The Kansas City Star
June 18, 1999
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Section: SPORTS
Page: D9

Kansas stars win in two OTs Missouri's chances in intense game end with fumbled snap
Author: JENNI CARLSON; The Kansas City Star

Helmets crashed, comments flew, tensions rose.

An all-star game? Try all-out war.

Thursday's Metro Classic football game went from a friendly rivalry between the Kansas and Missouri All-Stars to a fierce battle.

Of course, that will tend to happen when teams struggle and fight and then have to go to overtime after missing field goals in the final minutes of regulation.

"At the end, you didn't think about playing with a bunch of different guys," Blue Valley wide receiver Jason Davis said. "You just play with your team, and you just play to win."
And that's exactly what Davis and his Kansas All-Star teammates did. They defeated Missouri 21-20 in double overtime at the Blue Valley District Activities Complex.

Davis caught the game-winning 8-yard touchdown pass from Olathe South quarterback Zach Dyer in the second overtime. The touchdown play to the left corner of the end zone was so perfectly executed, so beautifully done, the Kansas All-Stars must have practiced it all week.

Right?

"We set that up in the locker room at halftime," Davis said, smiling.

They did. Really. They just up and asked Kansas All-Stars coach Gene Wier whether they could use it during the second half. But actually, Davis and his buddies from the Blue Valley wide receiver corps ran it all the time. All they had to do was tell Dyer, a Kansas signee, where to throw the ball.

After falling behind 21-14 on the Dyer-to-Davis touchdown, Missouri took possession on the 10-yard line as designated by Kansas state rules. A pass from Rockhurst's T.J. Mandl to Harrisonville's Travis Ware set up Lee Thompson's 4-yard touchdown run.

"I just wanted to get in the end zone," Thompson said. "I hadn't been able to do that early. I was just trying to win the game any way possible."

Thompson, who amassed more than 6,000 yards during his career at Liberty, scored both of Missouri's overtime touchdowns and finished the game with 148 yards in 23 carries.

"You look at his career and all the yards he's got," Missouri All-Stars coach Tim Dade said, "and I think he does get better as the game goes on."

Missouri wanted to test that durability one last time as it lined up for a two-point conversion, using the same play that Thompson scored on moments before.
But a fumbled exchange, Missouri's sixth turnover of the game, resulted in a Kansas victory, a dogpile and a few heated moments.

"Toward the end there, the intensity picked up," Lee's Summit North lineman Justin Bowser. "We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times. But we were the better team."

Copyright 1999 The Kansas City Star Co.