Five St. Joseph Knights named to FCA All-Star Football Classic

Posted: Mar 19, 2013 6:29 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Mar 19, 2013 8:52 PM

Five St. Joseph players named to FCA All-Star Football Classic

KSBY has partnered with the Central Coast's Fellowship of Christian Athletes to sponsor the third annual FCA All-Star Football Classic. The game pits the best seniors from Northern Santa Barbara County against the best from San Luis Obispo County.

Every Tuesday, KSBY will announce players, who have been selected to participate in the third annual game.

The announcements kickoff at Honda of Santa Maria with the Pac-7 League champion St. Joseph Knights. Running back Scotty Cusack, wide receiver Zak Karsh, defensive back Chas Brannon and linemen Eddie Araujo and Lucas Rantz are the first five players named to the Northern Santa Barbara County squad.

Last season, Northern SB County beat SLO County 27-14 to earn bragging rights for the second year in a row. The Knights plan to make it a three-peat.

" I want to win extremely bad. It's going to be one of my last football games I get to play in. It's definitely a big deal just to show people that definitely our side is the better, most athletic side," said Cusack, who was named the Pac 7 League's Offensive Back of the Year after he rushed for 891 yards and 12 touchdown runs to go with 38 catches for 658 receiving yards and 6 TD catches. He also had 494 kickoff return yards and returned three kicks for touchdowns.

After watching the first two games, Karsh said he was excited to play against the best of the best. "I remember my sophomore, junior year we kept saying 'Oh I can't wait for the All-Star Game.' It's going to be so much fun with all our friends we grew up playing with and actually be on the same team. I'm excited," added Karsh, an All-League Second Team Offense pick. He caught 36 passes for 513 yards and 5 touchdowns to go with 197 punt return yards and 2 punts returned for touchdowns.

Brannon made 4 catches for 36 yards, but earned All-League Second Team Defense honors for his 96 tackles and 6 interceptions. Araujo and Rantz were anchors on the offensive and defense lines for the Knights, who captured a share of the program's first ever Pac 7 League title.

The Knights are partnered with Honda of Santa Maria. The dealership donated $2,500 to go toward the $20,000 car raffle prize. "What's great is the teams go out and do the work, they go out and sell the tickets along with the parents and so they earn the money and keep 100 percent of the proceeds that they get. Santa Maria and the whole Central Coast is great about supporting high school athletics and we just want to be a part of that," Pat Cusack, a partner at Honda of Santa Maria and proud parent of Scotty.

All proceeds from the game go to the athletic departments at the fourteen participating schools. In two years, the FCA All-Star Classic has raised more than $280,000.

For more information on the FCA All-Star Classic click here.