Defense dominates as South beats North 14-3
By JEFF BERSCH
[email protected] Jun 10, 2016
The eye black had run down the face of Jace Lewis when he finally took off his helmet to celebrate with his teammates Friday night.
It looked almost like he had taken the worst in a fight when in fact it was Lewis and his South teammates that delivered the beating at Wendy’s Field at Daylis Stadium.
Lewis, a future Montana linebacker, led a dominant defense that forced six turnovers and made play after play to help the South to a 14-3 victory over the North in the Class B Big Sky All-Star Game.
The 17 combined points were the third lowest in the 28-year history of the game. The South now leads the all-time series 15-13.
“From that first stop, I figured it was a going to be a long game for them,” said Lewis, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound linebacker from Townsend. “It was definitely an all-star defense. We all played really well and it was just really fun to play.”
Lewis was named the South’s defensive MVP, but the outside linebacker certainly had help.
He played for the first time with future Griz teammate and close friend Trase LeTexier, a middle linebacker from Jefferson.
The two simply were dominant. Lewis had a pair of sacks and another tackle for a loss. LeTexier, too, was all over the place, even coming up with an interception early in the fourth quarter that ended a deep North drive.
“That was a freakin' blast,” Lewis said. “I loved that. It was just fun. Trase and everybody else. We all became close and really clicked. It was just a fun week.”
It also was more than Lewis and LeTexier. Kaleb Reynolds, a linebacker from state runner-up Huntley Project, got in on plenty of the action. So did Thayne Hage, a linebacker from Colstrip.
Up front, linemen Tanner Osborne of Columbus, Mitchell Odden of Deer Lodge, Ben Fujimori of Baker and Logan Schaff of Huntley Project did their job stopping the run and providing pressure at opportune times.
In addition to LeTexier’s interception, Big Timber’s Brent Finn, Roundup’s Dalton Salthe and Jefferson’s Jared Padmos came up with picks. Dallas Mack, a safety from Huntley Project, delivered perhaps the game’s biggest hit on a pass breakup.
The South’s first points came courtesy of the defense, a safety midway through the first quarter for a 2-0 lead. And the North managed only 46 yards and two first downs in the first half.
“I feel like playing with players who are that good, like Jace and Trase, it just makes everyone else better,” Reynolds said. “We had a lot of athletes on defense and it was fun to be around. Fly around and have fun. That’s what we were told to do and that’s what we did.”
The North’s defense also was impressive, led by the Fairfield trio of Kyle Snyder, Cade Heckman and team MVP Joel Beck. Fairfield won the Class B state title, beating Huntley Project.
The North defense made 15 plays for negative yards against the South, which ran 64 plays from scrimmage.
Nick Winfield of Jefferson, however, found enough running room a few times to put points on the board for the South. Both his touchdown runs came on the same play, him taking a direct snap and following his lead blockers, including high school teammate LeTexier.
The first went for 1 yard and an 8-0 lead late in the first half. The second went for 53 yards, Winfield squirting loose after initially being slowed at the line of scrimmage.
“It was high school football, your last high school football game,” Winfield said. “It felt like to me, because I never played in a state championship, that was my state championship. It was a blast.”
And although Winfield rushed for 102 yards and two scores on 15 carries, he recognized how the game was won.
“That defense, they won the game for us. There’s no question about it,” he said. “I knew that defense was that good. We practiced against them all week long. They played so hard and so physical. They went out and shut them down. It was almost a shutout in an all-star game. That’s unbelievable.”