SHRINE ALL-STAR FOOTBALL GAME : Swinton Passed Over as North Wins, 28-23

Eliel Swinton wasn’t playing with his usual numbers in Saturday night’s Shrine California All-Star Football Game. Not only was his usual high school jersey No. 55 switched to No. 12, but his statistics looked a little different too.

Swinton, who rushed for more than 150 yards a game in every game he played at Montclair Prep last season, carried the ball only twice for the South in its 28-23 loss to the North before 9,000 at Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

His net rushing: one yard.

“I’m not too happy right now,” said Swinton, who joined linebacker Tyrone Pierce of Sylmar and center Shawn Stuart of Saugus as the Valley’s only players in the game. “I don’t think I played enough to show what I can do, and now everybody will just keep thinking that I’m good only because I played at a small school.”

Swinton, who will play tailback at Stanford this fall, caught one pass for 21 yards and also played on special teams.

Pasadena Muir’s Saladin McCullough rushed 18 times for 107 yards and Lawrence Phillips of Baldwin Park gained 66 yards in seven carries.

North’s winning touchdown came with 10:20 left to play on a 38-yard flea-flicker pass from Tom Krug of Los Altos to Oakland Skyline’s Will Blackwell, who caught three touchdown passes in the game.

The South’s Pat Barnes of Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills opened the scoring when he completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Long Beach Poly’s Jason McCorvey at 3:15 of the first quarter, and a 35-yard field goal by Claremont’s Morgan Janger put South up, 10-0.

North, which entered South territory for the first time at 5:49 of the second quarter, scored 58 seconds later when Krug connected with Blackwell for an 11-yard touchdown.

The North, alternating quarterbacks after every series, took a 14-10 halftime lead when Kevin McKechnie of Christian Brothers threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Blackwell.

Phillips scored on a 38-yard touchdown run on the first series of the third quarter, and Tim Carey of Los Alamitos threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Damond Wilkins of Rialto Eisenhower to give the South a 23-14 lead.

The North came back on the first play of the fourth quarter’s first play with a 33-yard touchdown pass from McKechnie to Kenny Williams before the game-winning flea-flicker.

Swinton’s selection to play in the Shrine game is just one more honor added to his hefty collection of achievements. He rushed for 2,384 yards last season--a Valley single-season record--and scored 24 touchdowns. He finished as the No. 3 all-time rusher in the state and was named Southern Section small school state player of the year. He also made All-Valley.

“To be chosen (for this game), it’s a big deal,” Swinton said. “It’s the Shrine game. The Shrine all-star game. The classic Shrine all-star game. (Forty-two) years of tradition.”

“But to play in it, it’s not that big of a deal. Not to me it isn’t. To me, it’s like a chance for me to get hurt. It’s not a real game. It’s more of a fun kind of game.

“If I do well, people are going to say, ‘He’s supposed to do well. He’s All-American.’ If I do bad, people like to say, ‘Oh, he’s just horrible.’ ”