5 EA players compete in annual All-Star football game

Five Escambia Academy seniors ended their high school football careers on top on Dec. 2 in the 2016 Alabama Independent School Association All-Star Football Game at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery.

Cameron Armentor at center; Trae Lee at defensive and offensive tackle; Kainoa Gumapac at defensive back and quarterback; Kris Brown at running back; and Thomas Knight Jr. at offensive and defensive line helped lead the West to a 33-30 victory over the East.

“I’m proud of the boys, they played well,” EA head football coach Hugh Fountain said. “Kris got MVP honors, and that’s big for him.”

Fountain, who served as one of the West team’s coaches, said Gumapac played hard and hustled for the team.

“He did his job well,” Fountain said.

Fountain said Lee and Knight, along with Armentor, played well, too.

After feeling each other out in the first quarter, the West drew first blood on a 2-yard touchdown run from Autauga Academy’s Derrick Dunigan Jr. with 7:55 left on the clock. Gumapac’s extra-point try was no good.

The East answered rather quick on its next offensive series with a 2-yard touchdown rush from Lowndes Academy’s Brandon Reid.

Brown, who earned West team Most Valuable Player honors, found Monroe Academy’s Andrew Lambert on 50-YARD flee-flicker with 1:19 left in the first. The West led 13-6 going into the second.

East MVP Malik Lyons of Chambers Academy answered with a rushing touchdown with 10 minutes left in the first half, and with a 2-point conversion by Chambers Academy’s Brock Ennis, the East led 14-13.

The West settled in and Brown took over as he returned an 88-yard kick off return for a touchdown 17 seconds later. With the 2-point conversion by Pike Lib’s Tyler Housey, the West took a lead it would never give up.

Throughout the game, Gumapac and Marengo Academy’s Robert Tutt switched offensive play calling. Armentor and Knight were on the line with Tutt.

Lee had defensive duties.

Tutt found his Marengo teammate Weldon Aydelott for a 56-yard TD pass with 8:11 left in the half, and Dunigan punched another in from 1 yard to give the West a 33-14 lead at the break.

After being held scoreless in the third, the East went on to outscore the West 16-0 in the fourth on a 4-yard run from Bessemer Academy’s Thomas Sims, and a 22-yard pass from Lyons to Sims with 1:01 to go.

The West held out in the end and because the game got a little chippy, the referees called an end to the game with 1 minute left.