No-Look Toss Turned West Fortunes : Football: Wallace and Tushnet combined for key play in Daily News All-Star game.

Born of desperation, Jesse Wallace’s perfect pitch left the East singing the blues in the Daily News All-Star football game.

Trailing by six points late in the third quarter Friday, the West faced third and 10 from the East 39. Wallace, the West quarterback, rolled left, but his wall of offensive linemen caved in quickly.

An instant before being leveled by a quartet of East players, Wallace flicked the ball off to his left without so much as peeking in that direction. A streaking Joey Tushnet snatched the flying football and dashed 35 yards to set up the West’s tying touchdown. The extra point gave the team a 14-13 lead and the West eventually won, 20-13.

“It was a fluke,” Wallace said of the pitch. “The opening came at the last moment and I pitched it. I couldn’t do that in a million tries, but I did the one time it really counted.”

Mike Herrington, co-coach of the East, lamented, “I thought it was a lucky play, but the ball seemed to go right to the running back’s hands.”

Tushnet had already hit full stride when he cradled Wallace’s toss and cut toward the middle of the field. Several defenders lunged at him around the line of scrimmage, but the 5-foot-8 running back dodged them. Tushnet, who plans to join the Marines after playing baseball at Pierce College, broke two tackles downfield before finally being halted at the four-yard line.

“Joey’s job is to stay in relation to the quarterback down the field,” said Bob Francola, co-coach of the West. “Jesse doesn’t have time to look around and see. Jesse told me later he didn’t know if Joey was there, he just pitched it.”

Like a good Marine, Tushnet followed orders--despite not believing that Wallace could get him the ball.

“I didn’t think (Wallace) would get it off,” Tushnet said. “He had about four guys on him so he threw me the ball. I was praying for it when he tossed it. At that point, I was hoping to make it to the end zone. Things were open almost all the way.”

When Tushnet, who finished with 63 yards in six carries, shifted into high gear, momentum shifted the West’s way.

The East had taken a 13-7 lead on big plays: a 53-yard punt return by John Johnson set up the team’s first touchdown and a 77-yard option pass from fullback Jerome Casey to wide receiver Chad Miyata scored the second.

The West, however, neutralized the numbing effects of those big plays with an electrifying play of its own.

Said West running back Colin Havert: “We had started to get down when we couldn’t move the ball, but that play just picked us right back up.”