It's a Big One, By George(town)

Week Two seems a bit early to talk about a big game, but for the Lynnfield Pioneers this is one of the biggest they will have had in years.

Why? Here are a few reasons

• After an impressive, easy win over an admittedly weak Matignon team, the Pioneers will need to demonstrate what they can do against a title contender.

• With only six league games, every one is important. Going down 0-1 is a hole you don't want to fall into right off the bat.

• The league is expecting a lot from Georgetown. (more on that later). The Pioneers need to find out if they are for real.

So what about these Georgetown Royals. Well they are certainly getting a lot of props. The Herald is predicting they will win the CAL Small before losing in the playoffs. The Georgetown Record says they are "loaded."

Dan Guttenplan of the the Newburyport News says he interviewed all the CAL Small coaches and they all told him that Lynnfield is the team to beat. He says he believes that they are just blowing smoke not to offend the coaches of the teams that read his paper. (scratching head) His analysis is that the Pioneeers haven't won more than three games in a season since 2003 and haven't won a total of nine games in five years while Georgetown won nine last year alone. Using that logic, he picks Georgetown to beat the Pioneers 20-12.

Five of the six writers in the Lynn Item are picking Georgetown to win this showdown as well.

I'm not ready to buy into the Georgetown hype.

There is no questioning the season they had last year. 5-1 in the league; a heartbreaking one point loss away from a Super Bowl Berth; an overall 9-2 record. Impressive stuff.

I think everyone is taking the performance of that team and translating that into success for this year. But let's take a particular look at the Royals from the Lynnfield perspective, year over year.

Last season, in the midst of this stellar season, Georgetown beat the Pioneers with only five seniors 14-0. They led 7-0 at the half and scored an early second half TD for the win.

People may not remember that the Royals took the opening kick last year, picked up a first down on the first play of the game and then were stuffed by the Pioneers and forced to punt. Lynnfield started their first drive at their own 31 and moved smartly to the Royal 15 where the drive stalled. If they punched it in there and took an early lead, there is no telling what might have happened. But they didn't and the result was a tough loss to a very good team.

So what has happened in a year.

Georgetown graduated nine seniors, including outstanding quarterback Joe Esposito who tortured the Pioneers for three years. In three Georgetown wins (7-6, 28-20 and 14-0) Espo accounted either passing or rushing or kicking for 32 of 49 points, 7 touchdowns and 720 yards.

They lost 13 of 22 starters including tough running backs David Keneally and Anthony Conte as well as the anchor of their line in stud Matt Kumph. The sophomore they were grooming to take Esposito's place, Jayme Spears, left for St. John's.

Tyran Harrigan, a converted running back, and Chris Esposito, a converted fullback will see action at quarterback, but either one will be seeing their first game action against the Pioneers.

They also have talented lineman Andrew Sinkewicz and receiver Andrew Bulger so there is clearly talent on the team. But even head coach Matt Bouchard knows there are question marks.

Here are his quotes printed in the Georgetown Record:

“I think our box defense is going to be very strong, as our defensive line and our linebackers have significant varsity experience,” said Bouchard. “My main concern right now is our lack of depth, but not necessarily in terms of numbers. We have several players who have 30 games of varsity experience, but the problem is our other players have no experience.

“We need to stay healthy, and that has already been a problem because we have already lost three players to knee injuries, players who are going to miss either all of the season or most of it,” Bouchard added.

So what about the Pioneers.

They return 18 of 22 starters with a dozen seniors some of whom are playing their fourth year of varsity football. They have clearly grown from last year, both mentally and physically and are aching to try out their new found muscle on someone.

I'm thinking that someone might very well be the Georgetown Royals.