By Chris Kinkaid

THE DAILY NEWS

Pine’s Devin Phillips played his final high school football game Saturday in the 77th annual Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls, Texas and finished his high school career with a victory.

Phillips, who graduated from Pine in May, competed at nose guard in a 3-3 defense for the West All-Stars, who captured a 28-0 win over the East Texas All-Stars.

Phillips said it was a fun week, which he said ran smoothly.

“Me and my teammates hung out all week outside of the football field,” Phillips said. “We all got along. We had good team chemistry. We also played as a team.”

Phillips said they practiced twice a day Tuesday-Thursday and then had a walk through Friday and Saturday.

He added that he would miss playing high school football.

“That will be the last time I’m going to get to play high school football,” Phillips said.

Phillips made about seven tackles and added a sack during Saturday’s contest.

“I think my overall play was pretty good. I wasn’t running anybody down, but everytime I had the opportunity for a big play, I made it,” Phillips said.

Phillips is attending Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond this year.

He said he’ll try to walk on with the Lions’ football team.

At SLU, Phillips said he plans on majoring in kinesiology and wants to become an athletic trainer.

The Oil Bowl features about 70 players. Each year, the coaches are selected in December. The coaches then invite the players.

The only people eligible are seniors.

Most of the players are from Texas.

The game also featured one player from Louisiana in Phillips, three from Oklahoma and Arkansas along with Arizona had one each.

Pine reached the playoffs last season as the No. 23 team in Class 2A.

The Raiders lost to 10th seeded Rosepine 51-50 in the opening round.