West gets rare win in TSMCA Division II football all-star game

IOWA PARK ― Anton coach Matthew Hoover made sure his team of West all-stars knew what was at stake in the Texas Six-Man Coaches Association Division II All-Star football game at Hawk Field on Saturday night.

The West all-stars only needed a win from this game to claim a clean sweep of the weekend’s festivities.

Hoover’s players got the message and built an early 34-point lead over the East before rolling to a dominant 70-49 victory.

"We preached it to them before the game. We told them everyone else represented for our side this weekend, so we better not be the letdown,” Hoover said. "Historically, the East wins the Division II game, so we just wanted to put an exclamation mark on the weekend for the West because the West side is the best side."

"Everyone thinks the East is good, and they're alright, but they're not as good as the West,” added Kason Degan from Motley County. “That was the attitude we had all week."

The West cruised to victory primarily due to the play of Degan, who earned Offensive Player of the Game honors after gaining 211 yards from scrimmage against the East. Damon Kuehler from Groom was the Defensive Player of the Game.

Degan rarely left the field Saturday night, recording four rush attempts for 90 yards, completing his only pass attempt, catching five passes for 120 yards, playing on defense, and serving as the West’s field goal kicker.

"I didn't think I could kick the ball until we got to practice. I'd never kicked a field goal in my life, and no one else would do it, so I did. So I guess I'm not too bad,” Degan said after making five extra point attempts in the game. "I had a lot of fun when I wasn't trying to catch my breath."

The West asserted its dominance early, with the defense forcing three interceptions on the East’s first four possessions to help the West score the first 34 points of the contest.

"When you have kids like Kasen Degan and Tucker Thixton (from Klondike) on that defense, it makes it super easy on the coaching staff," Hoover said. "Offensively, coach (Adam) Ramirez does a great job of calling the offense, and he had those kids in the right spots this week during the short time we had, and when you're blessed with this kind of athlete, anything can happen."

"We thought we had a good game plan when we got here this week, then we had seven kids not show up so that forced us to change our plan on the fly,” Throckmorton coach CJ Hantz said of his East team’s tough start. “I'll take this group of kids any day. They're a great group of kids who fought hard. It was fun to coach these kids."

Saturday night and the entire weekend belonged to the West all-stars, with each athlete claiming a win in their final high school game.

"For some of our guys, it was their last time playing football," Hoover said, "and they played the game like it was their last night."

TSMCA DIVISION II FOOTBALL

West 28     12     24     6 -70

East 0     21     14     14 -49

FIRST QUARTER

W - Jaime Garcia 17 pass from Sergio Champion (Kason Degan kick), 8:11

W - Rayden Cooper 47 pass from Josh Arismendez (Degan kick), 6:19

W - Arismendez 61 run (kick failed), 4:39

W - Cooper 21 pass from Champion (pass failed)

SECOND QUARTER

W - Kason Degan 54 run (kick failed), 9:26

E - Kani Grace 48 pass from Zane Capps (Matthew Castillo pass from Max Hopkins), 5:48

E - Lorenzo Garcia 6 run (kick failed), 3:35

W - Garcia 23 pass from Arismendez (kick failed), 2:42

E - Carson Myer 6 pass from Capps (Max Hopkins kick), 0:33

THIRD QUARTER

E - Griff Rigdon 22 pass from Capps (kick failed), 8:13

W - Degan 26 pass from Champion (Degan kick), 6:39

E - Myer 32 pass from Capps (Hopkins kick), 6:25

W - Cooper 29 pass from Champion (Degan kick), 5:18

W - Champion 17 run (Degan kick), 4:01

FOURTH QUARTER

W - Cooper 14 pass from Champion (kick failed), 8:54

E - Garcia 3 run (kick failed), 5:40

E - Capps 4 pass from Rigdon (Hopkins good), 1:06

TEAM STATS

First downs: (W) 21; (E) 17

Rushing: (W) 16-268; (E) 25-146

Passing: (W) 16-26-1 — 322; (E) 17-33-3 — 198

Punts: (W) 0-0; (E) 0-0

Fumbles: (W) 2-0; (E) 2-1

Penalties: (W) 16-116; (E) 11-42

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – (West) Kason Degan 4-90, Damon Kuehler 3-72, Josh Arismendez 2-65, Jacob Froese 2-21, Rayden Cooper 1-12, Landon Whitten 1-11, Jake Richards 1-2, Team 2-(-5). (East) Zane Capps 5-52, Griff Rigdon 9-52, Kani Grace 4-26, Lorenzo Garcia 5-15, Carson Myer 2-1.

PASSING – (West) Sergio Champion 10-14-0 — 209, Arismendez 5-8-0 — 112, Degan 1-1-0 — 1, Andrew Laramore 0-3-1 — 0. (East) Capps 8-18-1 — 142, Rigdon 7-11-0 — 37, Grace 1-1-0 — 19, Myer 0-2-2 — 0, Blake Thompson 1-1-0 — 0.

RECEIVING – (West) Cooper 5-127, Degan 5-120, Jaime Garcia 4-76, Laramore 1-3. (East) Rigdon 5-77, Grace 1-48, Julian Segura 1-19, Thompson 2-18, Lorenzo Garcia 2-15, Capps 3-9.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Texas Six-Man Coaches Association Division II football all-star game