LYNN — The Agganis All-Star schedule picked up where it left off the night before with another blowout win, with the North defeating the South, 49-12, Wednesday at Manning Field.
For the first half, the game was dominated by the North. After forcing a three-and-out, the North drove down the field with the help of a long scramble by quarterback Cam O’Brien of Swampscott High.
Marblehead’s George Percy finished off the drive with a TD, and the North never looked back.
As the game drew on, it became the Xaviah Bascon show, and an MVP performance was about to be born. The Swampscott standout was untouchable; on a screen, he took 36 yards to the house.
Bascon was not done there. He sealed the case for MVP after he returned a kickoff 93 yards in response to the South’s first touchdown of the game, courtesy of an excellent read option from Lynn English’s QB Jesse Maggs.
In the blink of an eye, Bascon made the game 21-6 and finished with 114 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
The onslaught continued with scores from O’Brien and Peabody’s Jordan Tompkins to make the game 35-6. Finally, the South responded with a nice run and score from the South’s MVP Piero Canales from KIPP Academy.
Shortly after a touchdown from Ipswich’s David Lonergan, O’Brien sealed the deal with a pick-six, and the North cruised to a victory.
On the team’s preparations, Coach Bob Serino said, “We were not able to scout the South team, but we went in and prepared for almost every aspect of the game and practiced all three phases of the game.”
On the other side, South’s Coach Sean Driscoll attributed the loss to a poor start saying, “We got a slow start, and I think that hurt us, and then the kick return going up by two scores hurt us, but you know what we were a little outgunned speed wise.”
While the South did not get the result they wanted, Driscoll was still proud of how his team competed.
“I am proud of the way our guys hung in there; we knew we were going to have an uphill battle with some of those schools and some of the seasons those kids have had; I am proud of them, though,” he said.
Driscoll added, “They got one more high school game and got to play in the Agganis game, which to me is a great honor.”
