Wilmington Leftovers

Some random thoughts after Friday night's game, which despite the final score was not as lopsided as it would appear.

Fighting Back
Many teams would have folded up like a lawn chair after the disastrous start, but the Pioneers never gave up.

"It was 14-0 in a blink of an eye," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said after the game. "I told them there was a lot of football left, which there was.Right before halftime there was a glimmer of hope there. I was happy that they fought back and made it 14-7. We actually had pretty good field position to potentially tie it up which we were unable to do."

Who Wore Down Whom
The hope was that the Pioneers with its larger roster and bigger playing rotation would be able to wear down the Wildcats who normally only play 14-15 kids, but it actually looked like it worked the other way around.

"Yea, it did," Weidman agreed. "They are pretty big up front and kind of towards the end we were down a couple of D-Lineman so we had to put some younger kids in.and they started to wear us down."

The result was a couple of late third period touchdowns that put the game out of reach.

Let's Get Physical
Weidman commented on how physical the game was which was evident from the cracking of pads heard on the sideline. One of the biggest hits came from captain Jon Leydon early in the third period when he decleated punt returner Kevin Moriarity stopping him dead in his tracks after a one yard return..

Getting Crowded
It was nice to see a large Lynnfield crowd making the trip to Wilmington to support the Pioneers. It was one of the biggest contingents for a non Thanksgiving game that I've seen in years.

Sensing a Trend
The loss was the 5th straight for the Pioneers against Wilmington. They have been outscored 147-40 during that span. It was the first time in six games that Lynnfield was held to one touchdown or less. That hadn't happened since the 22-0 loss to Triton last year.

Getting a Kick out of the Kicking Game
One aspect of the 2-1 start for the Pioneers that may be overlooked is the stellar play of the team's two kickers, senior punter Tim Lamusta and junior placekicker Steve Ullian.

The Pioneers have only had to punt seven times but Lamusta is averaging 30.7 net yards with lots of hang time. Nice to have that capability as the Pioneers start playing tight games.

Ullian has been outstanding both on PAT's and kicking off. Steve is 7 for 8 on points after this year and was 11 for 15 last year making him 18 for 23 (78%) in his career. His 18 career PAT's move him into sixth place all time for career PAT's. The record holder is Dave Frontero who banged through 36 in (1986-87). If the Pioneers continue to score at their present rate, Steve has a good shot to overtake Frontero in the next two years.

Steve's kickoffs have been impressive as well. Of his twelve kickoffs, all but 2 have landed inside the 20. The average starting position for Pioneer opponents has been their own 28 yard line. And that includes the 89 yard TD return Friday night. Taking that one out, takes it back to the 23 yard line.

Forcing a team to start that deep in their own territory is a huge advantage in high school football.  Evidence of that is the fact that this year, Pioneer opponents have scored only twice on possessions following a kickoff.  The first was Georgetown's only score which covered 70 yards in 16 plays against Lynnfield's second teamers. Of course the other score was Friday night on the opening kickoff return.

Pretty impressive stuff.

That's it for now. Check out my Wilmington game story and photos in Wednesday's Villager.

We'll take a look around the league in Tuesday's post.