NORTH-SOUTH ALL-STAR CLASSIC

 
By Bob Badders - Senior Writer
E-mail: badders@digitalsports.com

     PISCATAWAY -- Mike Risimini's football career is just about over. The Cedar Grove senior will head to Eastern Connecticut State University to play baseball in the fall, but with him he will take plenty of fond memories from Rutgers Stadium.
     The Panthers senior defensive back won an NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I state title in the fall of 2007 and on Monday he was named defensive MVP for the North All-Stars when they defeated the South All-Stars, 31-25, in the 30th Annual North-South All-Star Football Classic on the home turf of the Scarlet Knights.
     "I like it here," Risimini said. "The last two games I played at Rutgers I won them both. It's definitely a good way to go out."
     Risimini had six tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two pass breakups as the North held the South scoreless for three-plus quarters. The South finally scored in the fourth quarter and a rule that gives the losing team the ball back if it is trailing by nine points or more kept the North defense on the field and allowed the South to mount a comeback. The final score was a bit misleading because the North and its defense and special teams were truly dominant.
     "Yeah we really played well," Risimini said. "We came together early in practice and we knew we would be tough to score on. We felt that our linebackers and even our defensive linemen were some of the fastest and quickest players on the field."
     Along with Risimini's efforts, the North forced three turnovers, blocked a field goal and blocked a punt that was recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. The defense also recorded four sacks and had eight tackles for a loss. The final yardage statistics are skewed a bit because the South had four consecutive possessions over the final 7:33.
     "The coaches were going real hard on us in practice and it really paid off," said Lenape Valley linebacker Mike Groome. "The defense was unbelievable and we really held them down until the end. All the turnovers were tremendous, and I really thought it got the South team down and gave us all the momentum."
     After a lackluster beginning by both teams, the North All-Stars took control in the second quarter when West Side's Anthony Baskerville capped a six-play, 60-yard drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak at the 11:00 mark. The big play on the drive came when Baskerville scrambled and hit East Orange's Akeem Cunningham on a 63-yard bomb down the left sideline in which the 5-foot-11 Cunningham jumped over two defenders to snare the pass.
     The defense had stifled the South offense up to this point, but started putting up points on its own just a minute later when Groome stepped in front of a Taylor Budd pass and brought it back 25 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
     "I dropped back, followed his eyes, got in the hole and he just threw it right to me," Groome said. "I was just thinking I better not trip, because otherwise I knew I had it."
     Just 20 seconds later, Risimini forced and recovered a fumble on the South 33 to set up a Mark Garcia (Roselle Park) 26-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead. They were able to hold that lead into halftime thanks to a blocked field goal by South Plainfield's Troy Russell. The Fork Union Military Academy-bound linebacker knifed up the middle and got his entire body in the line of the kick to keep the South off the board.
     "I saw a wide gap between the center and guard and I just wanted to shoot it as fast as I could," Russell said. "The turnovers we forced were big. We're all-stars, that's what we do."
     The North defense stayed in stride in the third quarter, forcing a turnover on the South's first possession when Union defensive lineman Jacklin Petion intercepted a Todd Busler (Atlantic City) pass and returned it four yards to the South 45. The North's offense then went 45 yards in five plays to take a commanding 24-0 lead. Baskerville hooked up with the North Carolina State-bound Cunningham twice on the drive, first for an 11-yard gain and then on a 28-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone. Cunningham finished with three catches for 102 yards and a touchdown and was named the North's offensive MVP.
     Late in the third quarter, a punt by Kittattiny's Kyle Hayes pinned the South down back at its own 17-yard line. A penalty, two incomplete passes and a sack put them in a fourth-and-22 situation on the seven and set the stage for another stellar special teams play. This time it was Ferris defensive lineman Brent Rice who came up with a huge punt block that allowed Kennedy's Marquis Spann to recover it in the end zone and balloon the North's lead to 31-0.
     At this point it didn't look like things would end well for the South All-Stars, however a key defensive play stoked the fire for a fourth-quarter comeback. On a second-and-11 from the South 45, Colonia's Nate Brown jumped a route and picked off Passaic Valley's Jim Niland and returned it 51 yards for the South's first touchdown of the game. The two-point conversion failed, but a game-specific rule that states that a team down by nine points or more gets the ball back after they score helped the South get back into the game.
     On the ensuing possession, the South marched 77 yards on 11 plays in 4:45 and cut the North's lead to 31-13 when Lindenwold quarterback Taylor Budd hit Lacey's R.J. Roe on a 16-yard slant. Budd, who was named as the South's offensive MVP, went 18-of-37 for 258 yards and three touchdowns. On the drive, Budd was 5-for-9 for 53 yards. Bound Brook's Deven Baker had two catches for 25 yards on the drive while Kingsway's Byron King carried three times for 21 yards.
     Budd continued to throw with a hot hand on the South's next drive, completing all three of his passes for 72 yards and a touchdown on a four-play, 77-yard scoring drive that cut the deficit to 21-19. Starting at their own 23, Budd hit Middle Township's Bill Hodgdon (six catches for 107 yards) for a 43-yard gain into North territory before hitting Carteret's Brian Williams for five yards. Budd then scrambled for a 10-yard gain, and after a five-yard false start penalty, hit Hodgdon for a 24-yard touchdown on which the receiver spun out of a tackle on the right sideline and darted across the goal line.
     "Up 17-0 I knew we wouldn't lose and I didn't even think they would come back," Risimini said. "But I also didn't know they were going to keep getting the ball."
     By now the North defense looked to be running on fumes and the South offense was taking full advantage. It took just four more plays for the South to make it a one-score game at 31-25 as Budd's pass into the end zone from 38 yards out was batted around before being caught by Roe with just nine seconds left. Roe, who helped Lacey to three state championship games and the 2006 South Jersey Group III state title, finished with 77 yards on four catches with two touchdowns. This time, though, the South was not down by nine or more and was forced to kickoff. The onsides kick was recovered by the North and it was able to run out the clock and halt the comeback just in time.
     "We were going at it all week in camp," said Russell. "So it's definitely good to have some bragging rights."


