The Bearcats were well represented in the 2007 East/West All-Star
Football Game Thursday evening at Colerain High School. Bryant Thomas (S) and Ricardo Thompson
(LB) of Withrow High School teamed with Frank Becker (DT) of
Moeller
High School to help the
East squad to a 28-18 victory.
However, the star of the evening was Hughes Center running back Montez Patterson. Patterson scored two touchdowns and had
a third called back for the losing West squad.
-Frank Becker was an East team captain and started at defensive
tackle. The Division I state
wrestling champ who will play center for UC played a lot throughout the
evening. I had Becker with two
sacks and another assisted tackle during the night. One sack was for a loss of 3 yards and the other for an 8
yard loss.
-Bryant Thomas, who will walk-on at UC, started at safety for the
East. Bryant was recruited by the
Bearcats as an athlete so it’s unclear at what position he’ll begin his college
career.
-Ricardo Thompson played primarily linebacker for the East, but he also
got some snaps at defensive end.
From that defensive end position, Ricardo made a nice tackle on a
quarterback keeper that would have gone for a big gain otherwise.
-Montez Patterson was clearly the best offensive player on the
field. His first rushing attempt
was up the gut, and it went 80 yards for a touchdown. Montez broke a tackle in the box and
then outran everyone down the middle of the field to the goalline. It was an impressive display of power
and speed. Patterson also had a 17
yard run in the first half that might have gone for another score, but he barely
stepped out of bounds. Early in the
second half, Montez had a 40 yard touchdown run called back for a holding
penalty, but in the final stanza, he scored standing up on a 10 yard sweep. For the evening, I had Patterson with 8
carries for 118 yards and one pass reception for an additional 5
yards.
-After the game, Montez talked about the 80 yard score. “I ran over my cousin, Montez Straughn
(6’ 3”/240 defensive lineman from Roger Bacon). I hit the hole, and it was kind of
clogged. I saw Montez and broke to
the left. Ricardo (Thompson) got
sucked in under, and it was nothing but field.”
-Also on the West squad was Hosea Simpson (RB) of Winton Woods who has
signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Toledo, but there was a clear difference
in the ability of these two young men.
Simpson struggles to get anything going while Patterson was a threat to
score every time he touched the football.
-Other Division IA players in the game included Andy
Wersel from Moeller who has signed with Westerm Michigan. Wersel played defensive end at a listed
6’ 2”/240 pounds, but Andy is very active and may have led the East team in
tackles. Ohio University equaled the Bearcats with four
participants-defensive lineman Jeff King (6’ 2”/280) of Wyoming High
School, offensive lineman Joe Flading (6’ 4”/256) from
Anderson
High School, defensive
lineman Curtis Myers (6’ 2”/245) from Harrison High and wide receiver Riley Dunlop (6’ 1”/175) of Lakota East.
Jonathan Davis (6’ 1”/182) from Winton Woods is a good looking athlete
who will play his college ball at the Air Force Academy. Running back Ryan Collado (5’ 9”/175) of
Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy will play at Minnesota while athletic Gary Pride (5’ 9”/185) from
Colerain will play at Akron next season..