North rises: Locals contribute to all-star victory

Brandon Hamilton boldly predicted in these pages last week that his North team would top the South in the 33rd annual Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star Football Game. Sure enough, the North prevailed: 24-21 July 18 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. “I knew we were going to win,” said Hamilton, who graduated from Mountain View High last month. “We had unity; the team bonded together at practice and everybody came together.” Although the North needed a 45-yard field goal to go ahead for good and recovered a fumble at its own 28-yard line to stymie the South later in the fourth quarter, Hamilton’s confidence never wavered. “It was pretty tight,” the running back said of the game, featuring the county’s best players from the class of 2007, “but I knew we were going to do it.” Hamilton helped the cause by rushing 10 times for 39 yards, highlighted by a 10-yard burst on his first carry. ” I did all right,” said Hamilton, who plans to play for Foothill College this coming season. Los Altos High product Yousef Saadeh contributed to the win as well. He started at right tackle and punted three times, with two of his kicks landing inside the 10-yard line. “I did pretty well – I didn’t mess up as much as thought I would,” he said. “I didn’t make mental errors.” Saadeh agreed with Hamilton that team chemistry played a key role in the North beating the South. “Team-wise, we came together as one and stuck it to them,” said Saadeh, who will attend UC Santa Cruz in the fall. “We united really well, like we’ve been playing together for a long time.” It especially looked that way in the first half. The North scored three touchdowns and led 21-13 at intermission. But the South rallied in the second half, tying the contest near the end of the third quarter. “They were fighting,” Saadeh said of the South. “It was a tough battle, for sure.” The North regained the lead on the long field goal by Kevin Blakley (Westmont High) with nine minutes to play. On the South’s ensuing possession, it marched inside the North’s 30 before losing a fumble to safety Vince Pereira (Santa Clara). That wasn’t the first fumble recovery for the North; St. Francis High linebacker Steve Kadash pounced on one in the second quarter that led to his team scoring a touchdown. Other local players on the North, coached by Monta Vista High’s Jeff Mueller, included offensive lineman Semisi Hoko (Los Altos High); defensive lineman Joape Pela (Mountain View); running back/receiver Bob Enquist (St. Francis High); linebacker Steven Campbell and safety Laurence Tucker (Gunn); and linebacker Matt Power (Homestead). The annual game is named after Charlie Wedemeyer, the former football coach at Los Gatos High who suffers from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The game is also known as the Silicon Valley Youth Classic.