Furious 4th quarter comeback led by Nick Marsillio falls short in PSFCA East/West game

Written by: EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Monday, May 4th, 2015. Follow EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Twitter.

Bishop McDevitts Nick Marsillio mounted a furious comeback in the 4th quarter of the East West All-Star game held in Downingtown Sunday afternoon, but despite a nearly 250 yard, 3 td effort the East squad came up just short falling 21-19.

“It was kinda interesting playing with guys like Jaquan Blair of Susquehanna. This kinda reminded me of playing with McDevitt a lot. All the talent we had on this team was great” said the East MVP.

“We got off to a rough start but you have to hand it to that defense they had” said East coach Rob Klock of Lower Dauphin. “They had some great players over there. We got in a hole early but we made some adjustments in the second half to make it fun” he said of his teams comeback effort.

Berwicks Andrew Force hauled in a 49 yard score early in the game. “It’s just awesome for the Association to put this game on. We got together real good in practice, it was a ton of fun” said Force.

The difference in the game ended up being a bad extra point snap after Marsillio’s second td pass of the day, a 33 yard pass to a wide open Jonathon Charles of Daniel Boone. The West squad had a chance to move closer but a 29 yard field goal attempt from Penn State bound Jordan Wombacker of Hickory was blocked by Liberty DB Isaiah Avent.

“We changed it up in the second half, coach let me make some changes at the line, I told the guys to just come back and stop” said Marsillio. With just over a minute to play and on fourth down, Marsillio tossed a rainbow to Blair for a 44 yard gain to move the East within scoring distance. A 41 yard pass to Charles on the one gave the East a chance but following the one yard td pass to Blair Marsillio was unable to connect on the 2 point play for the tie.

“When you get the opportunity to be the man, I just took the opportunity to help my team” said Blair of his receiving efforts in the second half. “It was great to play with Nick, he threw for 400 yards against us when my team played them in the regular season.” “It was a great honor to play with such a great talent at quarterback. I really appreciated the experience here today.”

PSFCA executive director George Shue was extremely happy with how the game went. “It was a great weekend. I really enjoyed how this game came out. We had talked this morning about how these games turn into blowouts and we wanted to see one come down to the last minute and we got to see one today”. “I think the future of this game is healthy. We’re looking forward to making it bigger and better.”

TEAM STATS:

West – East

First Downs: 11 – 16

Rush/yards: 31-105 – 33-51

Passing yards: 51 – 285

Comp-Att-Int: 4-12-1 – 15-26-1

Fumbles-lost: 1-1 – 2-1

Punts/Avg: 4-40 – 6-26.7

Penalties: 6-60 – 8-86

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: West, Elijah Jackson 17-8, Alexander Minton 7-27, Mike Pietropola 5-11, Ryan Williams 2-(minus 16); East, D’Andre Pollard 11-49, Nasir Bonner 7-25, Jarey Elder 2-5, Team 1-(minus 2), Andre Dreuitt-Parks 7-(minus 7), Nick Marsilio 5-(minus 27).

PASSING: West, Ryan Williams 2-5-1—34, Mike Pietropola 2-6-0—17, Danzel McKinley-Lewis 0-1-0—0; East, Nick Marsilio 10-15-0—237, Andre Dreuitt-Parks 4-11-1—48.

RECEIVING: West, Danzel McKinley-Lewis 2-25, Brody Smith 1-14, Elijah Jackson 0-8, Logan Sharp 1-4; East, Jaquan Blair 5-99, Jonathon Charles 3-87, Andrew Force 2-54, D’Andre Pollard 3-32, Nasir Bonner 1-11, Jarey Elder 1-3