Danvers Leftovers

Another week of drying out after a rain soaked game and another victory for the Pioneers. Let's get on to some tidbits after Friday night's game.

Playing in the Rain
Of the five Pioneer games so far this season, three have been played in the rain. Not great for an intrepid reporter trying to take notes, snap pictures and hold an umbrella at the same time. Much better for the Pioneers who have won all three contests. You can read all about it in Wednesday's Lynnfield Villager.

Size Matters
One of the things that struck me during the game Friday night was the size of Falcon running backs Eric Burgos and Clinton Lutz. I expected them to be bigger but they looked on the smallish side when I first saw them. Doublechecking the program, Burgos is listed at 5'11 and 203 lbs while Lutz is pegged at 6'1" 186 lbs. Even accounting for "program creep" which tends to add a few pounds and inches, that is good size for running backs.

What I failed to take into account is the size of the Pioneers. Lynnfield has always had one or two players that could match up sizewise with some of the league's behemoths, but this year, we sometimes take for granted that the boys are BIG.

Try this on for size: Captains Jon Leydon 6'0', 200 and Eric Inglese 5'11 215; Evan Panzero 6'2" 224; Andrew Kibarian 6'2" 200 and Michael Pescione 6'4" 200; Freddy Shove 6'3" 200, A. J. Roberto 6'1" 190; Jonathan Roberto 6'2" 183; . That's some of the biggest players the Pioneers have been able to line up in many years.

Block That Kick!
Speaking of that size, the Pioneer used it to their advantage several times against Danvers with Leydon and Pescione knocking down  passes, A. J. Roberto blocking a punt and Pescione blocking the Falcons' point after try on Danvers' lone touchdown. That was a huge play because if the unthinkable happened (which it almost did) Danvers would have had to go for two to tie the game.

According to Weidman, that block formation was installed specifically to take advantage of the height of Pescione and Shove. "Coach (John) O'Brien put that in for the two tall kids. One's real tall (Pescione) and the other is a basketball player (Shove) so we put them both in the middle. It was nice that they executed that."

Beat The Clock
The Pioneer offense was unstoppable in the first half against Danvers, picking up 240 yards of offense, 197 on the ground. The Falcons slowed them down in the second half, holding the Pioneers to 41 yard rushing and 20 yards passing on only six pass attempts. There was a reason for the steep falloff in production from the Pioneer offense.

"They went to a five man front," Weidman replied when asked how they stopped the running game in the second half. "We don't get a lot of that because we run the spread. But we had a lead so we weren't in a big hurry to start flinging it around too much. We didn't want the clock to stop. Probably in hindsight it would have been a little better for us to open it up against that."

When asked to explain why, Weidman replied of that defensive scheme, "The passing game would be open when they run that. They have to play man to man, but we wanted to keep the clock moving."

"We practice the two and four minute offense," Weidman went on to explain about the offensive approach in the later stages of the game. "The four minute offense is staying in bounds and holding on to the football and we didn't hold on to the football. So we're obviously going to have to practice the four minute offense a little bit more.

"It was also the first time this year that we had to use it in a game situation," Weidman went on. "Some of our wins before were lopsided and the Wilmington loss was a little lopsided too so we didn't have a chance to play the four minute O."

Moving On Up
Senior Chris Grassi and Junior Gino Cohee continue to climb the Pioneer career record lists.

Grassi's TD toss to Nick Roberts Friday night was his second of the season and 15th of his career lifting him into a third place tie all time with Steve Mucica (1960-62). Steve Olson (1972-73) is the all time career leader with 23 and Jason Caggiano (1994-96) has 20.

Cohee, who has scored a rushing touchdown in 6 straight games going back to last Thanksgiving Day, has 42 points on the season. He picked up 38 last year as a sophomore so his total of 80 gets him into the Top 20 of all time leading Pioneer scorers. He is currently in 19th place tied with receiver Lindsay Ross (1972-73) who conveniently enough, caught most of his TD's from Olsen.

Fast Start
This is the first time since 1996 the Pioneers have started 4-1. It has happened four other times, and two of those teams went on to win league championships.

That 1996 team hit a wall after their fourth win, losing three straight. They ended the season with a pair of wins to finish the year with a 6-4 mark.

In 1985, the Pioneers never looked back after getting to 4-1, winning their final five games to finish 9-1 and capture the CAL Championship.

After their 4-1 start, the 1984 Pioneers lost four in a row, beat North Reading and ended with a 5-5 record.

In 1961, Lynnfield jumped out 4-1, won three of their last four to finish 7-2 and capture the Dual County League crown.

Check back Wednesday for my trip Around the League.

Send comments and feedback to tcondardo@gmail.com