Danger Zone - Amesbury A Formidable Foe

In the exuberance following the outstanding win over Triton last week, many Pioneer fans are pointing to what could be a game for all the CAL Small marbles against Newburyport in two weeks. They see an Amesbury team coming to town this Saturday with a 1-4 record, and think this will be a walkover/tuneup for Lynnfield heading into the "big game."

I am here to tell you that anyone who buys into that is making a serious mistake.

We've spoken before about trap games.This is not a trap game. It will be a tough game against a tough opponent.

For those of you just tuning in or to those who need a refresher course, let's make note of a few things. The Amesbury Indians are the TWO TIME DEFENDING CAL SMALL CHAMPS. Also they are the DEFENDING DIVISION 3A SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS. (My caps for emphasis).

Last year, the Indians went 10-1 in the regular season, then crushed Whittier 34-0 in the playoffs and routed Martha's Vineyard 40-19 in the Super Bowl. In 2007, Amesbury went 4-1 in the league, 5-5 overall, then lost a tough 19-16 to Greater Lawrence.

The point?

Although they lost eight starters on both sides of the ball, Amesbury will suit up nearly a dozen players that saw action last season and many others who contributed in practices to a team that has won 17 of 23 games and participated in three post season contests in the last two seasons.That, friends, is a winning football program.  And the lessons learned by the players that are still around, don't just disappear when other players graduate.


Yes they did lose quicksilver backs Jared Flanigan and Kevin Johnston, along with big tight end/linebacker Steve Serwon. That trio accounted for 80% of the Indian offense last year.


But they do return solid two way player Jesse Burrell, who is in the mold of Triton's Brendan O'Neil in that he is a force as a tough running back and hard hitting linebacker. Burrell is not at the level of O'Neil, but he is certainly one of the better backs in the CAL Small. He was not available for the Indians first two shutout losses but he has returned to give Amesbury a legitimate threat.

So don't be fooled by their 1-4 record coming into this game. Last week we looked behind Triton's 5-0 mark and found some reasons why that might not have been as impressive as it looked. This week, we need to do the same thing, and when we peel back the Amesbury season so far, we find some things that should warn the Pioneers that they had better take this Indians team very seriously.

First let's look at Amesbury's four losses, three of them against CAL Large teams two divisions up.

• Opening night: 40-0 loss to Triton. Burrell was not available, serving the first of a two game MIAA suspension. The Vikes are a load, and Amesbury was playing its first game with new quarterback junior Tyler Lay and new starters at 16 positions. Triton is now 5-1 outscoring opponents 194-65.
  
• Week two: 21-0 loss to North Andover. Again, no Burrell, but only losing by three scores to the Knights is pretty impressive. NA is now 5-1 outscoring opponents 173-81.
• Week three: 34-19 loss to East Boston. Burrell returns to score a pair of touchdowns. The Indians trailed only 14-12 at the half before the Jets pulled away in the second half. Eastie is now 5-1 outscoring opponents 209-71
• Week four: Bye
• Week five: 3-0 win over Georgetown. Some pretty impressive stuff here, especially on the defensive side. The Indians held the Royals on three plays inside the three yard line late in the game to preserve the win. Placekicer Nick Croce's 26 yard field goal was the winner. He attempted three other kicks in the game and Amesbury coach Thom Connors is clearly willing to use him all over the field. Connors was quoted in the Amesbury News as saying Croce is able to kick a 45 yarder.
• Week six: 24-7 loss to Pentucket. Another game closer than it looked. They were tied 7-7 just before the half and made a big stop on third and seven from midfield, but the Indian tackler was a bit overexuberant and was flagged for a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty. It kept the Pentucket drive alive. They went on to score and wore down the Indians in the second half to take home the win.Pentucket is now 4-2 outscoring opponents 105-56.
  

So in summary, the Indians have lost four games against teams that are a combined 19-5, averaging more than 28 points per game on offense and holding opponents to 11 on defense. They are also five games and a bye into the season, so those inexperienced players that started the year now have a half a season of coaching and game experience under their belt, which only makes them better.


Make no mistake, they are a clear and present danger to any title hopes the Pioneers have.

And to make things a little bit more dicey, the forecast calls for steady rain on Saturday. And if you are the superior team, and let's be realistic, the Pioneers are the better team, the last thing you want is rain which is called the "great equalizer" for a reason.

Now a few things that bode well for the Pioneers.

• The Indians are still young and if the Pioneers play like they have the last two weeks, they should take care of business
• Being young, Amesbury has shown a tendency to hurt themselves with penalites, especially against East Boston and last week against Pentucket. Giving the Pioneers extra downs or yardage is not a good idea
• The Indians have shown to be tough for the first half and wear down in the second, which they did against East Boston and Pentucket. That comes from having a lot of players going both ways.
• On a similar note, Burrell has to go both ways and that can take a lot out of a player as we saw with O'Neil last week who was not quite the same player late in the game as he was in the first half.

As good as the Pioneers seem to be, they have to go out and do the job on the field. They would do well to score early on the Indians, which tends to rattle young teams. If they let the Indians hang around, they will gain valuable confidence and become even more dangerous. And you don't want this coming down to the wire with a chance to lose on a field goal, especially when the other team has a kicker who may be able to bang it through from 40+ yards.

Pioneer coach Neal Weidman knows the danger that lurks on Saturday.

"They are good," Pioneer coach Neal Weidman said. "I don't know about some of the scores you see with them. I was at the (Pentucket/Amesbury) game. It wasn't a 24-7 game," he related. "Those kids are tough and they play hard.We can't just show up and win. I think the kids know that.We're not capable of doing that. We're going to have to work hard and we're going to have to be fired up. It's a league game and if we're not going to get fired up for that, we're not going to get fired up for anything."

Game time at the Middle School Field is 2 pm.

Material from the Newburyport Daily News, Boston Herald, Amesbury News and Rally North.net was used in compiling this report.


Send comments and feedback to tcondardo@gmail.com