Gold team 37, Red team 34 — Rapid Recap
The Gold team (Northampton County, Palisades and Phillipsburg) rallied from a 22-7 deficit to beat the Red team (Lehigh, Carbon and Monroe counties) 37-34 in the 47th Annual McDonald's Lehigh Valley All-Star Football Classic on Thursday night at Nazareth's Andrew S. Leh Stadium.
Turning point: The Gold team took a 37-34 lead with 40 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Freedom quarterback Joe Young hit Bethlehem Catholic's Nick Petros for a 12-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-34. The score was set up by a 34-yard pass from Young to Petros. Becahi's Randy Terry gave the Gold team a three-point lead with a two-point conversion run.
Top performers: Young completed 7 of 14 passes for 101 yards and ran for 51 yards in the game. He had a 30-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, caught a 19-yard touchdown on a throwback pass from Easton's Ben Nimeh in the second quarter, ran for a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game 28-28 in the fourth quarter and then gave the Gold team the lead with the pass to Petros with 40 seconds left.
Petros caught four passes for 97 yards and a touchdown for the Gold team. Terry rushed for 85 yards on 15 carries. Nimeh had the 19-yard touchdown pass and caught a 22-yard touchdown from Northampton's Colin Schucker in the third quarter.
Pleasant Valley's Mike Mitchell caught seven passes for 151 yards and ran for 46 for the Red team. He had a 5-yard touchdown run and a 22-yard touchdown catch from Palmerton's Garrett Perschy in the first quarter. East Stroudsburg South's Jake Cirillo passed for 158 yards and a touchdown for the Red team.
Perschy went 6-for-9 passing with 67 yards and two touchdowns, including a 40-yard throw to Palmerton teammate Mike Stasko to give the Red team a lead with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter.
Allentown Central Catholic's Ethan Persa passed for 91 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown to Southern Lehigh's Tim Walter to give the Red team the lead with 11:50 left in the fourth quarter.
East Stroudsburg South's Dakota Kross had 62 yards receiving for the Red team.
Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshFolck. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.