By DOUG DONNELLY
DETROIT – The West used several big plays to build a 35-0 lead Saturday and went on to beat the East 35-13 in the Michigan High School Football Association’s annual East-West Classic.
Connor O’Rourke caught a 93-yard touchdown pass from Elliott Larner (DeWitt), TJ Byard (North Muskegon) caught a 26-yard pass from Beau Harris (Coopersville) and Matthew Evans caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Louch to highlight the West’s big-play capabilities.
The West had 205 passing yards on just six completions.
O’Rourke caught two passes for 101 yards. Harris rushed for 36 yards and Vaughnzell Tyus (Portage Northern), who scored on a 8-yard rushing touchdown, ran for 32 yards for the West. Larner added a touchdown run.
The East-West Classic was played at Lawrence Tech University on a hot Saturday night with game-time temperature being 89 degrees. The heat didn’t put a damper on the West’s offense, however, as it racked up 13 first downs and spread the ball around several different quarterbacks, running backs and receivers. The West controlled the clock, having the ball for more than 26 minutes.
The East scored twice in the fourth quarter, including on the final play of the game when Dallas Walsh (Millington) rambled 51 yards with a fumble recovery. With 4:00 left in the game, Calondrey Hardy (Detroit Central) caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Joseph Tate (Detroit East English) for the East.
Bryson Newell and Deondrae Burns (Saginaw Heritage) had interceptions for the West defense. Darekeo Speech (Muskegon), Connor Vanbeek and Luke Laska (Byron Center) had six tackles each. James Williams (Marion) had two sacks for the West.
Marvin McCallum (Cass Tech) led the East with five tackles. Walsh had four.
