Shrine Game : South Stops Emanuel in Beating North, 25-6

Moments after the South had wrapped up a convincing victory in the 34th Shrine All-Star football game Saturday night at East Los Angeles College, everything had returned to normal. Aaron Emanuel, no matter how bad the defense made him look during the game, was back in the spotlight.

Kids swarmed for autographs, grown-ups extended hands through the crowd with wishes of future success at USC, and players from both teams stopped by with a pat on the shoulder pads, all of which made for slow footing around No. 33.

It was hard to believe that this was someone who had gained just 17 yards on 11 carries in a 25-6 victory by the South over Emanuel’s North team before an estimated crowd of 9,000 in 21,500-seat Weingart Stadium.

“We knew we had to stop him, and we knew we could stop him,” said South nose guard Dan Owens, from La Habra, who will join Emanuel with the Trojans in the fall. We knew he hadn’t played any tough teams in high school.”

Or as defensive tackle Randy Sheets of Anaheim Western put it, more matter-of-factly: “He’s an excellent back, but he’s not God.”

For his part, Emanuel, the prep All-American from Quartz Hill in Lancaster, offered no excuses. His longest run of the night was six yards, and most of his carries were for less than five.

“There was a lot of keying on me,” he said. “And they had keyed on me all week. I saw them (the South defense) mentioning my name in the papers all along, so nothing that they did surprised me.”

South quarterback Mike McMaster, on the other hand, was surprised at what happened to him. Pleasantly so.

The former Bellflower St. John Bosco star, heading to the University of the Pacific, got the starting assignment over highly publicized Jamelle Holieway of Banning and turned out to be one of the stars of the game, while Holieway played a fine game at defensive back. McMaster threw only 11 passes but completed six of them for 154 yards and touchdowns of 32 yards (to Melvin Smith) and 55 yards (to Mark Green), with one interception.

“I was surprised because I had practiced cruddy all week,” he said. “But I’ve always been lousy in practice. I don’t play with instincts, but during the games it is instincts.

“I think some of the guys were disappointed with me in practice because I wasn’t playing too well. Now, I think I can play with these guys. I think I showed that tonight.”

With Emanuel bogged down, Arizona State-bound Michael Johnson threw early and often for the North, finishing with a 13-of-28 effort for 142 yards and two interceptions. But the North never really came close after the first score.