Joseph, Kelly, Spelman to represent Ohio Northern, team Stars & Stripes at 2012 Tazon de Estrellas in Guadalajara, Mexico

November 27, 2012

By Tim Glon

ADA — Three Ohio Northern seniors will represent their school and Team Stars & Stripes in the fourth annual Tazon deEstrellas all-star football bowl game on Dec. 17 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Offensive guard Tyler Joseph, defensive tackle Cody Kelly and safety Cory Spelman were all selected to play in the game, which pits a team of NCAA Division III All-Stars against a team of Mexican collegiate all-stars.

This year's game will be played at 1 pm EST (Noon CST) at La Fortaleza Azul (The Blue Fortress) in Guadalajara.

A total of 44 players from 26 schools have been selected to play in the game.

Don DeWaard of Central (Iowa) will serve as head coach of Team Stars & Stripes.

Joseph is now a two-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree at right guard, earning Second Team honors in each of the past two seasons.

He has started the last 32 games in the past three years and is also an Academic All-OAC honoree.

Kelly is a three-time All-Conference award winner and is a four-year starter at nose tackle for the Polar Bears.

He was named First team All-OAC as a sophomore in 2010 and was a Second Team honoree in 2011 and 2012.

Kelly has started the last 41 games at nose tackle, making him just one of three Polar Bears to start at least 40 games in his career.

He finished his career ranked No. 10 all-time at ONU with 14.5 career sacks and had 175 tackles in his career.

Spelman is a two-year starter at safety and has started the last 20 games of his career.

He was fourth on the team with 47 tackles this season and ended his career with 128 stops and two interceptions.

Team Stars & Stripes won the 2010 meeting 45-7 in Toluca, Mexico. Former ONU standouts Kyle Simmons, Eric Wenzler and Jesse Richards played in that game.

Josh Horn and Andrew Benchic played in the 2009 game, a 24-12 loss in Atipapan de Zaragosa, and Trygve Henrikson and Chad Coward played last year's game in Cholula (a 45-27 Mexico victory.)

The Polar Bears went 4-6 under ninth-year head coach Dean Paul in 2012.