All-Star Football — Metro drubs Outstate
Posted on June 29th, 2009 – 12:18 PMBy Jim Paulsen
The 36th annual Minnesota High Schoool All-Star football game was held Saturday at Husky Stadium on the campus of St. Cloud State University (a very nice venue, by the way. Located on the southern edge of the campus, next to the Mississippi River and the National Hockey Center)
We didn’t cover this game this year — another casualty of the well-documented problems within this industry. But I’ve covered this game many times in the past and have found that the Outstate team generally plays with a chip on it’s collective shoulder. (Largely due to its own perception that fans and media consider them of lesser quality than players from the Twin Cities metro area. From my point of view, that’s simply not true, but it’s an interesting topic and worth discussing at some point down the road).
As a result, I’ve witnessed some the Outstate team manhandle the Metro team on more than one occasion, including 2005, when current Gopher wide receiver Eric Decker and East Grand Forks quarterback Nick Mertens were men among boys in Outstate rout.
But the Metro came to play Saturday, rolling to a 54-13 victory over the Outstate. It was the third victory in the last four years for the Metro team and evened the series at 15-15 (From 1974 through 1979, teams were divided by North and South, rather than Metro and Outstate). The 54 points scored is a record for one team in the game.
Coon Rapids QB Blair Townsend threw three touchdown passes — two in the first half as the Metro took a 27-13 halftime lead — and was named the Metro Offensive MVP. Mahtomedi running back Stephen Johnson ran for two touchdowns and Lakeville North wide receiver Tyler Swanson caught pair of scoring passes.
I’d sure love to hear a little more about the game — who stood out, who didn’t, etc. If you were at the game and would like to share a little about what you saw, please do.
Jim Paulsen
7 Responses to "All-Star Football — Metro drubs Outstate"
This was my first time watching the All Star game, and I must say, I agree that I agree with your point of view Jim. In fact it was the Metro players that seemed to have the issues this weekend. Several pushing matches from the Metro players that had to be physically broken up by officials. Including one at the start of half time where about a dozen Metro players ran off the bench ready to fight while the Out State players were walking to the locker room, the Metro players being stopped only by a wall of officials pushing them back.
The lowpoint for me was a Metro parent berating the Out State Cheerleaders throughout the first half because they were cheering for Out State. This was especially surprising because the cheerleading teams are there representing as winners of their own Statewide competition and for the most part having no ties to the particular teams.
Overall a little disheartening considering these are all just high school students.
Apple Valley’s Varmah Sonie (Mr. Football) won Defensive MVP after a superb game including an interception and a pass break up while only being thrown at 3 times all game.
I was at the game and wasn’t the least bit shocked that Blair Townsend from CR was the O MVP. If there was an overall MVP of the game it would have easily been him. For a kid who didn’t get press because of a humble program, he deserved a lot more chatter throughout his high school career. Good luck up in UND MR. Townsend, you are going to be a great college athlete.
We were at the All Star game and enjoyed it a lot. From our perspective, both teams were “chippy” more then appropriate for this fine setting but this is not the story of this game.
Metro did come to play but Out State had a very impressive drive at the beginning of the game which, unfortunately, ended with a umble near the Metro goal line. Metro took over from then on as indicated by the stastics. Metro had 63 plays for 593 yards compared to Out State with 44 plays and 248 yards. Metro play selection and execution were excellent.
The Metro passing game was very impressive with Townsend completing 71% of his passes for ver 200 yards nd 3 T.D.’s.Peterson completed 61% of his passes. Nelson and Swanson were the leading receivers for metro with 3 T.D.’s between them.
The Out State passing attack had only a 41% completion record but Richter was really impressive with 7 receptions, a T.D. and over 100 yards. He seemed unstopable in the first half.
As far as the running game is concerned, Metro averaged 6 yards per carry compared to 3 for Out State. Metro’s Stephen Johnson was the leading rusher for the game with 75 yards on only 6 carries.He had 2 T.D.’s and the longest run of the night, an impressive 52 yarder after being nearly stopped at the line. He also had 2 key receptions coming out of he backfield which set up 2 other T.D.’s.
For Out State Lindh was impressive on a long drive culminating in his T.D. He exhibited good speed and power.
All in all, the All Star game was a great event and a fine ending for the High School careers of a group of players we can all be proud of.
So, the Red Star can’t seem to find enough funds to send one dang reporter to cover these great football players int the state’s all-star game. Absolutely amazing. But yet, have a Gay Pride parade and you dang near have the whole staff over. No wonder this paper is losing readers and a total piece of crap.
A great event that deserved more attention. Both teams showed exceptionally skilled players that took time out to raise donations for the game, practice in unbearable heat and risk injury for one thing…their love of the game. We all know these young men are gifted athletes, and this was a nice recognition of their achievements on the field. Even more impressive were the comments that the boys received during the week before the game from those who had never met them before as well as immediately after the game. You could understand the comments coaches made about the boys character and work ethic, you could see the mutual respect between the boys that have competed agaist each other for years and now were playing together and making life-long friendships but probably most telling was a statement made by a worker at Gustavus (where both teams practiced) to a coach of one of the teams “Coach, I have been working here for years and have cleaned up behind many many camps held on campus. I wanted to stop and tell you that this group of boys is one of the most repectful, courteous, and grateful bunch I have ever met.” There were lots of story lines missed by the lack of coverage and only a few of them happened in the 90 minutes of playing time, none more telling than that simple comment …respectful, courteous, grateful. Congratulations to parents and others that raised these boys. Good luck to all these fine gentleman and those that put on this event. I hope the media recognizes the opportunity lost and improves their coverage in the future.
B.C.–Yours is a wonderful comment that certainly adds an important dimension to all the parents and young men who played their hearts out on the field and made friends for life. I could not agree more! Thank you.
