PORTLAND - Saturday night's Les Schwab Bowl put a fitting capper on the career of three West Albany football players.

Graduated seniors Neil Crook, Scot Foss and Will Murphy helped the South team defeat the North 24-6 in the 6A/5A all-star game in front of 6,567 at PGE Park after winning the 5A state title last December.

The West Albany highlight Saturday came with just a few minutes remaining, when South Medford quarterback AJ Palazzolo hit Murphy for a 66-yard touchdown.

Murphy said he told Palazzolo in the huddle that, although the play was going to the opposite side of the field from where Murphy would line up, the quarterback should look for him.

Murphy ran a slant across the field, from right to left, and caught the ball in stride behind the defense.

"Right before the snap he gave me the hand signal, so I knew it was coming," said Murphy, a first team all-state receiver and defensive back. "It was a great ball and it was there. It just worked out. "

Murphy finished with three catches for 94 yards.

Crook, the two-time 5A defensive player of the year at linebacker, had six tackles. Foss, playing defensive end, had three, including one for a 1-yard loss on a second-quarter running play.

Foss spent his time on the field trying to chase down speedy Grant quarterback Andre Broadous, who kept the ball on a lot of option plays.

On the North's second offensive series, Foss slowed down Broadous just enough and forced him back toward the middle of the field to allow Foss' teammates to make the tackle.

"He's pretty shifty and he got me one time. But that was fun," said Foss, who was a first team all-state selection at tight end and linebacker."

West coach Randy Nyquist was a South assistant and called many of the offensive plays.

"It was fun to come up here and coach a group of athletes with this kind of talent," Nyquist said. "It's tough, too, because the defense has good talent as well."

Nyquist said it was special for him for Murphy to catch the touchdown pass.

"It absolutely couldn't have been any better. That's the cherry on the sundae," he said. "It's awesome that we were able to do that.

"It's real cool that Will came up with that big catch at the end of the game. Neil and Scot played excellent defense all game long. I'm proud of them. I think they do a good job representing our community."

Crook now heads for Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, while Foss and Murphy will join the Western Oregon program later this summer.

In all, there were at least eight players Saturday who will be at Western, including seven on the South squad.

"We've been hanging out between practices, walking to the store with them," Murphy said. "We're all looking forward to it. It should be a great time at Western."

Added Foss: "We all hung out a lot, we got close and we're all looking forward to playing for Western."

The teams spent the week leading up to the game practicing and bonding, including bowling, attending a Portland Beavers baseball game and going to the movies.

"I enjoyed it a lot. It was fun to just meet people from other teams and become a team," Crook said. "We had fun together and it was an enjoyable week."

There were 13 players on the two teams that West Albany had played against in the last two seasons.

Murphy admitted that, coming into the week, there were some players he had competed against that he didn't like.

Though that changed quickly.

"When we come together in the dorm, it's like we've known each other for 10 years," Murphy said.

South 24, North 6

First quarter

S - Ryan Allen (West Salem) 24 FG, 7:51

S - Jordan Bishop (West Salem) 5 pass from Beau Walker (Bend) (Allen kick), 4:41

N - Zach Young (Lake Oswego) 1 run (kick failed), :06

Third quarter

S - Bishop 8 pass from Walker (Allen kick), 9:55

Fourth quarter

S - Will Murphy (West Albany) 66 pass from AJ Palazzolo (North Medford) (Allen kick), 2:27