Monday, July 29, 1996

Defense wins International Six-Man game

By Bill HART Senior
Staff Writer

RANGER - Believe it or not, but defense won the South All-Stars a 60-38 victory Saturday night in the inaugural International Six-Man All-Star Football Game.

A four-inch rain in a 35-minute span delayed the start of the game, but didn't affect the crowd as over 4,000 people saw the Texans rally in the second half for the victory.

The North, made up of players from out of state and Canada, scored only one touchdown in the second half. The South erupted for six touchdowns in the final 30 minutes (the featured 15-minute quarters, not 10 that Six-Man teams usually play).

Petey Salaiz of Mullin scored two touchdowns in the second half and Justin Lawrence of Strawn scored once, but rushed for 101 yards when the South went to the tight formation.

"We changed our defenses up in the second half and that was a big difference," said South coach David Mixon of Minerals Wells Community Christian High. "The North had been flipping the ball to its deep back (Blair Currey of Bjorkdale, Saskatchewan) and we were rushing two and playing a zone. They overloaded the zone on us. So we rushed one person instead and we covered the deep back so they had no one to throw to (in the second half)."

But the key play for the South came in the third quarter on fourth down when Casey Rowland of Meadow completed a pass to Chris Fisher of Dallas Academy for 29 yards to the North 33. Four plays later, Salaiz went in from the 11 for a 48-38 lead with 7:55 left in the quarter.

"It was a bad snap (on the punt). I didn't have time to kick it and I just got lucky," Rowland said of the pass to Fisher. "They were coming on me too fast so I adjusted and just threw the ball up and didn't worry about an interception and he made a great catch."

"I nearly had a heart attack when I saw Rowland throw the ball," Mixon said. "You never throw the ball across the field when you're falling backwards, but he did and it was a tough play. It was also one of the key plays for us."

Lawrence set up the first South touchdown in the third quarter on a 34-yard run to the 1, from where Rowland scored on the next play. Jeremy Crutcher of McLean hit the extra point to make it 34-30.
The North made it 38-30 on a pass from Casey Tobiassen of Hildreth, Neb. to Travis Allen of Idalia, Colo.

But the South controlled the rest of the way.

Lawrence scored on a 12-yard run and then Salaiz added two touchdowns to put the game away.

"We changed from the spread in the second half because we weren't getting too much offense running," Lawrence said. "On that run that set up the touchdown, there was a big hole there. There wasn't much to it for me. Just hit the hole."

Salaiz, who also had a touchdown in the first half and rushed for 68 yards on 10 carries, also took advantage of the tight offense.

"We just had excellent blocking tonight and good teamwork," Salaiz said. "The holes were there for us and we had fun. We changed a bunch of things around in the second half on defense and that allowed us to focus more on what we had to do and we did it."

Currey, one of three Canadians, rushed for 80 yards on 16 carries and scored the first touchdown, helping the North build a 14-0 lead. But the South caught up and it was nip-and-tuck until the South took command in the third quarter.