Amesbury Leftovers

Put another big checkmark next to a task on the Pioneers' "To Do" list.

Knock off last year's champ? Check. As Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman was quoted as saying, if you want to be the champion you have to beat the champion. They did that on Saturday. Not that it was pretty.

Check out all the details in my Villager game story on Wednesday.

But now would be a good time to discuss the new order of Lynnfield High Football.

Here are two quotes from the head coaches after the game.

Amesbury head coach Thom Connors:
"They're the best team that we've seen yet. We had a great week of practice and we were very well prepared and I'm very proud of the way we played. A fumble late in the game turns into a touchdown. We had a great effort. I'm proud of my guys. I think we'll be back in the thick of things before this is all over. That's what I hope." 

Lynnfield head coach Neal Weidman:
"We did not play well. Thank God Evan Panzero ripped it out of that kid's hands and it popped up to Timmy and he was able to take it all the way. Otherwise Amesbury would have beaten us. They outplayed us today."

Those two quotes illustrates the almost 180 degree turnaround in the Pioneer football program. Not too long ago it would have been the bad break or turnover that cost the Pioneers a win and the Lynnfield coach would be talking about a great effort and just coming up short. It would have been the opposing coach sighing in relief after escaping with a win with a less than stellar effort from his superior team.

Not this year.

That's not to say the Pioneers should take any solace from the win. They dodged a bullet and they should know that. They may not be so lucky next time. The good news is that they are still very much alive and have their fate in their own hands.

Fumblin' Bumblin'
Speaking of the Lamusta's fumble return for a touchdown. That has happened in Lynnfield High history only 14 times in 52 seasons, and three of those have been this year. Panzero recovered one against Matignon and captain Eric Inglese returned one against Georgetown.

Making a Point
Lamusta's score pushed the Pioneers over the 7700 point mark all time.

The Pioneers' 156 points moves them into a tie for 22nd all time with the 1974 team, with four games to play. The amazing 1960 team will be hard to catch. They scored the most points in a single season by any Pioneer team when they rolled for 410 points in nine games. Yep that's a whopping 45.6 per game average. They had to be fun to watch.

Streaking
The Pioneers' four game winning streak is the longest since the 1995 Pioneers beat North Reading on Thanksgiving Day and the 1996 team opened with three straight wins.

Rules Confusion?
There seemed to be some confusion among the officials near the end of the game Saturday regarding a pass intereference call against the Pioneers. According to the MIAA web site, the NCAA rules are to be used in MIAA games. I downloaded the rules (all 277 pages) to see if I could find anything out.

The play in question started with Amesbury on their own 21 yard line. The flag came in at around the 40 yard line, 20 yards away. The original call was pass interference and the refs marked off 15 yards from the previous spot giving the Indians a first down at their own 36.

At this point, the Amesbury coaches decided to take matters into their own hands and waved the officials over to share their interpretation, which in essence said the penalty should be at the spot of the foul, not 15 yards from the previous spot. As this discussion was going on, I was standing next to the official  on the Lynnfield sideline and he was saying that the original call was correct and it was not a spot foul.

The Indian coaches must have been very persuasive since the ref changed his original ruling. The side judge from the Lynnfield side ran out to the center of the field and apparently decided not to share his interpretation and the ball was placed at the spot of the foul, the Amesbury 40 yard line, 19 yards from the previous spot.

So looking through the rules, I came upon rule 7.3.c which defines pass interference and outlines the penalty.
The relevant excerpt reads as follows:

"Pass interference by Team B (defense): Team A's (offensive team) ball at the spot of the foul, first down, if the foul occurs fewer than 15 yards beyond the previous spot. If the foul occurs 15 or more yards beyond the previous spot, Team A's ball, first down, 15 yards from the previous spot."

I'm not an official but that says to me that the maximum penalty is 15 yards from the previous spot and that the original ruling was correct. Amesbury ended up with the ball 19 yards from the previous spot.

Maybe coach Mike Geary's dad Ed, a long time high school official can sort it out for us.

Kickin' up a Storm
What's with all the placekicking in the CAL this year?

Five games involving CAL Small teams have been decided by field goals. Newburyport has three of them, losing to Wilmington on a last second field goal and dropping a 3-2 decision to Pentucket. then they beat North Andover on a last second field goal last week. Amesbury's only win was 3-0 over Georgetown and the Pioneer's win over Triton came on Steve Ullian's last second three pointer.

There are three outstanding kickers in the league in Newburyport's Kyle LeBlanc who has four field goals this year, Amesbury's Nicholas Croce who has a pair and just missed a 43 yarder against the Pioneers and the Pioneers' Ullian who has two field goals.

Pioneer kicking coach Fern Lavoie has an interesting take on the improvement in kicking in recent years. He feels it is due to the number of kids playing soccer at younger age and when they get to high school they have strong legs and want to play a more physical game like football. That's as good a theory as any.


The threat of a field goal changes the whole dynamic of the high school game and makes it feel more like a pro or college contest when you start thinking about the possibility of points when a team approaches the 20 yard line. Don't be surprised if this Saturday's showdown comes down to a field goal by either Leblanc or Ullian.




Check back Tuesday as we look Around the League.