Box Score

2008 North-South All-Star Football Classic

North All-Stars 31, South All-Stars 25

                          North        South
First downs           8             19
Rushes-yards     30-58       39-85
Passing              10-21-2   21-45-2
Passing yards      166           287
Penalties            11-93       4-23
Fumbles-lost        2-1           1-1

North  0 17 14   0 - 31
South 0   0   0  25 - 25

Scoring Summary
N - Baskerville 1-yd run (Garcia kick)
N - Groome 25-yd INT return (Garcia kick)
N - Garcia 26-yd field goal
N - Cunningham 28-yd pass from Baskerville (Garcia kick)
N - Spann recovered blocked punt in end zone (Garcia kick)
S - Brown 51-yd INT return for touchdown (pass failed)
S - Roe 16-yd pass from Budd (Kistler kick)
S - Hodgdon 24-yd pas form Budd (pass failed)
S - Roe 38-yd pass form Budd (pass failed)

Individual statistics
Rushing - North: Green 12-48, Holloway 1-8, Baskerville 8-7, Hayek 3-5, Frias 5-(-3), DeNick 1-(-7); South: King 7-36, Garrard 10-32, Grimes 10-28, Esdaile 2-8, Cardene 1-0, Busler 1-(-3), Budd 7-(-7), Anderson 1-(-9).
Passing - North: Baskerville 4-8-1 107, DeNick 3-7-0 22, Niland 3-6-1 37; South: Budd 18-37-1 258, Busler 3-8-1 29.
Receiving - North: Cunningham 3-102, Holloway 2-14, Green 2-10, Baskerville 1-28, Hayek 1-8, Delledonne 1-4; South: Hodgdon 6-107, Baker 5-66, Roe 4-77, Grimes 2-20, Williams 2-11, Esdaile 2-6.
Interceptions - North: Groome 1-25, Petion 1-4; South: Brown 1-51, Thompson 1-1.