Hall of Fame Postgame: East cruises past the West, 34-9; Allen throws two TD Passes, Rowland's Stansell makes the big plays

By Steve Ramirez, Staff Writer
LA PUENTE - There were members of the East who believed the West's victory in last year's San Gabriel Valley Hall of Fame Game was a fluke.
They proved the point Friday.
Charter Oak's Chris Allen and Kiely Rycraw accounted for four touchdowns between them, the Chargers' Evan Williams had an interception for a score and Rowland's Brandon Stansell returned a punt for another as the East cruised to a 34-9 victory in the 30th Hall of Fame Game at Bassett High School. It's the largest margin of victory by either side since the West scored a 26-0 victory in 2001.
"It felt good," said Allen, who is giving up football to play Division I baseball at Cal State Northridge. "We came in here with an attitude. We took it upon ourselves to be more physical and show them what the East is all about. We just wanted to get the win back on the East side."
But the West, keyed by a 66-yard pass reception from Matt Torres to South El Monte's Manny Acosta, took control early, but could just manage a Bobby Maldonado 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead, despite two drives inside the East 20.
"We just had too many mistakes. We were in the red zone like five times and kept turning it over," said Acosta, who finished with 119 yards receiving. "But I don't mind. This was my last football game, and I just went out there to have fun."
The East, which had a minus-21 yards in its first two possessions, started to enjoy itself by the second quarter, and San Dimas' Daniel Joseph proved to the difference.
Joesph, a key cog in the Saints' high-powered offense this past fall, rushed 10 times for 71 yards, including runs of 29 and 23 yards to advance the East to the West 10. Two plays lost five yards before Allen tossed 15 yards to Rowland's BJ Oyefeso on a fade route for a 6-3 lead with 4:45 left in the half. The conversion failed.
"BJ just said throw up the ball and he'll go get it," Allen said.
The East then left it up to its defense and special teams to take control over the final five minutes of the half. The defense did it first.
Walnut's Chima Ike pressed Torres into an errant throw that was picked off by Charter Oak's Evan Williams, who returned it back 48 yards to push the advantage to 13-3 with 1:25 left.
Stansell, who already had the big interception to stop one drive, then got into the act. He showed his athleticism, zig-zagging through defenders to return a punt back 56 yards on the final play of the first half for a 20-3 lead.
"Yeah, it was a big return," Stansell said. "The coaches wanted me to fair catch it. But when I saw the hole (on the right side) I just picked it up and ran."
Rycraw then got into the act, catching TD passes of 21 and 23 yards from Allen and South Hills' Cameron Deen, respectively, for a 34-3 advantage early in the third quarter.
The West made it 34-9, driving 99 yards and scoring on a 1-yard run by Rosemead's Angel Alejandre.
"We used last year as motivation," Stansell said. "We wanted to bring it back to the East. We were getting tired what they were saying and we had to come out here and show them."
steve.ramirez@sgvn.com
(626) 962-8811, Ext. 2296
36 Comments
Leave a comment
Photos



=== JJIMENEZ said:
=== SEMHS FAN 3481,
=== What's your point & what does my reply to eagle20 have to do with your post?
[ What's your point ]
My original point was to agree and elaborate on your reply to "eagle20" by which you said, "Who's coaching your eagles
...thats right a Rosemead guy...haha." It was very true, leave it to Koffler [a Rosemead guy] to not only under-utilize
his all-star squad, he gave Alejandre the MAJORITY of reps at QB, which ended up being very costly to the West Squad.
I admit I kind of went off point, but not by much.
[ what does my reply to eagle20 have to do with your post? ]
You said "eagle20" was taking cheap shots at Rosemead, right? It wasn't that much of a cheap shot, if you're
looking at the All-Star Game Recent Coaching History...Escamilla lead the West to a win, everyone and their mother
called it a "fluke" win considering it was Escamilla, so naturally the East thought they would win. Well, this year
Koffler (it seems) came with the "well I've coached Rosemead to MVL Glory" so it's a "lock" the West will win.
History repeats itself, albeit, in reverse.
SEMHS FAN 3481,
What's your point & what does my reply to eagle20 have to do with your post?
[ JJIMENEZ said:
eagle20....wow It's an all star game and you take cheap shots at the 'Mead....haha too funny Who's coaching your eagles...thats right a Rosemead guy...haha.]
really? to me it was more of a Alejandre @ QB show, much of anything else. Coach Koffler had 4 great QB's on his roster, and whom do you suppose he left in for the majority of the game? riiighhht.
Let's just all admit it, not one player from the Mission Valley League (at least at this years game) that played, played for recognition. It sucks, yeah, but that is the way it went.
