Art Gonzalez gains yards after the catch during this year’s All-Star County Football Game.
Incoming Santa Barbara City College quarterback John Uribe apparently likes his new digs.
The 42nd County All-Star Football Classic came down to the wire on Friday night, but the South won 26-24 at La Playa Stadium on the strength of Uribe’s 354 passing yards and four touchdowns.
Uribe, who led the Santa Barbara Dons to the CIF playoffs in his senior season, was 32-for-49, including touchdown passes of 30 and 10 yards to Bishop Diego’s Art Gonzalez, who will also be playing for Vaqueros this fall.
“Arturo Gonzalez had an excellent game with two touchdowns. Freddy (Maldonado) scored and Bryson (Lloyd) scored, so it was fun,” said the game’s MVP, deflecting credit for the trophy to teammates.
Santa Barbara High’s Spencer Kelly was named the game’s defensive MVP for leading a hard-nosed defensive unit that changed the course of the game early in the second quarter. A run-stuffing, four-down goal-line stand kept the North from gaining a 14-6 advantage.
Instead, Uribe found Freddy Maldonado for a short TD pass later in the quarter and the South never trailed again.
The North did have a chance though as North quarterback Gavin Kelly connected with St. Joseph teammate Travis Beigel for the 11th time, this one a touchdown that brought the North to within two at 26-24 with 1:21 left on the clock. Beigel amassed a game-high 167 yards receiving.
Lloyd, who led the South in receiving with 10 catches for 102 yards, recovered the onside kick but the North got the ball back with 51 seconds to work with after the South passed three times and failed to get a first down.
“The crowd comes out here and they want to see the ball thrown a bit, you know, see us go deep. I’m not going to sit here and run the ball 40 times,” explained South head coach Will Gonzales.
Uribe managed to complete three passes and move the ball to the South’s 44-yard line before a long fade towards the right sideline fell incomplete and a penalty ended their run.
“We knew it was go down to the wire, they were way too talented,” continued Gonzales. “We like what we do offensively, and defensively, we got a tremendous effort from our defense.
“All week long we were hearing how we were going to get North County football and so we showed them a little South County football. Our guys are all big talk and they proved it tonight.”
The defense almost came up with another goal line stand at the start of the fourth quarter.
Dos Pueblos’ Brennan Eccles set it up by stripping Beigel at the 1-yard line after a long run on the last play of the third quarter. After two denials, a pass interference call on third down gave the North a first down. Anglin punched it in from there, making it 20-17 with 10:27 remaining.
“What sets this apart from the high school season is that even though we had such a short time of playing together, we just got so close so fast,” said Kelly, calling the All-Star defensive unit a family. “We just played so much better when we had each other’s backs.”
“These guys started believing in themselves and just kept getting better and better,” said defensive coordinator Mark Johnston, who was at San Marcos last season and will be at SBCC this season.
Gonzales pointed out the work of Lenny Vargas, Joe Yonke and Brenden Caldwell on the defensive line. Eccles got help in the linebacking corps from DP teammate Aaron Parsons while Carpinteria’s Tony Sanchez and San Marcos’ Adrian Stimsom came down with interceptions.
A 61-yard fourth-quarter drive capped by Gonzalez’s second TD catch of the night from Uribe gave the South a 26-17 lead, a lead that would hold.
It might be safe to say it won’t be the last those two hook up on that field.
“I’m ready to hit the ball and keep it rolling,” Uribe said, ready to start camp on August 3. “I have plenty more games in this stadium andI want to make them worth it.”
SOUTH ALL-STARS 26, NORTH ALL-STARS 24
North — 7 3 0 14 — 24
South — 6 8 6 6 — 26FIRST QUARTER
N — Ryan Anglin, 49 run after 7 pass to Travis Beigel from Gavin
Kelly, (Anthony Gallegos kick), 9:16.
S — Art Gonzalez, 30 pass from John Uribe, (kick failed), 6:57.
SECOND QUARTER
S — Freddy Maldonado, 9 pass from Uribe (R.J. Bisquera, pass from
Uribe), 3:16.
N — FG Gallegos 28.
THIRD QUARTER
S — Bryson Lloyd, 2 pass from Uribe (kick failed), 3:00.
FOURTH QUARTER
N — Anglin 1 run (Gallegos kick), 10:27.
S — Gonzalez, 10 pass from Uribe (pass failed), 4:32.
N — Beigel 5 pass from Kelly (Gallegos kick), 1:21.
RUSHING
NORTH — Ryan Anglin 11-63, Javon Davis 5-19, Matt Rotundi 1-3, Sean
Allen 1-0, Gavin Kelly 2-0, Parker Colvin 2-minus 2. SOUTH — Jesse
Lucatero 1-4, John Uribe 12-minus 1, R.J. Escamilla 3-minus 4.
PASSING
NORTH — Gavin Kelly 15-32-1–252, Sean Allen 2-3-0–19, Justin Level
0-2-1. SOUTH — John Uribe 32-49-2–354.
RECEIVING
NORTH — Travis Beigel 11-167, Javin Davis 2-10, Justin Rucker 1-17,
Sam Halop 1-14, Justin Peters 1-9, Parker Colvin 1-5, Ryan Anglin 0-49.
SOUTH — Bryson Lloyd 10-102, Freddy Maldonado 7-67, Art Gonzalez 5-63,
Anthony Martinez 4-41, R.J. Escamilla 3-9, Andrew Mendoza 1-46, R.J.
Bisquera 1-21, Jesse Lucatero 1-5.
