The first Good Samaritan Bowl, played at the Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD pitted high school stars from the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas against one another. The West squad was quarterbacked by VT signee Ike Whitaker, who was under pressure all game and had a bad night: 4-of-23 with three interceptions. The East squad was headlined by a Maryland signee and former VT recruiting target, DT Melvin Alaeze.

With I-95 basically being the dividing line, the East squad consisted mainly of players from the eastern Maryland suburbs and Baltimore area while the West consisted of western Maryland suburbs, inner-city DC, and northern Virginia. The East squad was noticeably larger with a full 44 participants whereas the West squad only had 32 players. To be successful, the bowl game will have to be able to recruit the more notable players from northern Virginia in the future to have a balanced game (only a couple of Virginia players participated). This game was basically an eastern vs. western Maryland all-star game.

The Naval Academy Stadium made a nice venue for the all-star game. However, the crowd was sparse with maybe 2000 fans attending. As would be expected, the first game was fairly chaotic with a number of initial penalties for illegal substitutions and illegal procedures. The game had the typical all-star game rules, such as only four players were allowed to rush (for both passing plays as well as punts and field goals), and considerable substitutions, including many players appearing on both offense and defense.

The effort was excellent for a game without natural rivalries, but the execution was inconsistent. In general, the quality of play in this game was a bit lower than the more mature all-star games, such as the Virginia High School Coaches Association and North Carolina Shrine Bowl games.

The East squad was obviously deeper and had superior talent at wide receiver and the secondary. Also, the East defensive line, led by Melvin Alaeze, created constant problems for the West offense. The East won 35-23, but the game was not really that close. The West squad was scrappy but simply outmanned and the superior talent and numbers on the East led to a fairly easy victory.

The East squad started fast, scoring on a nice 66 yard bomb from QB Andrew DePaola to
WR Eric Westbrooks, but the extra point from Chris DeSautels was wide, leaving the East with a 6-0 lead. The West came right back driving down the field, keyed by a pretty 34 yard pass from Ike Whitaker to WR Scot Riddell, only to miss a short field goal by Nick Scrivens.

The West defense held on the next possession and, after a short punt, got excellent field position. After a short drive, keyed by a couple of pass interference calls, RB Matt Castor punched it in from 5 yards out and Scrivens hit the extra point for a 7-6 West lead.

The West got the ball right back after a fumble caused by a big hit by DE Andre Graham at the 6 yard line. The East defense held and the West had to settle for a short field by Scrivens to take a 10-6 lead.

The East rallied and drove the length of the field for a short field goal by DeSautels, closing the gap to 10-9. The key play on the drive was a 41 yard completion from QB Cory Yates to Westbrooks, who made a nice grab in traffic. The West lost a big play on a 60 yard interception return by Alfonzo Griffin when UVa signee Kevin Crawford was called for roughing the passer. The East lost a touchdown when a 9 yard scoring pass from Yates to Westbrooks was called back after a holding penalty.

The East got the ball right back after Scot Riddell fumbled after catching a short pass. CB Jamari McCollough supplied the big hit and FS Andrew Azodeh, who was also in on the hit, recovered the fumble. After a couple of nice runs, WR Evan McCollough scored from 10 yards out on a nicely set up reverse. DeSautels hit the extra point and the East led 16-10.

The West offense continued to struggle, turning the ball over again. LB Victor McCray intercepted an underthrown pass by QB Keith Ricca and returned it about 30 yards. Chris DePaola scored on a 12 yard bootleg for the East, showing good speed to get to the corner. DeSautels kick was blocked and the East began to pull away 22-10.

The West came right back though, keyed by a nice 46 yard pass from Ricca to WR Salim Koroma. Matt Castor plowed in from 2 yards out and Scrivens converted the extra point to bring the West back to 22-17.

The East bounced back, scoring quickly on a 68 yard pass from Cory Yates to Westbrooks. Westbrooks got behind the secondary and Yates threw a beautiful pass giving the East a 28-17 lead. The conversion failed, but the East seemed to be in control.

Two more West drives were stopped by turnovers before the half. Jamari McCollough intercepted an underthrown Ike Whitaker pass returning it about 35 yards, but the East drive stalled. The West drove right back keyed by an impressive 64 yard run by Matt Castor. The drive ended when Ike Whitaker’s pass was intercepted by Aaron Hicks at the goal line. The East led 28-17 at the half in an exciting, wide-open game.

Play in the second half became much more conservative, with the East establishing a running game behind Morgan Green. Early in the half, the East drove down the field on some nice sweeps by Green culminating in a 2 yard run. Desauntels kicked the extra point and the East took a commanding 35-17 lead.

