Michael Kiral / L’Observateur / July 29, 1998

BATON ROUGE – St. James’s Daniel Borne and West St. John’s Joseph Grossmade contributions as the West squad won for the fifth straight time, 10- 0, in the annual Louisiana High School Coaches Association’s All-Star Football game Friday night at LSU’s Tiger Stadium.

Borne and his linemates opened up the hole for Northside’s Jermaine Martin to score the only touchdown of the game and Gross came up with a tackle of East punter Darryl Moore of Hammond to give the West the ball deep in East territory in the third quarter. Destrehan’s Chrys Bullock alsostarted on the offensive line for the East squad.

St. James assistant coach Donald Rodrigue served as a coach for the Westsquad and St. Charles Catholic head coach Wayde Keiser led the Invocation.Destrehan’s Mandy Coupel was selected as an All-Star cheerleader for the game.

“It felt good,” Gross, who is going to walk on at Southern University this Fall, said of playing in the game. “I got to play with a lot of guys I heardabout all season. I came out here to have fun.”Gross said he knew the West could shut down the East after shutting it down in an inside scrimmage during the week prior to the game.

“We knew going in it was going to be a good night,” Gross said. “We cameout and shut them down.”Borne found out the Friday prior to the game that he would take the place of teammate Terrance Landry on the West roster.

“It was a dream come true for me,” Borne said. “I told them to take me offthe schedule at work and came straight here. It has been all good sincethen. It has been a dream all my life since I started playing football inninth grade.”Borne, who has received a full scholarship to play football at USL, said he was honored getting to play in Tiger Stadium.

“When you think about all the great athletes that played on this field,” Borne said. “I can say I played on that field.” The West had an opportunity to get on the scoreboard on its first possession. On first down from the West 30-yard line, Carencro’s DamienJames swept right on a reverse, stopped and fired a pass downfield to Fair Park’s Reginald Robinson on the right sideline for a 40-yard gain to the East 30. A 10-yard gain by Martin on fourth down kept the drive alive, butthe East then stiffened and Cecilia’s Andy Chance’s 39-yard field sailed wide left.

The defenses continued to control the first quarter with the West gaining possession on its own 43-yard line with 1:24 left. The East defense againheld and Chance was forced to punt, but an illegal participation call against the East gave the West a first down at the East 41.

The West took advantage of the reprieve as Opelousas Catholic’s Eric Fontenot found Martin for a 17-yard gain to the 24 as the quarter ended.

After gaining two yards on the first play of the second quarter, Martin swept around right tackle on a trap play, cut down the middle and took it in from 22 yards out. Chance’s extra point gave the West a 7-0 lead with11:08 left in the half.

The East had its best scoring opportunity minutes later as Moore’s punt was fumbled by Martin and recovered by the East at the West 25-yard line.

Three plays by the East lost three yards and Moore was again forced to punt.

The West received another break late in the half. Ouachita’s Bryant Jacobfumbled a handoff with Washington-Marion’s Julius Dix recovering for the West at the East 26-yard line. Fontenot and James connected on a 17-yardpass before the drive stalled at the East 9-yard line. Chance came in andthis time his 34-yard attempt sailed through the uprights to give the West a 10-0 lead with 1:01 left in the half.

The East stopped the West on the first possession of the second half and took over at the West 40 after a 22-yard punt by Chance. But Franklin’sRoxie Shelvin sacked Slidell’s Steve Jackson twice for losses of 17 yards, pushing the East back to its own 39-yard line. Moore then fumbled the snapfrom center on a punt attempt and was tackled by Gross at the 28-yard line.

The West failed to capitalize on the field possession, however, as Chance missed on a 30-yard field goal attempt after Fontenot and Rayne’s Josh Reed connected on a 14-yard completion.

The West got another opportunity minutes later as James intercepted a pass by DeLaSalle’s Brandon Butler and returned it 33 yards to the East 37.

But the East defense again held as Neville’s Derrick Harris recovered a fumble by Central Catholic’s Willie Sheppard at the 22-yard line.

The East got an opportunity to score late in the quarter. Covington’s JohnClark intercepted a pass by Fontenot and returned it 13 yards. A personalfoul against the West gave the East possession at the West 37. A 31-yardpass from Butler to Jacobs on fourth-and-11 gave the East a first down at the 7-yard line. But a run and two pass plays failed to gain yardage andMoore’s 24-yard field goal attempt was no good, keeping the score 10-0.

The East had its only sustained drive on its next possession. Butlerconnected with Jonesboro-Hodges’ Thyron Anderson and Newellton’s Keith Thomas for gains of 12 and 22 yards, respectively. A 14-yard pass toJacobs gave the East a first down at the West 20-yard line. But the Westdefense preserved the shutout by pressuring Butler into two incompletions and Moore into missing a 40-yard field goal attempt.

Chance would end the East’s final drive minutes later with a leaping interception at the East 10-yard line.

Martin was named the offensive player of the game after rushing for a game-high 38 yards on seven carries. Martin also caught two passes for 37yards and returned five punts for 25 yards. Westlake’s Fred Harrisoncompleted 4-of-15 passes for 97 yards while Robinson caught four passes for 58 yards.

James received the defensive MVP award after helping the West limit the East to negative 33 yards on the ground and 130 yards overall. James hadfive tackles, four unassisted, and returned an interception 33 yards. Onoffense, James completed a 40-yard pass, ran for five yards and caught two passes for 26 yards. James also returned a kickoff 19 yards.West Jefferson’s Chris Cooper added six tackles while Shelvin contributed four tackles, all for losses totaling 23 yards.

The East, which leads the overall series, 35-24-2, was led by the passing of Butler, who completed 9-of-28 passes for 119 yards. Butler was alsointercepted twice and sacked twice. Jacobs caught three passes for 49yards.

On defense, the East was led by John Curtis’ Vic Viloria who had eight tackles, three for losses. Ferriday’s Jeremy Burns also had eight tackles,four unassisted.

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