Redell Shines Brightest in West’s 21-18 Victory

As far as shadows go, it isn’t a bad one to be standing in. After all, it would be insanity not to hand the ball to an All-American tailback who rushed for almost 6,000 career yards and scored 94 touchdowns.

Friday night, under the lights, Crespi High quarterback Ron Redell showed 4,512 fans at Birmingham High that there is more than one guy from the Crespi backfield who is capable of shining. Redell completed nine of 13 passes for 85 yards and a touchdown and was named the most valuable player in leading the West to a 21-18 victory in the Daily News All-Star Football game, the third consecutive win for the West.

Redell spent much of his two varsity seasons handing the ball, passing the ball, shoveling the ball to All-American Russell White. This time, however, with White sidelined in the second half because of tendinitis in a leg, Redell was the one who answered each East challenge.

“I wanted to come in here and show the abilities I have that I haven’t always had a chance to,” said Redell, who will attend Stanford. “These games are great. They allow you to show exactly what you can do.”

With White sidelined after gaining 31 first-half yards, it was Redell and his can-do attitude in the second half that staved off an East rally. Trailing, 14-3, at halftime, the East scored on its first possession of the second half on a six-yard run by Robert Augustus to move to within 14-10 with 6:32 left in the quarter.

On the West’s ensuing possession, Redell converted two third-down and one fourth-down situations to lead the West on a 12-play, 67-yard drive that gave the West a 21-10 lead.

Redell’s mobility--the West used the rollout and bootleg to perfection--was the key. On third and seven at the West 49, Redell was drilled but still hit Kurt Gustafson for a nine-yard gain and a first down. On fourth and one from the 31, Redell bulled inside for a first down on a keeper. And on third and eight from the 11, he found fullback Marrio Walker in the left flat after a perfect play-action fake up the middle for a 21-10 lead.

“You have to mix it up in a game like this,” Redell said. “We went at both sides, used a lot of rollout, some drop back and some run. It worked great.”

East scored with 6:28 to play on a one-yard run up the middle by Michael O’Brien, who set up the score by recovering a fumble by East quarterback Cole Speer and rambling 21 yards to the one. Speer hit Kevin Ebenoch in the right corner of the end zone with the conversion to move East to within 21-18.

On East’s next possession, quarterback Rod Baltau threw a pass that was intercepted by Kelly Carmack at the West 40. Redell ran down the clock to 27 seconds before the West punted. With four seconds left, Carmack again intercepted a Baltau pass, clinching the victory.

The East had five turnovers, three in the first half, and 14 of the West’s points resulted from turnovers.

After East took a 3-0 lead on Andrew Munoz’s 44-yard field goal, the defense stopped the West on its first possession on three plays. Sean Williams fumbled on the punt return, however, and Jason Stein recovered at the East 40. A personal foul tacked on another 15 yards.

On first down, White caught a shovel pass from Redell and cut up the left sideline for a 15-yard gain, and a face-mask penalty on the play gave the West first and goal at the five.

White slammed his way up the middle for the score to give the West a 7-3 lead.

Three plays later, East running back Tyler Robuck bobbled a pitch at the West 33 and linebacker David Kim recovered. Kim also batted down two passes in the half.

White led the West charge after the turnover, gaining nine yards on an off-tackle play and adding an additional 12 on a pass from Redell.

Redell hit Aaron Brumfield for a six-yard gain to the five, and scored two plays later on a one-yard quarterback sneak to give West a 14-3 lead with 2:55 left in the first quarter.

East linebacker Russell Greene was injured on the second play of the five-play drive and reportedly suffered a broken tibia in his right leg.