Brad Banas made such an impression during his first few days of football practice in preparation for the Bee-Graphix North-South All-Star Game that his coach couldn't stop talking about him -- even at home.

"He's such a great kid, I even told my wife on Thursday that week, we were talking about him before going to bed," said South Fayette's Joe Rossi, who coached the North All-Stars. "I said, 'This kid's awesome to be around. He's going to play well Saturday night.'

"I saw my wife at halftime, and she was laughing. He already had two touchdowns, and then he scored two more. He was that good."

Banas, who recently graduated from Chartiers-Houston High School, was the star of the game, which was played at South Fayette High School on Saturday. Having played tailback and on special teams Saturday, Banas scored four touchdowns -- two rushing and two passing -- in leading the North team to a 29-18 win. He was named the North team's offensive most valuable player.

"I totally did not expect that," Banas said. "I knew I'd play as hard as I could and the best I could, but there's just so many great kids on the team. I just ended up being the one getting into the end zone. You've got to give a lot of credit to the quarterback [Bethel Park's Erik Olson], and our line was great and even the wideouts were contributing with down-field blocking. There were a lot of good athletes on the team. It was a good time."

Banas might not have expected standing out at the 13th annual all-star contest (formerly known as the Tri-County All-Star Game), but Rossi certainly foresaw him doing so. A four-year starter at Chartiers-Houston, Banas rushed for 1,085 yards for the Bucs during his senior season.

He grew up as a running back and got his first action starting on defense. The Bucs' most dynamic player, he was the team's starting quarterback the past two seasons.

He also is an accomplished kicker and punter and stood out at both in the all-star game.

"The kids come in on Monday, and on that first day after everyone left, as a staff, we kind of evaluated what we wanted to do, and he was our No. 1 kid," Rossi said. "We wanted to get the ball to him; that's all we tried to do ... We did a good job of it.

"He's just an unbelievable player, an impressive kid."

Banas said that the Robert Morris coaches have told him they plan to use him as a linebacker and on a variety of special teams, anything from kicking to punting to coverage to returning. And after his display Saturday, some repetitions on offense seem well within the realm of possibility.

"I'll just fill in wherever is shallow on the depth chart," he said.

Other players honored after Saturday's all-star game included Brandon Schroeder (Canon-McMillan) and Lorenzo Newsuan (Monessen) who were named defensive most valuable players for the North and South teams, respectively. Alex Frey of Trinity was selected as the South offensive MVP.

Also, Bethel Park's Olson had a strong game, throwing the touchdown passes to Banas.

"Erik Olson has a demeanor which is awesome," Rossi said. "He was a joy to coach all week."

"He's a real good kid," Banas said. "I know there were two players from his team who went to the Big 33 [Lyle March and John Schademan], and I even have mentioned to people I thought he could play in that game.

"He was money with his ball, everything was on target with him. I thought all our quarterbacks played extremely well; Olson was just the one who connected with me the most."

Banas said a friendship developed between him and Olson. That won't be the only player from the game that either will keep in touch with.

"A lot of the guys on the team, after the game we made sure we exchanged phone numbers," Banas said. "A lot of the kids will become good friends with each other. After the game, we met up at King's [restaurant in Peters Township]. It was a great experience."

Chartiers-Houston running back Brad Banas scored four touchdowns in the Bee-Graphix North-South All-Star game this past Friday at South Fayette High School.