By John Raffel
It was simply no contest.
The West was far superior to the East in recording a 59-7 victory in the 32nd annual Michigan High School Coaches Association All-Star Game June 30 at Alma College.
The West set a game record for the most points by one team.
Quarterback Cooper Rush of Lansing Catholic also set a single-game passing record of 241 yards by completing 10 of 12 attempts and throwing four touchdown passes. He had no interceptions, and he also gained 11 yards on the ground. He entered the game confident that the West had the best team.
“I didn’t know that it was going to be like this, though,” he said.
As for breaking the passing record, “It was pretty cool,” Rush said. “It’s a good honor. I’ll be able to look at it as being pretty special.”
The West was able to dominate on the offensive line as far as Rush was concerned.
“We got it to our skill guys and they took it over,” he said.
Wide receiver and return specialist Tyler Hanks of Morley Stanwood also had a big day. He caught a 30-yard pass on the West’s first drive to set up a 4-yard scoring run by Gabe Dean of Lowell.
“I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now at the varsity level,” Hanks said. “It’s no different than playing it with Morley Stanwood kids. This is a better competition and it’s a lot more fun.”
Hanks later caught a 21-yard TD pass from Dean.
“I was trying to make a big play for my team to put it up,” Hanks said. “We wanted to put the East team away. We had them down early. But we wanted to shut them down.”
Hanks also returned a punt 12 yards.
“You meet new people; we just did a really good job today,” he said. “We came in with a game plan. It was pretty much play as you are. Coaches can only give us a certain amount of plays and we can do a certain amount of things. We came out and did that to perfection today.”
Dean’s 4-yard run and Rush’s 27-yard pass to Jason Ribecky of Muskegon Catholic put the West up 14-0 after the first quarter. They scored 17 points in the second on a 3-yard TD scamper by Bennett Lewis of Nouvel Catholic Central, a 95-yard bomb from Rush to Shane Barron of Carman Ainsworth, and a 36-yard field goal by Jesser Boulnemour of Vicksburg.
But being ahead by 24 points at halftime, Rush admitted that the West All-Stars didn’t want to sit on their laurels.
“We wanted to keep going and keep putting the points on the board,” Rush said.
They did that with Rush throwing a 33-yard scoring pass to Kevin Baker of Linden in the third quarter for a 38-7 lead. In the fourth, Dean threw the TD pass to Hanks and Rush had a 21-yard TD strike to Barron. With less than a minute to go, David Brown of Ithaca had a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Rush, who led Lansing Catholic to the state finals last year, will be playing at Central Michigan University.
“It’s pretty special. This is a great way to top off my high school career; I’m proud of all these guys,” Rush said. “It’s great fun to go up against the competition in this game. It was an honor to be selected.”
Rush noted that the West offense was similar to what he ran at Lansing Catholic.
“It felt comfortable,” he said. “It was fun to play with these guys.”
The West team dominated the stats as well as the scoreboard. It led 19-6 in first downs, 117-24 in rushing yards, 344-54 in passing yards, and 461-78 in total yards.
Barron had 132 receiving yards and Baker 70 on three catches each. Dean was the game’s leading rusher with 37 yards on nine tries.
The only East all-star with significant stats was quarterback Tyler Steele of Garden City with 6 pass completions for 36 yards and a touchdown.
Other area players for the West were defensive backs Ethan Rennaker of DeWitt, David Ruhlman of Freeland, and Anthony Goodman of Lansing Sexton; wide receivers Colton Odykirk of Mount Pleasant and Brett Leppek of Bay City Central; tailbacknSaylor Lavalli of Mason; linebacker Anthony Dedamos of Rockford;, guards Sawyer McFadden of Holt and Preston Sceurer of Portland; and center Joseph Vieau of Midland.