[ The only reason I sat on the East's Side seating was because there was virtually no more open seating on the West, so I sat on the far end of the East Bench, god was that announcer HORRIBLE!! ]
The West team had no answer for the East's offense, or should I say the East's Total Offense, barring all the jock-strap BS "trash-talk", this game was boring trying to root for the West team.
Although, I do remember that long sideline pass to I believe was Manny Acosta, got tripped up, no penalty and nothing was done about that, talk about some serious boo-birds out in full effect!
Let's just hope West does better next year.
didnt tra play offense, defense, and special teams! no body else to play?? thought it was an all star game!
eagle20....wow
It's an all star game and you take cheap shots at the 'Mead....haha too funny
Who's coaching your eagles...thats right a Rosemead guy...haha.
will this game be on tv at all? or is there somewhere online i can watch it?
congratulations to the East team. However, last years West win was not a fluke. Simply put, last years West coaching staff was solid. Hats off, again, to Escamilla and his crew. Last year Escamilla's team took it to a Ray Hernandez, who by the way coached at Rosemead. What a surprise, where did this years West's team coach at.....you got it....Rosemead.
The East team is talented, don't get me wrong. The game should have been close or at least exciting. Goes to show you how important coaching is....
The air attack was a lot of fun to watch for the east but it was mostly jump balls to tall recievers, the prettiest pass was from Deen when he threw the bullet over the middle to Rycraw, also, the passes didn't happen till the run game opened up, The West was teeing off on our QB's early whenever they tried to get off a pass.
As for the run game being just average, thats because Stansell didn't play running back, I'm not even a Rowland fan, but I saw enough of him last season when he played against WC & CO to know that he would have opened the game up.
He was as good as anybody in the sgv last year and he displayed a sample of it with those two punt returns on Friday, anyways, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
This game was an air attack. The running on both teams was average at best. The leading rusher had 71 yards and only two carries with any kind of yards. No BIG DEAL.
But the passing was very good and provided some excitement.
Would have loved to see the other runners in this game, but understand other committments keep them away.
How did the linemen do? Any word on Cid?
What the CO haters don't realize...but they will when the season starts, is that while they lost some very, very good players in Allen, Rycraw, Williams and Perri, they return most of their last year's CHAMPIONSHIP team. And the haters also don't understand that by season's end this young team was very, very good on the defensive side of the ball...expect them to be even better this year. Last word for the haters, in last year's pre-season did your team play the eventual CIF champion from a higher division? Because CO did play Rancho Cucamonga (to a draw) and will do so again this year. Or, did your team play and beat, badly to boot, the same division eventual CIF runner up, D'Ranch ...twice? Your team playing in the pre-seasaon and getting hammered by a team with a "past reputation" doesn't really count much for anything...does it? In my book, all that matters is who hoists the trophy at year end and if your team didn't, then you have NOTHING to brag about.
CO you know!!! - Back-to-Back to shut people up? Like the Back-to-Back butt whuppins Bishop put on CO a couple years back during some of their worst times. ? that didn't shut anybody up?
JFMatador,
My wordage was to say a fluke in the overall series, which before last year's game saw the east win the previous six games.
How can you say last years game was fluke? I mean it's not like the same group of kids are playing each other again. New players, different talent on both sides. This year the east had plenty of that :(
just wanna voice my opinion, yes no doubt Charter Oak's football players had a HUGE contributing factor to the game, if im not mistaken (which im not) most of the touchdowns came from CO players.
And for anyone whos talking smack, cupcake schedule this and that. ok.... just have a question for you... who has a ring on their fingure??? (and a undefeated record)
Those of you who do have something to say, please don't be afraid to announce what school you come from, because im tired of DR folks (who we spanked twice...) talk there weak talk when they clearly weren't able to walk the walk (twice). and for all you BA lancer folks, last time i checked we tried to schedule you guys for week 1 of our 09' season and you guys turned us down. Afraid of becoming cupcakes in CO's schedule perhaps?
I guess sometimes you just gotta do things back to back to shut people up around here ;)
Im down...
How did Rauley Zarogoza, from AZUSA and Limon do on Friday??? I woud like a little input and did either of them catch a ball.
It was a fun game to watch for the east, the west came out tough in the first two or three series, they were stuffing the run with big hits and sacking the east QB's almost every time they tried to throw, I was starting to think it might be a repeat of lasts years west upset. Then finally the east line started opening holes for Joseph & that was all he needed. Once the run game started up the game opened up for the east starting with a nice
jump ball catch by BJ Oyefeso, Rycraw also got a jump ball from Allen and also caught a perfect bullet pass from Camro uh Carmo uh Cameron Deen.
