Jackson, West extend win streak over East in CHaD All-Star Football Game (video)

MANCHESTER – Cody Jackson heard a few days before practice started for the CHaD East-West All-Star Football Game that he might end up being the only healthy quarterback on the West roster.

It turned out to be true, and with the opportunity to play the entire game, he made the most of it.

Jackson passed for over two hundred yards while throwing for a touchdown and running for another to help lead the West to a 27-14 win over the East in the annual game held at Saint Anselm College’s Grappone Stadium.

It was the sixth straight win in the series for West and its 11th win in 14 overall meetings, with Jackson (Nashua South) earning Bo Dickson MVP honors.

“He’s dynamic,” West co-coach Robin Bowkett (Souhegan) said of Jackson. “Keeps plays alive with his feet, throws a great ball. You just saw his confidence go up throughout the week. His thing is, too, he didn’t get too high, he didn’t get too down. He was even keel the whole time. He’s a winner.”

Jackson finished 19 of 28 for 238 yards with a touchdown and an interception while also rushing for 39 yards and a score. Josh Tripp (South) caught seven passes for 99 yards while Cayden Dine (Merrimack) had four catches for 36 yards and a score.

Sam Levine (South) added 67 yards and a touchdown on the ground and Shea Scott (Merrimack) also had a rushing score to go with 34 yards.

“I think just the brotherhood that we build in a week,” Jackson said of what led to West’s success. “Everybody’s playing for each other. Nobody’s being really selfish or getting mad at each other. We’re just holding each other up.”

It wasn’t a surprise to the quarterback, who grew up in Merrimack, that he was able to connect with his friends and former teammates.

“It was like a blast from the past,” Jackson said. “Just playing with a lot of them again, it was great. I’ve been looking forward to this because I played with those kids my whole life.”

Adrian Cruz (Londonderry) had 70 yards rushing for the East, including a 52-yard touchdown run with 9:34 left to play that finished out the scoring for the night. Andy Brown (Portsmouth) also had a 22-yard touchdown run while going 7 of 16 passing for 93 yards.

Robert Durkin (Windham) had a big game on defense for East, recording 18 tackles, including three sacks, and a forced fumble. Joseph Osanya (Pinkerotn) also had 18 tackles and James Caruso (Pinkerton) had 15.

West received the opening kickoff and started driving, but the game was stopped for a weather delay just seven plays and 2:11 in. After a 40-minute delay, West resumed the drive, but turned the ball over on downs at the East 4-yard line.

East got down the field quickly, thanks to a 29-yard run by Jordan Zannini (Salem) and a 45-yard completiong from Brown to Michael Santosuosso (Timberlane).

Two plays later, Zannini took a short pass from Brown down to the West 3, but the drive stalled and a 22-yard field goal attempt by Sully Duffy was wide right.

West’s ensuing drive ended when Jackson was intercepted by J-veion Teeter (Londonderry), but the East was forced to punt from its own 13. Starting at the East 45-yard line, West needed seven plays to find the end zone on a 1-yard run by Jackson for a 6-0 lead with 7:59 left in the half.

After a three-and-out by East, West capped an 18-play, 62-yard drive with Jackson’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Dine. The quarterback then ran in the conversion to make it 14-0 with nine seconds left in the half.

“We came up short (on the first drive), but we still drove the ball all the way down there,” Bowkett said. “We had more drives where we had like 15, 16, 17 plays. At the end of the day, we just stuck with what we were doing.”

On the first play of the third quarter, West’s Davey Durepo (Trinity) picked off a pass from Sean Griffin (Winnacunnet) and returned it to the East 18. Four plays later, Levine scored from 1 yard out for a 20-0 lead.

Brown answered on the next possession, getting East on the board, but Scott’s 1-yard touchdown run with 30 seconds left in the third put West back up by three scores.

After the long touchdown run by Cruz, East got the ball back with 5:06 remaining, but ended up turning it over on downs with 2:47 remaining and West was able to run out the clock.