North routs South 36-12 in Rotary All-Star game

Mike Hackworth

(Updated: Thursday, July 02, 2009, 12:39 PM)

It was a dark day for ex-Badger QB

The annual North/South Rotary Football all-star football game took place on Saturday as 2,500 fans filled Henry Massaro Stadium to watch the North team dominate the South, 36-12.

This year marked the 24th North-South game, a series that began in 1984. The South now holds a 13-11 advantage in the series.

The North team, coached by Los Banos head coach Dennis Stubbs 11-10 in his first two seasons at the Division I school has rebuilt a Tigers' team that was 2-8 in 2006 into a playoff contender in 2008. Stubbs' "Star Wars" attack quickly neutralized both the offensive and defensive squads of the South team. The North parleyed three of five interceptions, a safety and a fumble recovery into 30 points and stonewalled any offense by the South.

The North took the opening kickoff and wasted no time in moving down the field. The drive was capped by a 23-yard touchdown pass from Central Valley quarterback Trevor Mew to Adrian Abarca of Golden Valley and Dos Palos kicking specialist Humberto Del Rio added the extra point and the North had a 7-0 lead at the 10:38 mark of the first quarter.

On the South's first offensive possession, quarterback Jesse Lownsbury from Yosemite was intercepted by Chowchilla's Fred Gaines and the North was right back in business.

"The game was in itself a great experience and fun but my performance was horrible," Lownsbury said. "It was the worst game of my football career." The former Badger quarterback finished completing four of 12 passes with five interceptions and no touchdowns. In his high school career, the left-handed passer completed 418 passes for 6,289 yards and connected on 62 touchdown strikes and only 30 interceptions. In 2008, his TD to interceptions ratio was 21 to 6. Lownsbury will attend school at Reedley College in the fall.

North running Isaiah Borba of Oakdale scored on a four-yard touchdown run at the 8:49 mark of the first quarter and Lownsbury was sacked by Silvestre Yanez of Firebaugh for a safety before the South knew what hit them. The rout was on early as the North was staked to a 16-0 lead.

It took a trick play with under three minutes remaining in the first quarter to put the South on the scoreboard. With the ball at the North 35-yard line, Lownsbury took the snap and tossed a lateral pass to Sunnyside's Cameron Grant in the right flat.

Grant spun and threw downfield to speedster Juan Gonzales of Kerman who was hit as he crossed the goal line. Kicker Jose Magana, also of Kerman, made it an all Lions' score with the extra point.

In the second quarter, the North struck again. This time, quarterback Buhach Colony's Kyle Davey completed a 14-yard pass to Los Banos' Rubal Sangha extending the North lead to 22-7 late in the first half.

In the third quarter, the South's ineptness continued when its punt return team mishandled a North punt and Jake Barcellos from Los Banos was in position in the end zone to fall on the fumble for a touchdown.

Les than three minutes later, Mew passed to Chowchilla's Kyle Espinola for a 55-yard strike giving the North a 36-7 lead with 4:53 remaining in the third quarter.

The first thing to go right for the South was when defensive lineman Andrew Suarez forced a fumble by Davey and Caleb Fink of Kingsburg scooped the ball up and reached the 13-yardline before being brought down by Nicky Batteate of Oakdale. The South offense, now guided by Cameron Grant from Sunnyside scored a final touchdown when Grant hooked-up with Kingsburg receiver Jason Linman for the games final tally.

Blowouts in the North-South Classic are nothing new, especially in recent years. In 2004, the South won 44-28. In 2005, the North won 45-17. In 2006, the North won 34-13. As mentioned earlier, in 2007, the South won 50-14. (Last year, the North won 28-14, which was a barnburner compared to the other recent games.) Final stats were not made available for the 2009 game.

From the sidelines.

The 36 points scored by the North were the most ever by a North team. Previously, the North scored 30 points in downing the South 30-28 in 2001. Last summer the South was victorious winning 35-7.

Former Yosemite players Jayme Lee and Greg Smith also played in Friday night's game for the South. Lee, who will attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall, had seven tackles in the game and Smith, the Badgers' top tackler in 2008 had nine.

Lownsbury and Lee were recognized at halftime by Bob Green, the game's founder and director for receiving $1,000 scholarships from the Rotarians. The proceeds raised from the all star games have funded a total of 110 ($1,000) scholarships since 1992.