Blue team members described All-Star game experience after win
The Blue team defeated the Gold team 32-2 Friday night in Newark.
So much happens in the DFRC Blue-Gold pregame that sometimes the football seems almost secondary.
The Delaware Stadium field was strewn with cheerleaders, ambassadors, band members and other participants when the football players joined them on a sultry Friday night.
What followed was the usual potpourri of positive energy for an event that, since its 1956 debut, has raised nearly $7 million to aid cognitively disabled kids while narrowing numerous social gaps and promoting important understanding.
The pregame hug and photo fest between those kids and their game participant buddies was, as usual, a sight to behold, no doubt through misty eyes for many.
Then the football started, and it quickly reminded paying customers that, for all warm and welcoming fanfare, it’s the game that people primarily come to see. The action and drama didn’t wait.
Hodgson cornerback Maki Beach of the Blue made an exquisite pass break-up on the first play. Soon after, the game was briefly delayed as a tear in the Tubby Raymond Field turf was scrutinized and the football simply moved toward the opposite hashmark.
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The Gold team, which planned to run the football to keep possession and eat clock, converted a fourth-and-1 in its own territory, though a subsequent sack by Hodgson’s Rikye Jenkins — later named the game’s top lineman — forced the Gold to punt. That put the ball into the Blue’s hands, and the 68th all-star game’s eventual outcome quickly began to take shape.
The combination of R.J. Matthews’ passing ability and B.J. Alleyne’s running talent was going to be a wicked offensive concoction for the Blue that would severely challenge the Gold. So what did the Blue do in its first play? Matthews handed to Jordan Miller, who ran right before pitching the football to Rahshan LaMons, who tossed it back to Matthews.
Matthews then heaved a pass that Caravel’s Trey Hamlin caught at midfield before speeding to the end zone for a Blue-Gold record 92-yard TD pass.
“My dad had that play drawn up for months,” Matthews said of Rahsaan Matthews Sr., the Howard and Blue offensive coordinator. “The play was supposed to go to Jamal [Johnson of Howard] but Trey was wide open so, gotta improvise.”
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UD police chief Patrick Ogden, stationed on the Blue sideline, immediately phoned his friend Rodney Workman, whose 88-yard throw to Dale Benson for the Gold in the 1982 game had been the record, to inform him it had been eclipsed.
Were we ready for some football? Most certainly, especially on a June night with the next season still more than two months away.
The Blue took a 17-0 lead into halftime, as Tatnall’s LaMons scored on a 5-yard run. Archmere’s Cole Felice, less than a week before he leaves for the U.S. Naval Academy, intercepted a pass and kicked a 36-yard field goal.
But just to remind those in attendance there was still plenty of football left, Matthews opened the second half by throwing a 78-yard TD pass to Hamlin. Public-address announcer Sean Greene immediately informed the crowd that Hamlin had surpassed the Blue-Gold game record for receiving yards, as had Matthews for passing yardage.
A 29-yard interception return for a touchdown by the Blue’s Makeevis Rogers of Newark extended the lead to 29-0 and a fourth-quarter goal-line stand preserved it temporarily before a safety put the Gold on the scoreboard. Felice later kicked another field goal to account for the 32-2 final score.
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While the Blue’s top players came from different high schools, some had played youth football together, including on a Middletown team that won a national title.
“Me and Trey played Little League,” R.J. Matthews said. “We had trained together in [COVID]. He was supposed to come to Howard, ended up going to Caravel. So we told each other we were gonna try to make each other look good because we didn’t get to play together the last four years.”
That mission was accomplished Friday under a full moon at Delaware Stadium, where, as it should, the football was they key ingredient in another memorable night.
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.