Around the League: Week Six

There were no league games this week, and once again, the Pioneers' big win over Triton was the only non-league win for a CAL Small team. However, unlike in week's past, Lynnfield's league brethren did not go quietly and actually played come tough games last week.

First, let's take a look at the standings.



Despite losing their third straight game and falling to 3-3 overall, Newburyport still leads the CAL Small with a perfect 3-0 mark. But don't be fooled by the losing streak. All three have been to CAL Large powerhouses. The first was a blowout by Masco, but two weeks ago they lost  a tough 3-2 contest to Pentucket.

They stepped up their game last week in Wilmington, and actually game within two seconds of knocking off the Wildcats before losing on a 38 yard field goal.

The Clippers gave Wilmington all they could handle, coming back strong after falling behind 14-3 in the second period. Josh Williams made it 14-10 on an 80 yard TD run but before the half was over, Evan Butters scored for Wilmington and Kyle LeBlanc caught a TD pass from Ryan O'Connor to make it 21-16 at the half.

The second half was scoreless until late in the fourth when the Clippers forced a fumble and got the ball at the Wildcat 11. O'Connor hit former quarterback Matt Mottola for the score and Newburyport led 22-21 with 3:12 left in the game. However, the Wildcats drove the field on eight passes, according to Phil Perry of the Newburyport News, setting up Chris Frissore who nailed the field goal to crush the Clippers' upset bid.

Newburyport will host North Andover this Friday night in the finale of as tough a four game stretch as any team could face. This will be their final "tuneup" before what could be a huge game against the Pioneers on Halloween.

Amesbury, who is currently tied with the Pioneers in the league at 1-0 and will be coming to town this weekend, put up a fair battle against Pentucket before falling 24-7.

The game was tied 7-7 in the second period and according to Jim Shimer of the Newburyport News, the Indians had just stopped the Sachems on a third and seven at midfield, but were flagged for an obvious hit out of bounds. Pentucket took advantage, scoring a few plays later and dominating the second half to take the win.

Amesbury couldn't get the ball in the second half getting only one possession in the third quarter as the Sachems ate up the clock. The Indians big threat Jesse Burrell was held to less than 40 yards rushing and receiving combined. We'll have more on the Indians later in the week.

North Reading played North Andover tough and trailed only 7-0 at the half. But the Knights forced a turnover at the Hornet 10 yard line in the third and that was the jump start they needed. NA scored 21 unanswered points to hand the Hornets their fifth straight loss after their opening day win over Ipswich.

The Hornets travel to Hamilton-Wenham this week in a game I previewed last week not noticing that the Generals actually had a bye. But what I wrote last week now still holds true for this week, so I'll post it again.

It will be an interesting game this week when the Generals host North Reading. Based on comparative scores, the Hornets would appear to have the edge in this one. North Reading played Newburyport tough before losing 17-13 where the Clippers pretty much handled H-W 19-0. Also the Hornets hung with Triton for a bit before losing 33-14 while the Vikings routed the Generals 39-12.

Georgetown, though still winless, showed some spunk this weekend putting up a bit of a fight against Bishop Fenwick. The Crusaders scored the first two times they touched the ball to open up a 16-0 lead, but the Royals' Chris Esposito, now playing quarterback, ran for 128 yards and passed for 99 and spearheaded a comeback. The Royals made it 22-6 at the half. They then caught BF for a safety and put together a long scoring drive to make it 22-15 before the Crusaders broke a 55 yard run to put it away late.

For perspective, Bishop Fenwick shut out Hamilton-Wenham 30-0.

Next up for the Royals is Ipswich which travels to Georgetown this weekend in what could be another interesting battle of winless teams.

Ipswich showed some life this week as well against Manchester Essex. Going into the game, the Tigers had scored only 6 points in five games. Against the Hornets, they exploded for 28 points. Unfortunately for them, M-E scored 50.

But this was not a blowout. In fact, the Tigers led 22-7 at one point in the first half and was tied 22-22 at the half. But Ipswich was outscored 28-6 in the second half as Brian Ciccone (5 TD's) went nuts.

Check back Thursday for a preview of the Pioneer-Amesbury game.

Material from the Newburyport Daily News, Lawrence Eagle Tribute, Salem Evening News, Boston Herald and Rally North.net was used in compiling this report.


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