It’s always great to see the local players get the opportunity to play on a big stage, but it’s even better when they succeed.

Saturday afternoon, that very thing happened.

Pine senior Derrick Dillon, a University of Florida commitment, was on one of the biggest stages, if not the biggest stage, a high school football player can be on.

He participated in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in the Alamodome in San Antonio, playing in front of a crowd of 35,687 people and many more who were sitting at home watching the national telecast on NBC.

According to its website, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl is the nation’s premier high school All-American game. It features the best 90 players in a classic East versus West match up.

Guys like Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck, Arizona cornerback Patrick Peterson, Detroit running back Reggie Bush and Buffalo wide receiver Sammy Watkins have played in this game, just to name a few.

With 11:21 left in the second quarter of Saturday’s game, Dillon had what might be one of his most memorable moments of football.

Dillon ran what he said was a simple wheel route. He got open and caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Brady White.

Dillon finished with three catches for 57 yards in the West’s 39-36 victory.

It was exciting when we found out he was going to be playing in this game.

But it was even more exciting when we saw No. 84 get open, make the catch and run it in for a touchdown on such a big stage.