a position to win. We just didn’t make plays when we needed to. But you’ve got to give the East credit. They’re a great football team.”
Reynolds was the most effective quarterback for the West. He didn’t get picked and was 3-of-7 for 85 yards and two touchdowns, a 29-yarder to Fairfield’s Fred Riley and a 45-yarder to Mount Healthy’s Hjavier Pitts.
“I thought Trace Reynolds played his tail off,” Vonderheide said. “He was responsible for two of our three scoring drives, and quite honestly he made a couple of them on his own where he kept the play alive and made plays. I was really proud of him tonight.”
Riley, who had three catches for 62 yards, won a one-on-one battle with Middletown’s Chris Richardson on an aerial down the middle of the field for the West’s first TD in the second stanza.
“Fred was dogging on me at practice and saying, ‘You’ve got to get me one, you’ve got to get me one,’ ” Reynolds said. “We ran that play over and over again, and it finally just happened the way it was. Hjavier did all the work on the second one. I just got it to him and he did the rest. It’s great when you’ve got weapons like that.”
Darland was just 2-of-13 for 11 yards and was intercepted once. Weber was 3-of-6 for 38 yards and threw the picks to Wright (who went down in the end zone for a touchback) and Perkins.
Wright described his interception like this: “Riley came off the line for a quick slant. I found his hip, and I knew I was faster. The ball was in the air, so I kind of shadowed him in the air and went up and got it.”
Perkins credited East teammate Drew Serraino of Mariemont for his interception.
“My buddy Drew was playing defensive end/outside linebacker,” Perkins said. “He came up and had contain, and he got a tip on the ball from the quarterback. I was covering the tight end — he was running an out route — and I was on his back hip. I would’ve made the tackle, but he tipped it up and I was able to jump in front and cover it up. It was awesome.”
The East’s defense got contributions from several other local players. Franklin’s Layne Coffey (two tackles) and Richardson (one tackle, two assists) played in the secondary, and Lakota East linebacker Justus Zamarron added a tackle and an assist.
Wright said he didn’t feel rusty because he worked hard to prepare for the game.
“That gave me a lot of confidence,” said Wright, who will play at Hocking College after recently decommitting from Hudson Valley Community College. “Nobody was catching a ball on me. You know, the usual.”
And what about his 52-yard kickoff return in the second quarter? “I don’t know how I got caught,” Wright said.
Perkins missed the first week of all-star practice while playing for Lebanon’s club lacrosse team, which finished third in the state.
He will continue his football career at Butler University.
“This was a big deal,” Perkins said. “We really wanted to win this game. We were fired up and ready to go.”
Reynolds, who connected with Aleczander Steele of Ross for a two-point conversion, said the East defense was in fine form.
“They were all coming after us,” said Reynolds, who will play at Heidelberg University. “The linebacker from Moeller (Ryan Stofko) stuck it to me a few times, so I had to know where he was at all times.
“It’s an honor that I was even here. A lot of kids didn’t get to play in this game. I’m just ready to get up to Heidelberg and learn. I’m just taking it all in stride.”
The 5-foot-8 Pitts was dynamic at times. He totaled 45 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries and collected 205 all-purpose yards.
“And he had a couple big returns that got called back because of penalties,” Vonderheide said. “He was all over the place, and what a great kid. He was a yes-sir, no-sir type kid. He did whatever we asked him to do.
“The kids from Ross were great, the kids from Harrison were great. You’ve got kids from Northwest and Talawanda playing out there. At times offensively it felt like we were almost like a (Southwest Ohio Conference) all-star team.”
Foley (seven catches, 149 yards) and Sycamore’s Ryan Wahler (five catches, 108 yards, 1 TD) were the top receivers for the East, which only had 14 yards on the ground. Deandre Barnett of Kings scored on a hook-and-lateral play that began with Ashcraft’s 7-yard pass to Doryan Beach of Withrow — Barnett went the last 65 yards.
Beach (four catches, 51 yards) also hauled in a scoring toss from Ashcraft.
Ashcraft set all-star passing records for yards (Indian Hill’s Bo Cordell had 295 in 2009), attempts (Western Brown’s Devyn Wood had 29 last year) and touchdowns (Cordell threw for four in ’09). He equaled the mark for completions (Elder’s Rob Paff had 18 in 1990).
The West gained 67 rushing yards. Reynolds totaled 7 yards on eight carries, while Darland lost 8 yards on one attempt.
Other locals producing stats for the West included Monroe’s Tyler Davis (three tackles, two kickoff returns for 21 yards) and Christian Jones (one assist), Lakota West’s Dante Jones (four punts, 36.2 average), Talawanda’s Andrew Wilson (one solo, four assists), Hamilton’s Jamil Daniels (two tackles), Badin’s Dustin Valentino (one tackle), and Ross’ John Kinkaid (two carries, 11 yards) and Steele (one tackle).
East 13-6-6-15—40
West 0-6-6-8—20
E: Ryan Wahler 3 pass from Drew Ashcraft (Kick blocked)
E: KeShawn Foley 27 pass from Ashcraft (Adam Woeste kick)
W: Fred Riley 29 pass from Trace Reynolds (Kick blocked)
E: Foley 35 pass from Tra’Von Barnes (Kick failed)
W: Hjavier Pitts 1 run (Kick blocked)
E: Doryan Beach 14 pass from Ashcraft (Kick blocked)
E: Foley 3 pass from Ashcraft (Jermon Cobbs pass from Wahler)
E: Deandre Barnett 65 pass from Ashcraft (Woeste kick)
W: Pitts 45 pass from Reynolds (Aleczander Steele pass from Reynolds)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
East: Drew Ashcraft 8-21, Deandre Barnett 2-7, Lucas Edwards 2-6, Tyler Anderson 1-5, Josh Bohart 1-2, Colin Voisard 1-(-1), Team 3-(-2), KeShawn Foley 2-(-11), Tra'Von Barnes 3-(-13)
West: Hjavier Pitts 18-45, Jake Weber 7-12, John Kinkaid 2-11, Trace Reynolds 8-7, Blake Darland 1-(-8)
PASSING
East: Drew Ashcraft 18-31-2, 366 yards; Tra'Von Barnes 4-12-0, 78 yards
West: Trace Reynolds 3-7-0, 85 yards; Jake Weber 3-6-2, 38 yards; Blake Darland 2-13-1, 11 yards
RECEIVING
East: KeShawn Foley 7-149, Ryan Wahler 5-108, Doryan Beach 4-51, Reid Finley 3-54, Tra'Von Barnes 2-19, Lucas Edwards 1-(-2), Deandre Barnett 0-65
West: Hjavier Pitts 4-67, Fred Riley 3-62, D'Ante Goodwin 1-5
PUNTING
East: Lucas Edwards 2-88, 44.0 average
West: Dante Jones 4-145, 36.2 average
KICKOFF RETURNS
East: Dalaquan Wright 1-52, 52.0 average
West: Hjavier Pitts 1-60, 60.0 average; Tyler Davis 2-21, 10.5 average; David DeVaughn 1-0
PUNT RETURNS
West: Hjavier Pitts 2-33, 16.5 average
INTERCEPTIONS
East: Dalaquan Wright, Ryan Perkins, Simeon Ward
West: Kiowa Whaley, Asa Palmer
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