Tenerella leads West over East in R.I. All-Star Game

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Football in June might not be traditional, but when the pads are on, there’s another team across the line and fans are in the stands, football is still football.

On Saturday, at the Rhode Island Football Coaches Association All-Star Game at Cranston Stadium, the two intra-state teams proved that, when they made the second annual game seem like it was a state championship game and not an exhibition game in the middle of the summer.

After a well-played first three quarters, tempers flared and the game spiraled out of control late in the fourth quarter when a benches-clearing altercation took place on the West sideline after a late hit on Mt. Pleasant running back Randolph Zleh, who was playing for the West.

A scuffle ensued and the referees called the game with just under five minutes to play, giving the West a shortened – but earned – 27-17 victory.

“It was probably the most physical game I’ve ever played in,” said Johnston’s Alex Tenerella.

While the ending put a damper on the game itself, it was certainly exciting up to that point. The game was back-and-forth, with the West taking control in the second half largely due to the electric play of Zleh, who had two touchdowns and was named the West’s offensive Most Valuable Player.

Tenerella, meanwhile, stood out all day long on the defensive side of the ball, as he forced a key second-half fumble coming from the end position and earned the West’s defensive MVP honors for his efforts.

“To be honest, I didn’t really (expect it),” Tenerella said. “I thought other people did better, but I’m not complaining.”

Moses Brown quarterback Eric Cosmopulos was named the offensive MVP for the East and Exeter-West Greenwich’s Carl Neff was the defensive MVP.

Tenerella was joined on the West side by Johnston teammates Robert Martin, Nick Gatta and Richard Conte, who all saw significant time and played key roles in the West’s victory.

It was a unique experience, one that allowed seniors from around the state to team up with their rivals, and also play football one more time before either heading off to college or putting their careers completely to bed.

“It was kind of cool,” Gatta said. “In two weeks we became a family. Kids we hated during the season we became friends with in two weeks.”

The East team looked stronger in the first half, taking a 15-14 lead into the break thanks to a 25-yard touchdown strike from Cosmopulos to Portsmouth’s Travis O’Brien, and another touchdown pass from Cosmopulos, this one from 21 yards away to East Providence’s Austin Baptista.

West’s initial first-half score came in one of most frequent ways points were scored this football season, as the record-setting Cranston East duo of Alex Corvese and Marven Beauvais hooked up for a 21-yard touchdown in the first quarter. They later connected for a 70-yard score on a fade up the left sideline with 7:33 to play that put the West in front 27-17 to stay.

“We were playing teams that we’ve never played before, like Hendricken and kids from those schools,” Gatta said. “We wanted to show what we could do.”

Zleh, meanwhile, provided West’s other points. He scored from 1 yard out in the second quarter to make it 15-14 going into the half, and he gave the West the lead for good early in the second half when he scored on a 49-yard touchdown run in which he made a number of East players miss on his way to the end zone.

Zleh also had two touchdown runs called back, including a 39-yarder in the third quarter in which he juked back and forth along the left sideline, only to see it negated for a holding call.

East’s final points – and only second-half points – came on a safety on the first play of the fourth quarter, when Corvese was taken down in the end zone. That made the score 20-17.

Five minutes later, Corvese’s bomb to Beauvais put the game out of reach, and put the finishing touches on the West win, as the referees ended it just three minutes later.

Still, it was a time that the Johnston quartet won’t soon forget.

“It was a good time,” Conte said. “I’m really happy we did it.”

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