Heading into Thursday's 44th McDonald's Lehigh Valley All Star Football Classic, the Gold team (Northampton, Palisades and Phillipsburg) had won three straight games, and four of the last five after a 7-7 tie in 2010.

When the game kicked off on Thursday, the Red team (Lehigh, Carbon and Monroe counties) sent a message early on that a reverse in that trend was in store.

In a game that saw Red's duo of quarterback's, Catasauqua's Zach Bradley and Pleasant Valley's Brandon Leap, throw for nearly 600 yards, Red sprinted out to an early 28-0 lead early in the first quarter and never looked back. Red added 27 points in the final half to earn their first victory over Gold since 2008 with a 55-21 at Nazareth High School's Andrew Leh Stadium.

"It was good since the Red team hasn't won in four years," Betz said of the victory. "So it was the first time in four years, which was nice."

Leap completed six of eight passes for 290 yards and three scores, while Bradley tallied 16 completions and four touchdowns for 295 yards.

Betz and Mac Storm were the two Northwestern representatives in the McDonald's Football Classic.

Gold cut Red's lead in half to 28-14 in large part to a rule that forced Red to kick off on all scores while holding a 10-point lead.

But when the second half got underway, Red picked up the final 24 minutes just like the first with some explosive offensive plays.

All four of Red's scores in the first half were passing touchdowns at least 52 yards long. It wasn't that same dynamic blow, but Bradley capped a five-play drive to open the third with a 17-yard score to Catasauqua's Paryss Marshall, his second touchdown of the game, to make it a 35-14. The duo hooked up on a 62-yard strike in the next series to increase their lead to 42-14.

Gold responded after Phillipsburg's Tyler Troxel threw his second touchdown of the game-a 55-yard strike to Nazareth's Max Wasilewski to make it a three-touchdown game.

"It was great to have one more game to play, and leave my high school career on a nice note and getting to play again," Justin Betz said.

But Red's offense, much like how they started the game, proved to be too much for Gold's secondary.

Pocono Mountain West's Amir Blair was responsible for the game's long rushing touchdown, coming with 11:42 to play that doubled-up Red's lead once again. In their next series, Leap capped his day with a 72-yard strike to East Stroudsburg South's Zee Roberson to put Red over the half-century mark with 4:33 to play.

"It was good to see that," Betz said of Red's offense, "because how they were clicking and everything made it so much better."

Despite only a week-and-a-half of practices, Red's chemistry was evident from the early going. It didn't hurt that the Bradley-to-Marshall combo was seen throughout the regular season on a consistent basis, too.

Bradley found Marshall, who finished with five catches for 165 yards and three touchdowns, for their first score on Red's first drive, a 72-yard throw and catch up the left sideline not even four minutes into the game.

Leap then found Roberson (four catches, 133 yards, two touchdowns) for a 52-yard catch-and-run touchdown and Redmond (who finished with 75 receiving and 10 rushing yards) on a 64-yard screen pass not even two minutes apart to make it 21-0 after the first.

Leap then found Southern Lehigh's Jacob Del Priore (three catches, 133 yards, touchdown) for the game's longest score-a 93-yard throw to put Red ahead 28-0.

"It was exciting to meet new people and different playing styles from different conferences and everything like that," Betz said.