MANCHESTER – Team West, led by game MVP Kyle Ashley of Newport High School, jumped out to a 14-0 in the first quarter and led the rest of the way in a 24-0 shutout win over Team East in the 12th annual CHaD New Hampshire East-West All-Star football game Friday at Saint Anselm College.
However, the true winners were the patients and families at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD) as a total of $285,000 was raised. Team East contributed roughly $36,000 to that figure. It was announced that has been a while that either team had raised $30,000, and both teams surpassed that mark.
“It’s a credit to the kids and what they were able to do and what they were able to accomplish,” Team East and Dover High School head coach Eric Cumba said.
It was also announced that 17 percent of the total fund-raising came from the players. Team West raised near $34,000. In comparison, last year’s game raised $228,000, about $50,000 by the two teams.
“We’ve been saying all week, ‘do it for the kids’, and it’s been sticking with us,” Dover’s Bryce Carberry said. “I guess we didn’t really finish for the kids, but we did it for them and it was fun.”
Team West now leads the series 9-3.
“It was a great experience,” Cumba said, who served as Team East head coach for the first time. “It’s challenging to bring a group of kids together who never played together before, and get them going in the right direction. The game didn’t go our way, but I take the most pride in watching the relationships they built with each other and friendships they’re going to have from this point forward out of this experience.”
Carberry, who finished his senior season on the Division I all-state first team, called it ‘nothing serious,’ but mentioned he was actually born, two months early, at CHaD.
“It’s cool to have that connection to the hospital, and now I’m playing a game here today,” he said.
On Friday, he led Team East with 50 receiving yards.
“I feel like I tried to do what I do,” Carberry said. “Catch the ball, don’t get tackled, go with power, go with strength. Obviously I had my teammates here, Ryder (Aubin) throwing me the ball, (Eric) Cumba and (David) Lopez coaching the offense. It was definitely good that I had my gang with me here today.”
“Bryce is a player we went to the well with at Dover, and we wanted to provide him some opportunities,” Cumba said.
Carberry said it was a surreal opportunity.
“It didn’t end well, but still a fun experience,” he said. “I made so many friends. So many good football players are here;; even though we lost, it was a really fun experience for a good cause.”
Other Seacoast players included Dover’s Orion Jennison-Henderson, Brady McInnes and Kyle Merrill, and Portsmouth/Oyster River’s Angus Moss, Fletcher Miles, Emmanuel Poe, Aidan Thomas and Cole McLaughlin, Spaulding’s Jackson Rup, Zachary Lynch, and Hunter Trueman, Exeter’s Eli and Isaac Beem, Winnacunnet’s Jake Magri, and Somersworth’s Tayshawn Sheppard.
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