A thrilling Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star Football Game ends in 28-28 tie

"If you were a fan here tonight, you got your money's worth," said the South and Valley Christian head coach Mike Machado. "We scored 56 points in an all-star game, that's a great job."

The game started slow, with the contest scoreless until midway into the second quarter, but soon both teams were putting on an aerial show led by Gilroy's Jamie Jensen for the South and Leigh's Ryan Stillwell for the North.

Jensen was 7 of 12 for 180 yards and two touchdowns, while Stillwell was 20 of 14 for 236 yards, including a touchdown pass to Leigh teammate Ethan Cosgrove who did more than his share of work on the field catching nine passes for 120 yards.

The first score of the game was a 66-yard touchdown when the North's Cory Murphy of Wilcox High connected with Chris Albright of Milpitas who sprinted down the middle of the field for paydirt.

The South responded quickly on their next drive, taking two plays to go 67 yards for the score, when Jensen hooked up with a familiar face in Gilroy's Dante Fullard on both plays.

The next score came with eight seconds left in the half on a hail-Mary pass from Palo Alto's Will Brandin that deflected off a North player and into the hands of Leigh's Ryan Valentine who broke away for the 58-yard score. The North missed the extra point, and went into the half up 13-7.

The second half saw both sides respond to each other's scores. The South struck first with a touchdown pass from Jensen to Fullard to the back left corner of the end zone and put them up 14-13.

On the next drive, the North marched down the field to the six-yard line, when Murphy ran a perfect bootleg into the end zone. The North converted a two-point conversion to take the lead 21-14.

The South would again respond, with a spectacular effort from Oak Grove's Jabari Carr who took a pass from behind the line of scrimmage, and spun out of a tackle that would have been a sure loss of yardage and sprinted down the sideline for a 56-yard touchdown.

With the game tied at 21-21, the tandem of Stilwell and Cosgrove took over, which featured a 44-yard one-handed grab from Cosgrove, who managed to get one foot in bounds and set up a touchdown pass a few plays later from five yards out to Cosgrove.

Things looked rough for the South on the next drive, as Jensen was sacked to start the drive and faced with a third and long; the coaches were calling for the punt team with just about three minutes left in the game. A big catch from Carr gave them a first down that would lead to an even bigger catch two plays later by Carr who sprinted down the sideline for a 61-yard run and catch touchdown pass from Jensen.

With the game knotted at 28-28 and just over two minutes left in the game, the North took over with a chance to win. Stillwell led the North 48 yards to the 15-yard line, and with 11 seconds left, Cosgrove attempted a 32-yard field goal, which was blocked by Leland's Michael Santini and securing a tie.

"We both went back-to-back scoring," said the South's Nick Pula of Evergreen Valley. "A lot of people played with their pads. It was fun."

For a lot of players this was their last game of their football career, and for all it was their last high school game.

"It's the most fun I've had," said Willow Glen's Tony Zizzo, who got ample playing time for the South. "Everyone out there is a player. You got to be on your game."

The game, which is also known as the Silicon Valley Youth Classic, is named after former Los Gatos coach Charlie Wedemeyer, who has battled ALS for many years. Even after losing the ability to breathe and speak on his own, Charlie continued to coach at Los Gatos High School. The all-star game was named in his honor.