It’s a good evening for QBs

LYNN – Tyllor McDonald and Gino Cohee honored the legacy of Harry Agganis – the local legend who starred for Lynn Classical, BU and the Red Sox, but who died tragically young at 26 in 1955.McDonald led the South all-stars to a 20-8 victory over the North to win his team’s MVP honors. It was the fourth straight win for the South. McDonald finished with 92 all-purpose yards, running for 59 and passing for 33. Also, with his team up 12 late in the fourth quarter, McDonald picked off a pass from Lynnfield’s Cohee (ironically, the North MVP) and electrified the crowd with a sensational return before a penalty nullified it.”Tonight was great,” McDonald said. “There is nothing like getting to play with a group of players who are all on the same level of play and who share the same mentality of wanting to win.””I just want to thank my teammates who played a heck of a game,” he said. “Travonne Berry-Rogers (English), Donato DiPietrantonio (Northeast), Nick McCarthy (Winthrop), Gilbert Brown (Gloucester) and Adam Philpott (Gloucester) all stood out, but the whole team played well.”McDonald will head to California and junior college at Ventura College.”I put in a lot of hard work during high school to get here. It was a great ride,” said McDonald.With a stingy South defense playing at an all but impenetrable level, Cohee found a way to get the North going. With around three minutes remaining in the first half and his team down 12-0, Cohee connected for two long passes.First came a 35-yard bulls-eye to Austin Prep’s Adam Fraser. On the ensuing play, Cohee connected again, this time on a pinpoint 30-yard touchdown pass to Winchester’s Will Herbert.That was all the scoring the North could muster, but it was enough to get Cohee, who finished with the 75 yards, the MVP.”We ran a hitch and go and Herbert did a great job of running under my pass and hauling it in,” said Cohee. “It means a lot to win the award because there were so many great players here tonight, they are all all-stars.”Cohee will head to Pace College (N.Y.) in the fall.On the occasion of the 50th annual Agganis Football Classic, among those attending was a man who played in the original game in 1956: Harold DeMeule of Salem.DeMeule’s Witches had just defeated Beverly that previous week in the annual Thanksgiving game (at the time, the game was played in December), when he was informed by his football coach that he’d been selected to play.”I didn’t even know there was an Agganis game,” said DeMeule, who was introduced to the crowd at halftime. “I knew Harry Agganis more for what he did with the Boston Red Sox, and through BU.”Honestly,” he said, “it was a spur of the moment thing, playing in that game.”However, he still has the original program from the game, as well as the write up that was in The Item the next day.Item sports editor Steve Krause also contributed to this report.