21st March 2001 - USA Allstars defeat London Capitals 18-0 in
International Under-19 Challenge matchIn the midst of rain and snow storms
the All Stars and the Capitals were honoured to have the game opened by His Grace the
Mayor of Haringey, Herbert Brown. The Capitals won the toss and elected to receive. The
Capitals opened with star RB Adam Seoudy up the middle for 5 yards, sadly for the Caps
Adam suffered the only significant injury of the day, a hairline fracture to the leg, and
had to sit on the sidelines. On the next play QB Aaron Griffith was looking for WR Dan
Watt in the flat. "I've never seen a rotating zone before, except on TV. I never
expected the LB to come in from there," said the Caps QB.
Aaron Leiber (MM Academy and All Stars defensive Player of the Match) stepped up and
ran the interception back 29 yards to open the scoring. The AllStars went for the 2 point
conversion but the Caps defence held. On the next kick off disaster struck again for
the Caps as the kick return was fumbled. Scrambling in the mud the All Stars recovered the
ball on the Capitals' 15. It took them 6 plays before Scott Williams (Granite City CA)
found Robert Garza in the back of the end zone for the score. Again the All Stars tried
for the two point conversion and, again, the Caps defense was resolute. Being
behind 12-0 after two minutes might have daunted most teams but the Capitals rose to the
occasion. They stayed composed and put together a decent drive behind the running of
Capitals Offensive player of the
match, Peter Trathen. Unfortunately the back-up Capitals center found the inclement
conditions too much and bobbled the snap, recovered by the All Stars nose tackle Sonny
Bargas (Odem Owls, Texas). From their own 30 the All Stars mounted their most
impressive drive. Twice faced with 4th and long they gambled and succeeded. On 3rd and 7
from the Cap's 25 Scott Williams called his own number and literally danced his way to the
end zone. Capitals Linebacker Josef Khasar says, "Scott was the hardest hitter
on the field."
The Capitals defence held and again stopped the two point conversion attempt. The
Capitals offence continued to struggle but the defence had finally learned to adapt to the
zone blocking techniques of the AllStars. As All Star head coach Pete Padilla said,
"We hit them with everything we got. We owed it to our boys and to the Capitals to
give them our best effort." The Capitals' defence held for the rest of the day and
kept the All Stars out of the end zone. Included was a series of 4 plays from the
Capitals 3.
Stephon Healey, Capitals Head Coach said, "When we played contain properly and
clogged the middle we were able to hold them. We could match them on size and speed but we
couldn't match them on technique on every play. Ben Giff, (Capitals Defensive man of the
Match) our safety, led the way and provided a good example with some excellent tackling.
It was fun and an honour to play against a team of athletes like this. Good athletes and
good sportsmanship are what make this sport great."
The Rt. Hon. David Lammey came to the banquet following the match and presented the match
award trophies. He spoke about the importance of sports to the community and to young
people and re-avowed his commitment to bringing sports back to the schools. On
accepting the Challenge Cup coach Pete Padilla said, "This was a good win for us
against a good football team. It's a testament to the All Stars players home town coaches
that we were able to do this well. A lot of our players had never been out of their home
towns before now. It was great of the Capitals to provide them with a truly memorable
experience of fun and good fellowship to take home with them, memories and experience they
will take with them through out their lives."
