Missouri all-stars win football clash
Unlike most of his Missouri teammates, Ezra Vaoifi went into the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association All-Star game last Thursday with the realization that this would be his final football game for a couple of years.
Vaoifi has the talent to play running back at the college level. He showed it his senior year at Fort Osage, and again at the the all-star game that was played at Blue Springs High School.
But Vaoifi is putting his college life on hold. He will spend the next two years doing a Mormon mission.
“I definitely wanted to go out on a good note knowing that I will not have the pads on for the next two years,” Vaoifi said. “I will be talking about church.”
Understandably, Vaoifi was pumped for the all-star game and so were his teammates, who wanted to win for the fourth straight year.
They succeeded with a thrilling, 22-21 come-from-behind victory. The game, though, didn’t start well for Missouri. Kansas scored the first two touchdowns and took a 14-0 lead late in the second quarter.
“We thought we would come out with a spark, but we didn’t have that until the second half,” Vaoifi said.
Actually, Vaoifi ignited the comeback late in the second quarter when he broke free on a 4th and 4 and raced 14 yards into the end zone. Missouri trailed 14-6 at halftime.
Missouri put it altogether in the second half, playing strong defense and solid offense. The winning points came on a safety midway through the fourth quarter, giving Missouri a one-point lead.
This story was originally published June 24, 2014 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Missouri all-stars win football clash."