By Don Ketchum

Ever since he was a small tadpole, Spencer Hess has enjoyed working hard and playing football.

On Saturday, he represented his Salome High Frogs in a big way, rushing for 122 yards and a touchdown to help the Blue edge the Red 38-36 in the Class 1A eight-man All-Star Game at Surprise Stadium.

Hess is being a bit generous to himself when he says he is 5-feet-9 and weighs 175 pounds. He used every bit of energy in earning the game’s Most Valuable Player award.

“it feels great to win the award,’’ he said. “Playing at Salome, I worked hard but we didn’t see a lot of results. It was good to have the hard work pay off in a game like this.’’

Hess’ dad, Kevin, pushed him in the weight room. And Spencer worked hard in the classroom, earning an academic scholarship to Arizona Western junior college in Yuma.

The All-Star experience will be something he will remember for a long time.

“It was great how we came together. We became like brothers in just two days,’’ Hess said.

The Red took an 8-0 lead with 5:55 left in the first quarter on a 3-yard run by Elfrida Valley Union’s Randy Landwerlen, who had 92 yards for the day.

The Blue scored its first touchdown with 7:57 left in the first half on a 56-yard pass from Bagdad quarterback Zach Loveall to Trevor Hook of Phoenix Valley Lutheran. The Blue took its first lead with 3:38 left in the half on a 37-yard pass from Loveall to St. David’s Paul Kartchner.

The Red got the momentum right back on a 95-yard kickoff return by Ajo’s Austin Wells.

With just 5.7 seconds left in the half, the Blue got the lead back on a 13-yard pass from Loveall to Kartchner.

Loveall scored on a 6-yard run with 10:27 left in the third quarter after his teammates stripped a Red player of the ball on the second-half kickoff and recovered the fumble.

Bagdad’s Rudy Sandoval booted a 47-yard field goal to give the Blue a 31-16 lead with 5:10 left in the third. It would be a key element to the Blue’s victory.

The Red closed to within 31-22 on a 22-yard pass from Heber Mogollon quarterback J.T. Maner to Mogollon teammate Dan Gaylor.

Hess capped a 65-yard scoring drive with a 3-yard TD run with 11:16 left in the game.

Landwerlen scored on a 7-yard run with 5:47 left in the game to make it 38-28. After a brilliant catch by Wells completed a 40-yard gain to the 3, Landwerlen scored again from the 3 and Maner ran for the conversion to make it 38-36 with 37.2 seconds left.

The onside kick by the Red went out of bounds and the Blue ran out the clock.

“That team (Red) has a lot of great athletes and we knew they weren’t just going to roll over,’’ said Blue head coach Bob Wolf of Valley Lutheran.

“It was a great week for us and the guys worked hard to win. I’ve coached against Spencer and Zach for four years and it was always a battle, so it was good to be on the same side for a change.’’