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GREENSBORO - If you're looking for a reason soccer hasn't caught on in America, blame the numbers. Or the lack thereof.

In a sporting culture fraught with bloated home run totals, basketball players whose height measurements read like blueprints and a legion of fantasy football gearheads who can tell you every statistical oddity that helped them beat Bob from Accounting in last year's playoffs, there's very little room for the intricacies of a sport whose box scores often read like binary code.

Well, Tuesday at UNCG Soccer Stadium was going to be different. The annual East-West All-Star soccer game fields the best graduating high school talent in the state, and it usually produces enough fireworks to make everyone forget about their 4th of July plans.

Two years ago, the West team had six goals by halftime.

Ahem. Emphasis on usually. This year produced the first scoreless tie in the event's 17-year history, a 0-0 draw that even the players were surprised about afterward.

"It's an All-Star Game, so it's supposed to be pretty hot," West midfielder Thomas Driver of Grimsley said.

"But you have the best defenders in the state, too," said fellow Grimsley alum David DuPont, a defenseman for the West. "I guess defense beats offense."

The game had only ended in a tie once before, a 1-1 draw in 1999. Only twice had one team or the other been shut out. The East didn't register a shot on net until the game's final 10 minutes and had two for the game. The West had 13 shots overall but only six were on net and very few were serious threats to dent the scoreboard.

Kingsley McLeod had the East's best chance in the 48th minute when he dribbled in from the left side, juked his defender and fired past an outstretched Collin Taylor. The ball rolled just wide of the far post.

In the 52nd minute, the West's Matt Horn almost scored on a low rocket from just outside the top of the box. Tim Johnson made a sprawling dive to his left to snare it. Johnson averted another crisis in the 67th minute when he stopped a shot from the right side, then watched as Sven Picton's point blank, empty net-bound rebound deflected off a defender and out of bounds.

Picton earned MVP honors, presumably for coming closest to waking up the scoreboard operator.

"I was really disappointed some of those didn't go in," West defender Jack McGuinn, a Ragsdale alum, said. "My heart dropped a little bit."

Here's how strange it was. Former Southwest Guilford goalkeeper Peyton Ford played more than 41 minutes in net and didn't have to stop a single shot.

"Both back lines played really well," said Ford. He'll be on scholarship for UNCG's soccer team come fall, and he's hoping to be back in that goal box again real soon.

"The atmosphere is really nice here," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

McGuinn will attend N.C. State this fall, DuPont is heading for UNC and Driver will try to walk-on the soccer team at UNC-Wilmington.

"Coming down the wire, you get that adrenaline going and you want to put one in," Driver said. "We definitely had plenty of chances. We just needed to finish better."

Tom Keller can be reached at 373-8034 or tom.keller @news-record.com.

Goals: None. Assists: None. Shots: East 9, West 13. Saves: East 6 (Visili Dimopolous 5, Tim Johnson 1); West 2 (Collin Taylor). Corner kicks: East 5, West 4.