ORCHARD PARK — The ball floated in the air for what seemed like an eternity when it was released by North quarterback Kennedy Ulrich. North was seconds and inches away from winning the team’s first-ever Kensington Lions All-Star game.
They were within the five-yard line and had a chance. That is until the ball dropped into the waiting hands of South’s Tyanna Rowell-Cox to end the game.
When the clock hit zero and Rowell-Cox was celebrating, it meant the Southern All-Stars held on for an 8-6 win over the Northern All-Stars.
Despite the loss, Ulrich was not upset after the game. The Grand Island High School senior and all of her teammates were smiling and laughing, celebrating the time they spent together practicing and then playing the contest.
“I was like, dang, that always sucks, especially that late in the game,” Ulrich said. “But the final whistle blew and I was like, yeah, I had a lot of fun. It didn’t really matter to me what the outcome was. This group of girls was really sweet.”
The ending of the game appeared to be a lot more anti-climactic than it became when the Southern All-Stars had the ball with under 30 seconds to go in the game, trying to run out the clock after a turnover on downs. That is until North’s Mackenzie Truman came over the middle and intercepted a pass to give her team another life.
In the ensuing huddle, North head coach Derek Anthony called a run play for his team, knowing they had two timeouts and 12 seconds left. But Ulrich called an audible and ran two pass plays to end the game.
The win also means the Southern All-Stars have never lost to the Northern All-Stars in the series history. The Southern All-Stars now have a 3-0-1 record in the game.
The first half was a defensive battle between the two teams, much in line with the previous three games. Two minutes into the first half, the North’s Gianna Colosimo took off down the sideline for a long touchdown run to give her team a 6-0 lead.
“I saw Gianna leak out of the backfield,” North head coach Derek Anthony said. “She made a couple really nice moves down the sideline to avoid getting the flag pulled and she’s fast. She flies like the wind and once she got in that open space, she was just gone.”
The score stayed that way all the way until there were less than 90 seconds left in the first half when the South squad recorded a safety to trim its deficit to 6-2. Moments into the second half, the South pulled a trick play out of its bag to score on a long touchdown to make it 8-6.
“I thought they (the defense) played really well,” Anthony said. “We got caught on that gadget play. It was a great call by Coach (Rudy Fish) from the South there. We bit on the run and they hit us over the top. It was just a great call.”