Chima Ike had a good game and on one play hurried the west QB into making a bad throw on a screen that went right into the hand of Evan Williams who returned it for a linemans dream
touchdown. Williams & Perry also had nice games on the "D" line. The few criticisms I have is that the East coaches kept most of the same guy's in for most of the game, it's an allstar game, why not play everybody? Also why in the world didn't they play Stansell at running back, he was the most exciting player in the stadium that night, he probably would have taken the game over at that position.
Our West Co boy's didn't have a bad night either, Alonzo Nevarez and Thomas Flores
were making tackles on defense and Albert Cid was playing on the offensive line. The announcer
was sort of funny, but it was funnier hearing him try to pronounce the names of some of the players, overall it was a good night of football.
D-Mo said:
Hey DR, yes it's true I fail to see the big picture, but I sure enjoy watching our team win.
After this season, what are you DR knuckleheads going to cry about then...getting beat by Bonita?
Well, good luck with your struggle to become a champion
**LmAo** My bad sucka, had to mach you!!
Good Job Daniel Joseph from SAN DIMAS he is awesome!!! he had a great season with the Saints.. Good Luck to you DJ...
You get props for making the prediction. It's close enough to warrant recognition. Good one!
No one cares about the slime.
Swordsmen = Filthy, Stinkin, slime
You are in the wrong place if you want slimy news.
*&^*%$% St. Paul!!!!
Yo CO BRO!
CO Players dominated the game...
Again, how many of them are preparing for D-1 domination? (just asking)
I mean, besides QB Allen that settled for a baseball scholarship...
I got one more question for you...
Whose the toughest team CO has scheduled in 2009?
lol.
Charter Oak football= untested and scared to schedule anyone of any value.
Roll Call: My thoughts on the game....IMO
Tra Sumler besides 1 fumble and 1 sack was not a factor in the game. I was hoping to see him at his best.
The announcer SUCKED!
No one from Amat did anything special.
Chris Bowden was not on the roster.
Brian Bonilla had a great game.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving but nothing major. From my perspective the West squad was trying to intimidate the East squad (didn't work!)
Daniel Joseph and Brian Stensal had great games.
#50 from the West squad was a beast! Rafael Acosta is headed to Minnesota next year, I'll have to keep an eye on this kid. (He also did a lot of the pushing and shoving)
CO players dominated the game. (just saying)
Twice as many East side fans.
Basset has a great stadium.
I can't wait for the season to begin.
How many bloggers were actually at the game? Doesn't seem to be much talk about the players or anyone's performances in key matchups? How did the Damien players do? What about any players from Bassett? Better yet how did the Amat players stack up against the Valley's finest? Still no answer to how well Tra did against the East defense? Manny Acosta sure lived up to the hype but what about anyone else? What was the game attendance? How about Albert Cid? How about Chris Bowden? Anyone know what happened to him? Wasn't he a three year starter for South Hills?
what did you think about the st.paul kids, especially luis garcia and kevin garcia?
Hey DR, yes it's true I fail to see the big picture, but I sure enjoy watching our team win.
After this season, what are you DR knuckleheads going to cry about then...getting beat by Bonita?
Well, good luck with your struggle to become a champion.
Did anyone from last season's Charter Oak team get scholarships to D-1 Schools?
The Bonita Air Assault Tourney resumes today at 3.
Nice mix of local teams like San Dimas, Arroyo, Bonita, Los Altos and Maranatha along with Damien, Glendora and Amat. Some D2 powerhouses like Santiago, Corona, Riverside Poly, and Corona Roosevelt also are in the brackets.
D-Mo
Maybe some of the dominating players were absence and getting ready for College football..
You CO guys fail to see the full picture.
How did the kid from Rosemead do, I think his name is Tra ? He's a LB and RB an dthe best player on the field right?
After watching last night's game, it's obviuos that the players from CO were a dominating factor. It did not suprise me at all, but to those who complain about the Chargers and their "cupcake schedule" can now see why they are champions.
Williams, Perry, Rycraw and Allen - way to go East!
Caught a little of the Bonita passing league Friday afternoon. Contests all over the campus with huge turnouts from some schools. Stadium field had two games, one at each end. Lots of fan support, still going on well after 6pm.
Well today is the big day, the Electric Daisy Carnival is held today in the L.A Coliseum. A massive rave with over 100,000 attendees, full with carnival rides and your favorite Dj's from all over the globe.
Good luck Cameron Deen! Take it to the house one more time in the SGV! The beasts from the east will not be beat!
Good Luck to Cody Tescher! One last time as a Tartan and then a Lumberjack!
Good Luck to Anthony Penalber (Chino High) tonight in the All-Star game and kick some butt.