TAMPA — Landon Galloway and Antonio Joseph may be seeing more of each other.
The two players, who said the Air Force Academy is on their list of potential college choices, teamed to lead the East past the West 14-7 Saturday night in the annual Hillsborough County senior all-star football game. Attendance at Raymond James Stadium was 1,219.
Galloway, the Plant City quarterback, guided the East to the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter — the lone score of the second half — and was selected the team’s most valuable offensive player.
Joseph, a Wharton defensive lineman, earned East defensive MVP honors with three sacks as he helped to hold the West to only 64 yards after it opened the game with an 80-yard scoring drive.
“This is a great group of kids to work with,” said East coach Frank LaRosa of East Bay. “It’s an experience for these guys to play at Raymond James.”
Galloway, who made his debut at Raymond James Stadium eight years ago as a running back for the Plant City Dolphins, accumulated 108 of the East’s 193 yards (73 yards rushing on 12 attempts and 2 for 3 passing for 35 yards). His 17-yard pass to Armwood’s Greg Newton on the first series of the second half led to a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth down by East Bay’s Chris Greene, giving the East the lead for good.
“It’s sad (to play the final high school game),” Galloway said. “But I just knew I had to make the best of the opportunity.”
The West’s lone score came on a 20-yard pass from West offensive MVP Colby Brown of Plant to Jefferson’s Derrick Ingram. Brown completed 9 of 20 passes for 116 yards. He was intercepted once by John Hester of Bloomingdale. Jefferson linebacker Kyle Walker was the West MVP on defense.
“All the hard work in practice paid off,” Joseph said. “To come out here and have three sacks, it feels so good.”
Riverview’s Brandon Stage and Cambridge Christian’s Trevor Smith kicked field goals of 33 and 44 yards, respectively, for the East.