The West struggled on offense but did have a couple of nice catch-and-runs from James McDonald – one on a screen from Ricca and another on a “jump ball” from Whitaker. Back-to-back sacks by Melvin Alaeze and Anthony Perkins stopped the West’s most effective drive. The East’s defensive line, led by Alaeze, began to take control of the game. The third quarter ended with the East still leading 35-17.

The fourth quarter was dominated by the defenses, with the West’s best offensive play being a nice 14 yard pass-and-catch over the middle by high school teammates Ike Whitaker and Darren Brownlee. The West scored on a punt snap that sailed over Chris Desautels head and was recovered by C.J. Herbert. The touchdown was a nice reward for Herbert, who had the difficult task of blocking Melvin Alaeze for most of the game. The West failed to convert a two-point conversion, leaving the score at 35-23. The game ended on a nice interception and return by the West’s Justin Hamilton, who was just tripped up by the last man between him and the goal line.

One incident that occurred late in the game detracted from an otherwise cleanly played game (some trash talking but nothing excessive). The West had a sweep go into the West sideline with lineman Augustus Parrish pursuing the play for the East. Apparently Parrish was punched by a West player on the sideline and he became extremely irate, having to be assisted to his sideline by most of the coaching staff and other players. After the game ended the teams lined up for the traditional handshake, but Parrish, when he came up to Kevin Crawford, threw a punch. The coaches quickly diffused the situation and led Parrish off the field, but the lack of sportsmanship certainly detracted from the “Good Samaritan” Bowl.

The bowl named Eric Westbrooks as the MVP, which was certainly not a surprise. Normally, all-star games name offensive and defensive MVPs for each team, but the Good Samaritan Bowl did not, so I will instead. Westbrooks had a huge game with 175 yards on 3 catches with 2 touchdowns (and another called back), so he certainly deserved the East Offensive MVP. The Defensive MVP was Melvin Alaeze with one sack (for a 16 yard loss) and numerous hurries. He forced the East to change their blocking schemes and limited their play calling in trying to handle him. The West Offensive MVP was running back Matt Castor, who scored two touchdowns and had an impressive 64 yard run. He also helped block Alaeze for much of the game and is one tough football player. The West Defensive MVP was a more difficult choice, but I will go with Joe Taylor, the middle linebacker who played a solid game with a couple of tackles for loss.

Overall, the Good Samaritan Bowl has some kinks to work out for it to be a successful all-star game in the future, but for a first effort they did a nice job. Obviously, they need to receive more commitment from the participants so that the numerous roster changes this year don’t occur in future games. Also, more support will be needed from northern Virginia to provide some equity in talent for the game, since the West squad was clearly outmanned. I’m not convinced that the East/West division is the best way to go, but unless the Virginia schools become committed to the game, there is likely no other choice.

Ike Whitaker (West #11, listed as #1, 6-5 205), from Northwest High School in Gaithersburg, MD, was the biggest-name player in the game and he showed that he deserved the publicity, despite sub-standard statistics. The future Hokie was selected as a captain for the West and finished the game 4-23 for 88 yards, 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Not a great performance by Whitaker, but he was under constant pressure and, frankly, his receivers were seldom open. Of Whitaker's incompletions, about 6 were catchable and another 6 or so were thrown away. Also, the East was called for 3 or 4 interference penalties, negating potential big plays.

Whitaker has all of the physical tools needed for a D-1 quarterback - great size, athletic ability, and arm strength. He has the ability to scramble and shows some decent speed, though he is not overly elusive. He has a strong arm and shows good touch when he sets himself. In the first quarter Whitaker made a nice pass to Scot Riddell on a deep out, showing good touch while still having some zip on the pass. He also throws a nice deep pass, barely missing a couple of long throws. However, Whitaker tends to throw the ball into a crowd too much and needs to improve his decision making. He is a competitor and he tried to make plays even when nothing was available, though generally he tried to keep the ball away from defenders.

When pressured, Whitaker throws the ball off of his back foot and his passes tend to hang. All of his interceptions came on touch passes he underthrew because he didn’t set himself properly. Whitaker reminds me somewhat of Chris Rix from Florida State in that both are big, athletic quarterbacks with good tools, but sometimes they make questionable decisions and tend to throw off their back foot when pressured. Whitaker will need to work with Kevin Rogers on his mechanics, but all of these problems are correctable. You could see that he is a competitor and showed good toughness and leadership ability, so I believe he has the potential to be an excellent quarterback after a couple of years of coaching.

The following links provide some commentary on the individual players. I listed the player numbers (as best that I could tell), since the program listings were generally incorrect, so if you catch the replay on Comcast Sports, Thursday at 7:00PM, you can have better luck than I did trying to track the players.