NAZARETH – Pen Argyl’s Quarterback Nathan Hood threw two touchdowns in the second half to Wilson Area’s Kowan Scott as the Gold Team pulled away for a 24-14 win over the Red Team in the 41st Annual McDonald’s All-Star Game at Nazareth’s Andrew Leh Stadium.
Bob Stem was the head coach for the Gold team that made up teams from the Northampton County, Phillipsburg and Palisades team. It was last December when then Phillipsburg head coach Bob Stem announced his retirement. Stem capped off the season with a 3-0 OT thrilling win over Easton Area on Thanksgiving Day. His team finished the season 9-2. Stem coached at Bethlehem Catholic for 19 yards winning two PIAA State Championships. His overall record is 285-98-6 with an extra win after tonight’s game.
Joe Tout of Northern Lehigh coached the Red team. This team was composed of players from Carbon, Lehigh and Monroe counties.
Stem talked about coaching his last game, “What’s nice is they are all great athletes so it’s not hard to coach them. They make you look good when you have the athletes we had and they are really good kids. I knew that when the whistle blew they would give 110 percent and that’s what they did.”
The game started off sloppy on both sides of the ball. Both teams needed time to gell and get their momentum going. Bethlehem Freedom’s Angel Rosado intercepted a pass giving the gold team the ball on the Red 37 yard line with 3:44 left in the first quarter. They capitalized on the turnover when Pius X’s Adrian Bernard went in for an eight-yard touchdown run putting the Gold team up 6-0 in the first quarter. Both teams exchanged interceptions and after a sloppy first quarter, the Gold team led 6-0.
In the second quarter, Cody Johnson of East Stroudsburg North recovered a Gold fumble. On the next play Whitehall’s Chris Polony threw a dart to Pleasant Valley’s Rich Irving for a 21-yard touchdown pass. The Red team led 7-6 with 10:54 remaining in the half. The Red Team’s momentum continued with a Derrick Watkins interception. But the drive would end when Easton’s Isaac Knighton intercepted a Michael Carmella pass and took it to the Red teams 18-yard line. Five plays later Northampton’s Chad Fenon went in for a four-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion was no good as the Gold team led 12-7 with 4:57 left in the half.
The second quarter started off much like the first with no points being scored on several drives. Northern Lehigh’s Jake Kern 35-yard touchdown return of an interception put the Red team up 14-12 at the 5:25 mark of the third quarter. Both teams combined for nine turnovers (7 interceptions and two fumbles) in the game up to this point. Nathan Hood talked about the first half, “We were trying to hit the deep ball and it was just sailing on me. I was getting frustrated. I wanted to hit the big play and put our team on top.” Hood got his chance. The Gold team would strike right back. Hood found his stride hitting Kowan Scott for a 47-yard touchdown pass giving the Gold team an 18-14 lead with 4:19 left in the third quarter. The Gold team was 0-11 passing before completing this pass. They had not completed a pass so far in the game.
With 30 seconds left in the quarter, Hood put the nail on the coffin with a 65-yard bomb to Scott for a 24-14 Gold lead. Scott said, “In the beginning of the game the timing was off. The second half we hooked up and made plays.” The Red team tried to get a drive going in the fourth quarter. The big play was a 63-yard pass play from Polony to Emmaus Joe Williams to setup a field goal attempt. Michael Bittner of Catasaqua attempted a 25-yard field goal that went wide left. That would have cut the lead to 7.
Joe Tout talked about missed opportunities, “We were able to move the ball offensively but we just didn’t put up the points.” The Red team’s last drive would end on an interception by Rosado on the final play of the game. Rosado finished the game with three interceptions.
Tout talked about coaching the game, “…just the experience. This was my first experience in this game and I’m really glad to meet such good men. They are all good football players but they are all good men and I really enjoyed coaching them.”
The Red team was led by Michael Carmella’s 153 yards passing. Chris Polony added 133 yards. Nathan Hood led the Gold team’s air attack with 129 yards passing.
