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MANSFIELD - Some of the best high school soccer players from Southeastern Massachusetts gathered together on a blistering cold day at Mansfield High School on Saturday afternoon to take part in the second annual Sun Chronicle High School All-Star Soccer Game.

The girls' game kicked the afternoon off with a 2-2 tie between the Blue and Gray squads. The boys' game was not nearly as close, as the Blue team cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Gray team.

But the game wasn't about scores or who won or who lost. It was about a final chance for 40 seniors to represent their schools for one last time, and about a chance for those seniors, and the select underclassmen that joined them, to impress the various college coaches that braved the cold weather to do a little recruiting.

Coaches and scouts from schools such as Holy Cross, UMass-Boston, LaSalle, Eastern Nazarine, Dean College, and many others were in attendance to see the two games, featuring players from the Sun Chronicle's 10 coverage-area high school teams (Attleboro, Bishop Feehan, Dighton-Rehoboth, Foxboro, King Philip, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Norton, Seekonk and Tri-County).

A big reason many of the coaches were there was the work of Attleboro High boys' soccer coach Peter Pereira, who organized the tournament for the second straight year. Pereira sent out more than 70 e-mails to various college coaches and more than 10 committed to attending the all-star games at Mansfield High School to see what the local athletes had to offer.

"There was a good group of coaches, which was good," Pereira said. "They got some information on the players."

The coaches that chose to attend saw high-quality soccer with great ball movement and intelligent runs, even if the players were bundled to the extreme to deal with the cold weather.

"It was freezing," said Providence College-bound Jenna Roncarati, who was named the MVP of the Gray team. "I don't think I've ever played in any colder weather. It's hard to move when it's cold out."

"It sucked," Feehan's Dan Galvin, who was named the Gray team's MVP, said bluntly of the weather. "It was so bad."

Roncarati started the scoring in the girls' game when she took part in a pretty give-and-go with Dighton-Rehoboth's Meg DeCastro that set the senior up one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Roncarati calmly slotted the ball in the lower left corner to give the gray team a 1-0 lead.

Kelci Keene of Attleboro doubled the Gray lead with just under 23 minutes left in the game when she skied a shot from 30 yards out that arched over the goalkeeper's head, off the left post and into the goal.

But the Blue squad wouldn't roll over, cutting the lead to 2-1 with just over 18 minutes left to play when Suzie Newman of Dighton-Rehoboth took a good pass from Margo Clifford of Attleboro and deposited the ball to the back of the net. Less than five minutes later Newman returned the favor, setting up Clifford behind the Gray defense for an easy goal that tied the game at two.

Although she didn't figure in on the scoresheet, Mansfield's Ally Nagle was named MVP of the Gray squad for her work in controlling possession. The senior was in a particularly strange situation, as she went to Bishop Feehan her freshman year and was playing against her former coach in Paul Pontes (the coach of the Blue team) and some of her former teammates, like Roncarati.

"It was especially weird," she said. "It was really fun, there was obviously more talent than a normal high school game. There was more possession." While the girls' game was close, the boys' game was a blowout, dismaying to an extent to Pereira, who was in charge of making the two teams.

"Being the second year, it was a lot easier (to organize everything)," Pereira said. "But it's tough putting the teams together. You try to make it as even as possible."

To do that Pereira took all of the surrounding coach's advice on what players to put on which teams, which meant players from the same high school teams were pitted against each other in the All-Star game.

"It was weird playing against (North Attleboro's) Christian (Pirnie) because he did the flip-throw against us," North Attleboro's Sam Ocel, who was named the MVP of the Blue team, said. "I didn't even know how to defend it."

Ocel was the first to score on the boys' Blue team, drawing a penalty kick ten minutes into the game and burying it into the lower right corner past his high school teammate Colin Goodwin in goal. Drew Flamenco of Tri-County made it 2-0 two minutes later on a mis-hit by the Gray goalkeeper that left his all alone with an open goal. With five minutes left in the first half Norton's Mike Kelley made it 3-0 when he headed home a great cross from Dighton-Rehoboth's Carlos Alvarez.

Alvarez scored one of his own to make the score 4-0 and high school teammate Keith Rose converted an assist from Alvarez later in the second half to give the Blue team a 5-0 victory. Bryson Dowd of Mansfield and Pat Hillman of Norton combined for the shutout, with Dowd even seeing time as a position player in the second half in an attempt to keep warm on the cold day.

But the scores on the day were secondary for the participants, who were just glad to get another chance to see and play with their friends.

"It was fun to play with the kids for the last time," Ocel said.

And Pereira hopes to do it again next year.

"It's great for everyone," he said. "All the work I put in ... it's fun, it's great. And we'll do it again, if I'm around."