Ferguson leads South to Victory in the 10th Varischetti All-Star Game, Watch the game here!
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Phil Myers | June 28, 2025
Scoring in every quarter the South dominated the 10th annual Frank Varischetti All-Star game, winning 45-6. It was the most lopsided win of the ten all-star games played thus far. The 45 points scored by the South is the most points scored by one team to date. With that win, the South evened the series at 5 games apiece.
Central Clarion’s Jase Ferguson led the way passing for 204 yards and two touchdowns by completing 7 of 12 passes. Ferguson also ran for a 10-yard score. Owen Bish of Union/AC Valley played quarterback for most of the second half for the South and ended up being the top rusher of the game with 63 yards on 8 carries. He contributed two touchdowns to the cause, both on the ground. Running back Braden Slater, one of Karns City’s representatives, had a nice game too as he scored a touchdown on a 3-yard run, was 4 for 4 in PATs, and kicked a 22-yard field goal.
The South, coached by Brandon Snyder of Punxsutawney, also played a smothering defense that held the North to minus 4 total yards in the first half and 142 for the game. In fact, the North could not get their running game going at all. For the game the North rushed for a minus 32 yards on 31 tries. Only 13 of the 31 rush attempts gained positive yardage for the North. The South also registered 8 sacks for the game.
“I think we played pretty well,” said Coach Snyder, “we came out fast, we got all these great wide receivers, and Jase Ferguson – it was fun with them on your team.” Snyder added, “as a quarterback being able to run the ball the way those two do, it’s hard to defend.” He was talking about Ferguson and Bish.
The game began as a defensive struggle as both teams failed to even get a first down on their opening two possessions. But after that it was all South. The game’s first scoring drive started with a Jesse Siwiecki 26-yard punt return to the North 42 after the North punted on their third possession. From there Ferguson ran for 14 yards and followed that up with a 28-yard touchdown toss to his fellow Central Clarion teammate, Jesse Siwiecki.
It only took the South four plays to score the next time they had the ball. The first play was a perfect strike Ferguson threw to DuBois’ Nathan Kougher down the sideline for 54 yards. Three plays later and with 31 seconds left in the opening quarter, Slater scored on a 3-yard jaunt into the endzone. Slater’s pair of point afters made it 14-0 the South after one period of play.
In the second quarter Ferguson threw a 3-yard scoring pass to another Central Clarion teammate, Kohen Kemmer. Then with 1:23 left in the half Ferguson scored on his 10-yard run. A bit of trickery was used for the two-point conversion as Ferguson handed the ball to Redbank’s Drew Byers, who handed the ball to Carter Vos of DuBois, who pitched the pigskin to Ferguson in the endzone. That put the South up 29-0 at halftime.
The only score of the third quarter was Slater’s field goal. In the fourth quarter, Bish scored two more touchdowns for the South. But sandwiched in between was the North’s only score. That happened when Talan Reese of Bradford threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Koby Shepard of Cameron County to finish off the 6-play 62-yard drive.
Reese got off to a slow start but came back with a nice performance in the second half. He ended up throwing for 174 yards, the majority of those yards coming in the third and fourth quarters.
Ferguson was the South’s offensive MVP and yet another Central Clarion teammate, Braylon Beckwith, was the defensive MVP for the South. The North’s offensive MVP was Shepard as he caught 4 passes for 71 yards and the only North score of the game. Johnny Varischetti was the defensive MVP for the North squad. Varischetti and Shepard both had fun even though their team lost. They said that they made some really good friends during the week.
Coach Snyder also stated, “the best part of it is you know how good of an athlete these guys are, how good of a football player they are, the fun part is learning who they are as a person, seeing their personalities. It was a blast. I had a real fun time this week.”
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