WHAT A RUSH: North bowls over South in historic Agganis rout

Jun. 30—LYNN — Sometimes it takes months and even multiple seasons of playing together to develop cohesion on the offensive line.

The North all-stars in this year's 60th Agganis football game did it in about a week.

Displaying a ferocious push up front on just about every snap, the North bullied its way to a 49-12 win Wednesday night at Manning Field. It was the most points ever scored by one side in this annual showcase of the North Shore's best and most dedicated senior football players — and also the largest margin of victory, surpassing 1975's 30-point rout.

Xaviah Bascon earned North MVP honors with two touchdowns, 106 yards from scrimmage and over 200 all-purpose yards; KIPP Academy's Piero Canales was the South MVP.

The majority of the Northeastern Conference suited up for the North side under the direction of Bob Serino's Super Bowl winning Swampscott High coaching staff (along with Fenwick's Dave Woods, Triton's Eric Burgos and line specialist Ed Melanson).

The Big Blue's Joe Mignone played some offensive line, Danvers' Evan Glynos opened up some massive holes, Peabody's Peter Gardikas had a great game and was chosen as one of the North's captains, and St. John's Prep linemen Jake Cuddire and Dylan Roberts helped round out the big, physical group along with Hamilton-Wenham's Jackson Dube.

"It was awesome going from being NEC rivals to playing with these guys," said Glynos, a 275-pounder who will play at the University of New England. "We were a solid team from the first snap to the last snap."

Wednesday night's dominance also went from the first snap to the last. North amassed 240 rushing yards on 26 carries, going for nearly 10 yards a pop. The ballcarrier didn't seem to matter: Marblehead's George Percy ran for 89 yards with a first quarter touchdown, Swampscott's Bascon ran for 41 and a score, Big Blue QB Cam O'Brien took one in himself and Peabody's Jordan Tompkins (47 yards on four carries) and Ipswich's David Lonergan (28 yards on two runs) also found paydirt.

"I always felt our coaching staff was the best around and to take a brand new line, in a week-and-a-half, and develop them they way they did proves it," said Bascon. "The blocking was unmatched. Anytime anybody touched the ball, it was 10-plus yards."

An athletic interception by Peabody's Jovante Dailey was one of North's top defensive plays. Fenwick's Chris Faraca had a couple of nice sticks on the defensive line and Peabody's Michael Perez also had a few loud tackles. Percy also played well at linebacker.

North built a 14-0 lead when Bascon took a screen pass from O'Brien (73 passing yards) 36 yards to the house. He patiently cut back from the middle of the field to the sideline, where Glynos ran downfield and made the final block just outside the pylon.

"Coach Serino told me not to look back, but I messed up and looked back," Glynos admitted. "But it made good sense to look because there he was ... he came out of nowhere. It just shows what a great running back he was."

Lynn English QB Jesse Maggs led a scoring drive to make it 14-6, but Bascon took the next kickoff 93 yards back to put away any South comeback hopes. O'Brien scored to make it 28-6 at halftime; after the break, Salem's Michael Ready got some time at QB running option plays with Peabody's Tompkins, his future teammate at Bridgewater State.

"These are guys I've been playing against my whole life and it was so much fun to get to play with them instead," said Ready, who rode the option and then handed off to Tompkins for a 16-yard score in the second half.

Pingree's Alex Theriault suited up for the South and completed a pair of passes for 14 yards.

Canales scored from eight yards out to make it 35-12 early in the fourth quarter. North responded with Lonergan's score and put the exclamation point on when O'Brien jumped a route in the flat and took it back 24 yards for a defensive touchdown.

Kicker David Rufo from Arlington Catholic was a perfect 7-for-7 on his extra points.

"We knew we had a strong bond coming into this and it showed. Since minute one we worked, trained and practiced together like we were a family," said the 290-pound Gardikas, who will join the Division 1 track and field team at UMass Lowell as a thrower. He was selected as one of North's captains along with Swampscott's Yorlan Herrera Gil and Austin Prep's Tom Skeffington.

"It was kind of surreal being my last time suiting up. I got chills before the game ... football is such a great sport. It felt great to be on back on the field."

North 49, South 12

60th Agganis All-Star Football Game

at Manning Field, Lynn

South 0 6 0 6 12

North 7 21 7 14 49

Scoring Summary

N- Geroge Percy 5 run (David Rufo kicK0

N- Xaviah Bascon 36 pass from Cam O'Brien (Rufo kick)

S- Jesse Maggs 2 run (kick blocked)

N- Bascon 93 kick return (Rufo kick)

N- O'Brien 1 run (Rufo kick)

N- Jordan Tompkins 16 run (Rufo kick)

S- Piero Canales 8 run (pass failed)

N- David Lonergan 16 run (Rufo kick)

N- O'Brien 24 interception return (Rufo kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing:South — Piero Canales 17-89, Mohamed Dale 8-17, Jesse Maggs 3-(8) ; North — George Percy 8-89, Jordan Tompkins 4-47, Xaviah Bascon 6-41, Cam O'Brien 6-35, David Lonergan 2-28.

Passing:South — Maggs 11-21-138-0-1, Alex Theriault 3-8-14-0-1 ; North — O'Brien 3-9-73-1-0, Bascon 0-1-0-0-0, Michael Ready 0-0-0-0-0, Steven Woods 0-0-0-0-0.

Receiving:South — Erick Galeano-Flores 5-52, Michael Chaves 2-44, Addison Diaz 3-32, Daren Omoregie 3-24 ; North — Bascon 2-65, Jason Romans 1-8.