Shrine All-Star Football Game : Only 14,516 Watch North Gain Upset Tie With South, 3-3

The Shrine All-Star football game, short on scoring and short on attendance, is back, for better or worse.

Better is the return to the statewide format, the chance for the best high school players in California to face one another in a big stadium. Worse was the crowd of 14,516, about 10,000 to 15,000 fewer than Shrine officials were hoping for Saturday night in the first North-South matchup since 1973.

So it came to pass--or not to pass, in this case--as the North got a Dana Jacobsen field goal of 40 yards in the third quarter and the South came back with a 37-yarder by Gary Coston in the fourth for a final 3-3 tie at the Rose Bowl, the lowest-scoring game in the Shrine’s 35 years.

The crowd count was only the second smallest, the estimated 9,000 at East Los Angeles College in 1985 setting the low standard. So things could have been worse.

“I haven’t had much of a chance to spend time out here and look at the crowd after halftime,” Managing Director Dom Domino said on the field afterward. “But it’s quite an increase from last year, actually. I think we made a turnaround.”

And of the attendance figure?

“It seemed like there were more than that,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

What happened on the field, basically, was an upset. Max Miller, the North co-coach, was saying all week how the talent-laden South, with 29 of its 30 players heading to Division I schools, was said to be a 17-point favorite and how the North would have to use its size advantage to stay in the game.

“Our linemen have teeth the size of salt shakers,” he said.

Saturday night, several of those linemen, especially two-time state wrestling champion Trent Barnes from Clovis, peppered the South backfield pretty well. Specifically, they contained the South’s speed (Brian Brown of Gardena led the rushing game with 37 yards) and exploited a weakness: South quarterback Dan McGwire’s immobility.

Even a size advantage, at 6 feet 8 inches, wasn’t much help for the Claremont quarterback, not with Barnes, a nose guard, and right tackle Joel Dickson forcing him out of the pocket before he even got a chance to set up. With 9:16 to play in the first half, after he had completed 3 of 5 passes for 27 yards and lost another 15 yards on sacks, McGwire was replaced by Scott Stark of Capistrano Valley.

“He (McGwire) looked good on the films,” Barnes said, “but not very good when we had a chance to face him.

“It’s probably the first time he ever had some pressure, and he didn’t know what to do with it.”

McGwire finished with 7 completions in 13 attempts for 74 yards, while Stark went 4 of 11 for 35 yards.

Troy Taylor, the North quarterback, wasn’t spectacular, either (3 of 17 for 19 yards), but running back Braxston Banks looked especially good in the second half and finished the game with 47 yards on 12 carries.

After a Randy Austin interception off Taylor gave the South the ball on the North’s 37 with 7:17 to play in the second quarter, Stark found himself in an unusual situation, what with the score 0-0: He was close to the goal line.

A one-yard run by Terry Rodgers, an 18-yard burst off the left side by Brown and finally a four-yard gain on a Stark-to-Travis Watkins pass put the ball on the North 14. But the drive ended just as quickly as it got going, Brown losing eight and linebacker Ron Cox chasing Stark down for a 22-yard loss. Time to punt.

Same story in the third quarter. McGwire returned and, with 3:47 left, hit Westlake speedster Gary Wellman for a 37-yard gain, Watkins adding a good downfield block in front of the South bench. That put the ball on the North 25, but after McGwire couldn’t complete a pass and was sacked for a 17-yard loss, Stark, the punter, was back in.

What little excitement there was before halftime came in the form of extracurricular activity--a bench-clearing scuffle with 43 seconds left in the first half.

Nothing serious. Both teams were called for unsportsmanlike conduct.