Published: June 22, 2008 12:36 am      

West wins abbreviated game in Altoona

ALTOONA — A pair of football players from The Tribune-Democrat’s coverage area put an exclamation point on their high-school careers during the eighth annual PSFCA East West All-Star Game, which featured 68 of the state’s best college-bound high school players.

Bishop McCort’s Michael Cruz and Central Cambria’s Mitch Blackwell participated on the West squad, which beat the East 10-0 at Mansion Park on Saturday night, in a game that was called shortly after 9:30 p.m. due to lightning.

The game was first interrupted for more than 45 minutes with 7:18 left in the third quarter by rain and lightning. The players, coaches and referees returned to the field and started warming up, but more lightning strikes caused another 40-minute delay before the game was finally called.

Cruz, a quad-captain on the West, started the first series on offense and had one pass thrown to him during the first quarter. The ball short-hopped Cruz, who was lining up in the slot. Cruz also lined up on the inside of a three-wide set.

“It’s just a great experience,” Cruz said. “This week was a lot of fun, throwing in that spread offense was all fun.”

In addition, Cruz handled the long-snapping duties on the West’s punt team.

Cruz mainly blocked for Wilmington’s Chris Burns, who finished with 43 yards rushing. Cruz has committed to play football at Pitt and will be a future teammate of Burns.

“Chris Burns is a phenomenal athlete,” Cruz said. “He’s going to do big things down at Pitt.”

Cruz was extremely disappointed in the outcome.

“When it comes down to it, it’s a victory,” Cruz said. “But we would have loved to play that second half to win the trophy the right way. The whole East team were just great athletes. But I wish we could have played that second half.”

Blackwell saw action on the punt and punt return teams, and at defensive line at end.

Twice during the first half, Blackwell lined up on the line during a punt return and dropped back to block. The former Red Devils standout registered two pancake blocks against the East.

“It’s a great experience,” Blackwell said. “There’s a lot of good players out here, a lot different than regular high school football. Everyone here is bigger, faster, stronger.”

Blackwell is heading to Slippery Rock to continue his career.