Despite the setback for the North, Denair High football alums played a key role in the contest.
Degan Butler, Ernesto Silva, Darrien Schell, and Even Coronel donned the North’s blue jersey.
Butler hauled in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Los Banos’ Gavin Estrada that gave the North squad a 10-9 halftime lead.
“This was really fun; I had a blast,” said Coronel, who will be the Coyotes’ lone representative in the Lions All-Star Football Game this Saturday in Tracy. “Everybody came out here and played their best. And it really doesn’t matter who won or lost. This was about coming out here and playing football for the last time. A lot of these guys probably aren’t going to play football again; I’m not going to play after next week. It was just about coming out here and having fun.”
Jones, who starred at El Capitan High School and will play at Modesto Junior College in the fall, connected with quarterback Vicente Cortez (Merced) on a 60-yard scoring strike for the game’s first score. Jones and Cortez hooked up for a 59-yard score later in the opening stanza, but a penalty nullified the touchdown and brought the ball back to the 14-yard line.
The Jones-Cortez combo came through once again in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
With the South nursing a slim 16-13 lead after Cortez’s 1-yard TD pass to Hayden Czirban with 3:59 left in the third quarter, Cortez lofted a ball deep downfield to Jones, who outjumped two North defenders to high-point the ball and then high-step his way into the end zone from about the 20 to complete a 58-yard connection that made it 22-13.
Jones was named the game’s MVP for his efforts.
After Jones’ first score of the night made it 6-0, the South extended its lead to 9-0 on a 24-yard field goal by Merced High’s Haziell Reyes.
The North finally got on the board when Atwater High product Trevor Hill knocked in a 37-yard field goal to make it 9-3 with 6:46 to play in the first half, then took the lead on Butler’s score.
The North stretched the lead to 13-9 with in 9:49 to play in the third quarter when Hill booted a 35-yard field goal – set up by Estrada’s nifty 68-yard scramble – but lost the lead for good on Czirban’s score six minutes later.
