Last night, the best seniors in Eastern Massachusetts, many of whom were at Gillette in December, played hard in the June heat for a greater cause.

The South All-Stars beat the North All-Stars, 13-6, in the 32d Shriners Football Classic, an annual game that raises funds for the Shriners Hospital for Children.

“Playing for this cause, this is wonderful,’’ said Keshaudas Spence of Catholic Memorial, who was the South’s offensive MVP. “This really is great.’’

The South, playing under former East Boston coach John Sousa, sealed the win on Spence’s 5-yard touchdown run at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Spence found a hole and bounced outside for the score.

“Coach [Sousa] was always telling me to run up the middle,’’ said Spence, who was the Catholic Conference’s defensive player of the year last season and never expected to be in the backfield. “But I’m an elusive guy, you know?’’

From that point on, the South and defensive MVP Kevin Soule of Medfield held firm.

“I thought we could get the ball up,’’ said Sousa. “But it was our defense and our ball control that won it.’’

The clinching touchdown drive started after Whitman-Hanson’s Kyle Daigneault blocked Masconomet’s Evan Bunker’s field goal attempt. John Duffy of Millis recovered and returned it to midfield.

The North got on the board first with a 13-play drive that chewed up 68 yards and culminated in BB&N standout (and North offensive MVP) Derek Papagianopoulos’s 12-yard touchdown jaunt with just over five minutes remaining in the second quarter. Bunker, whose Masconomet team lost the Division 2A Super Bowl at Gillette, missed the extra point wide left, leaving the North with a 6-0 lead.

With only 28 seconds remaining in the half, the South retaliated with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Scott McCummings to Natick teammate Robbie Jackson. McCummings kept the drive alive with a fourth-and-1 sneak from the 20. He also extinguished any hope of a North comeback in the fourth when he scrambled for a 10-yard gain on fourth-and-7 with 2:35 left.

“Robbie and I always had a connection,’’ said McCummings, who lost to Reading in the Division 2 Super Bowl at Gillette. “We knew we’d get it.’’

Sousa retired following East Boston’s loss to Whittier in the Division 4 Super Bowl.

“I told the kids, ‘You’ve sent me out with a memory for the rest of my life. You sent me out on top.’ ’’