HONORARY HEAD COACHES:
EAST: Bob Harris WEST: Tony Maglione
East reigns supreme with 34-12 victory | By GEORGE O�GORMAN, Staff Writer, The Trentonian
EWING - The East won the annual Sunshine All-Star Football Classic for the fourth straight year last night.
Only this time they didn't need any fourth quarter dramatics to beat their West counterparts.
With Game MVP Robert Wiggs of Nottingham putting an exclamation point on a sensational high school career with two long touchdown passes receptions, the East scored twice within a minute of the second quarter and went on to a 34-12 win over the West in the 15th annual Sunshine Classic played at The College of New Jersey's Lions Stadium.
Wiggs teamed with Joe Jensen of West Windsor North on a 36-yard pass play to open the scoring, then got wide open in the West secondary late in the second quarter to haul in a pass from Kevin Monahan of Hightstown that spanned 50 yards.
When Ross Scheuerman of Allentown, the Offensive MVP of the East returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown one minute after Wiggs got his second score, the East took a 27-12 lead into halftime and coasted from there to continue its domination in a summer series that matches players from 32 schools in six Central Jersey counties.
"I knew coming in to this game we had a lot of weapons on offense, a lot of great players. And we were able to spread the ball around," said Wiggs, the 2010 Trentonian CVC Player of the Year whose next stop in his football career will be at Wesley (Del.) College next month.
After the West had pulled to within 14-6 on a QB sneak by Anthony Perna of Notre Dame, the East scored twice in the final three minutes of the half as three of the longest plays in Sunshine Classic history thrilled the crowd of 3,400.
The first came on Wiggs big catch from Monahan, then after Pennington's Keith Dearden teamed with Derek Beck of Bridgewater Raritan on a 50-yard pass down the far sideline less than a minute after Wiggs and Monahan clicked, Scheuerman made the last of his dazzling long high school runs with his 94-yard reeturn.
Abdul Namoya of Hightsown added the only points of the second half with an 11-yard run for the East.
"When I saw how well we were working with Wiggs in practice I told coach Jon Adams (East offensive coordinator) to put in a long pass play for me to throw to him. Coach Adams did, and Wiggs made a great play. It was a lot of fun. This whole experience was great fun, something that will help me get ready for college, (at Ursinus)," said Monahan.
"We had four 1,000-yard backs in our offense and great receivers like Wiggs, and we were able to get all of them involved," said Monahan.
EAST 34, WEST 12
East 7 20 7 0 - 34
West 0 12 0 0 - 12
FIRST QUARTER
E - Wiggs 36 pass from Jensen (Rohrbach kick), 2:31.
SECOND QUARTER
E - Anderson 10 run (Rohrbach kick), 10:40.
W - Perna 1 run (run failed), 5:19.
E - Wiggs 50 pass from Monahan (kick failed), 2:14.
W - Beck 51 pass from Dearden (pass failed), 1:27.
E - Scheuerman 88 kick return (Rohrbach kick), 1:14.
THIRD QUARTER
E - Namoya 11 run (Rohrbach kick), 8:54.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING LEADERS - East: Scheuerman 10-72; West: Salvo 16-87
PASSING LEADERS - East: Jensen 6-7-0-122; West: Perna 9-19-2-101
RECEIVING LEADERS - East: Wiggs 6-138; West: Beck 3-93
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