Butler stars in 2A/1A/B football game

YAKIMA – Jevon Butler is 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds. Brady Emmons is 3 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter. Switching uniforms was out of the question. But for one play — one very fun play for these two standouts in Saturday’s Earl Barden 2A/1A/B All-Star Football Classic — the two West team stars switched roles.

“I told him, ‘You’ve been getting to the (East) ballcarrier and knocking heads all game long,” Butler said of an on-the-field conversation with less than 2 minutes remaining in the West’s 20-3 victory. “When you get the ball on this play, I’m going to be the guy clearing the way for you.”

Sure enough, on the next play, Emmons — the Meridian linebacker who had been the game’s dominant defensive player — got the handoff. And the guy leading him through the hole was Butler, the Archbishop Murphy star who had scored the game’s three touchdowns and rushed for 138 yards.

“Coach said, ‘We’re going to let Jevon block and you run,’ ” Emmons said. “Jevon was pretty excited about that. And he laid a huge block.”

Emmons used the block to break free on a 22-yard run, nearly going for a touchdown — one that would have mattered very little in the final picture, but that produced as many high-fives and chest-bumps as any play all day.

The game officially ended with the final buzzer three plays later, but it had been all but over from the first West possession of the third quarter. That six-play drive was all on the ground, five Butler power runs sandwiched around a 31-yard burst around end by Ridgefield’s Jonny Peru.

Basically, the West having Peru’s explosiveness — the 5-9, 165-pound slasher picked up 81 yards on a dozen carries — almost made it unfair on East defenders, who had to spend so much effort and use up so many bodies trying to stop Butler.

And they really didn’t stop him.

“He’s a strong kid,” East linebacker Matt Mellor of Colfax said. “You’ve gotta get low if you want to tackle him. And they had a big line blocking for him.”

At one point late in the third quarter, the West had 287 total yards to the East’s 10. The only time the East got close, early in the final period, Tacoma Baptist’s Beau Leaman came up with an interception when a pass from Pullman’s David Cofer ricocheted off the receiver’s shoulder pads.

Jon Dresback of Freeman had 38 yards on four receptions for the East.