It was Suffolk talent that grabbed the headlines at the recent Nike 757 All-Star Football Classic, which featured some of the area’s best high school football players facing off at Powhatan Field in Norfolk.

King’s Fork High School senior running back Deshaun Wethington and Nansemond River High School senior linebacker Demetrius Stitmon played for the Southside team and were named its Offensive MVP and Defensive MVP, respectively, after they helped lead it to a 9-5 victory over the Peninsula team.

Bulldogs coach Joe Jones, who coached the Southside offensive line, said Dec. 19 was “just a good day for football, and it was a very good showing, I thought, for Suffolk football.”

Nine Suffolk players were invited to participate in the game. The list included Marquis Braimer, Deondre Lacey, Thomas Hopple and Stitmon of the Warriors, Cullen Marshall, John Spearman and Wethington of the Bulldogs, and Daniel Griffith and Cole Christiansen of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.

Griffith chose not to play, and Christiansen could not participate because of a shoulder injury suffered during the Saints’ state championship win.

Describing the experience of the all-star game, Jones said, “It’s a fun time. It’s real low-key and no-pressure, but it turned out to be, I thought, a very good game.”

Yes, it was low-scoring, but Jones noted, “It’s easier to get defense ready in a week than offense.”

These factors only served to highlight Wethington’s production even further — he carried the ball 12 times for 79 yards and scored the game’s only touchdown.

Coach Jones said Wethington “did what he does best. He ran well between the tackles, and he was fired up to show what he could do against some of these teams that he’s never played against, and of course, these teams know what he can do, and he lived up to the billing.”

“It was a great feeling knowing that my talent was recognized out of all the talent that was out there on that field that Saturday afternoon,” Wethington said. “I’m excited and I’m blessed to have that opportunity to have received that honor.”

Also contributing to a low-scoring game was the fact that the Southside defense was stacked with talent, including Lake Taylor High School defensive back Wayne Davis, who has signed to play for Ohio State University and was recently named the Gatorade Virginia Football Player of the Year.

But it was Stitmon of the Warriors who received the team’s Defensive MVP honor after recording six tackles, three for a loss, and two sacks.

“It felt good to be honored,” he said. “I was just blessed to be chosen to be able to come out and play again.”

Stitmon noted the game gave him a chance to see what it took to be an all-star and how much faster the game is with so much talent on the field at once.

Nansemond River coach David Coccoli was pleased with how Stitmon represented the Warriors.

“He played well in the all-star game,” the coach said. “They had him at inside linebacker, but then he really played well when they rushed him off the edge at outside linebacker in a 3-4 (defense). That’s where a lot of schools are looking at him. So, he was excited, and it shows that our talent is just as good as anybody else’s, and it’s good momentum going into the offseason.”

The 757 All-Star Game Group, which put on the event, also handed out four $1,000 scholarships, one of which went to Stitmon.

Darnell Moore of the 757 All-Star Game Group said that to be eligible for consideration, applicants for the scholarship had to have a minimum of an 820 on the SAT and a 2.5 grade point average, they had to write a 300-word essay and they had to have completed some community service.

Regarding Stitmon, Moore said, “He was basically a unanimous choice.”