Champions!

It feels odd to say it, but long suffering Lynnfield Football fans have no problem shouting it out. The Pioneers are champs of the Cape Ann Small League and are heading for the postseason for the first time since 1986.

The 21-3 win over the young, hobbled Hamilton-Wenham Generals wasn't pretty, but this was not the day to draw pictures on the scoreboard. The Pioneers scored three TD's and shut down the Generals when they needed to and captured their well earned title. Enough said. Who are we to start talking about style points?

The exuberance of the team as they celebrated on Pioneer Field was a joy to behold, especially for those of us who have seen the Pioneers on the other side of that coin too many times over the past two decades.

You can read all the details in my Villager game and sidebar stories on Wednesday and we'll have much more right here late tomorrow.

The Pioneers now began preparations for a grueling two game in six days or hopefully three games in 10 day stretch. The traditional Thanksgiving Day game against North Reading is always something to look forward to, but the Pioneers will also be playing in December for the first time since 1986.

Who they will be playing was thrown into a bit of turmoil today when Austin Prep upset Arlington Catholic 20-14 in Reading. AC was undefeated in league play and could have clinced the league title and playoff berth with a win, but AP was having none of it.

That sort of throws a monkey wrench into the Catholic Central Large race. Arlington Catholic plays Arlington on Thanksgiving Day so today was their last league game and they finished at 4-1. Both Austin and Cardinal Spellman are still alive with 3-1 league records and each has one remaining league game on Thanksgiving Day. AP plays 4-6 Bishop Fenwick and Spellman plays 3-6 Archbishop Williams. If both teams win, all three teams will be tied at 4-1 in the league and each would be 1-1 in the head to head tiebreaker. I'm not sure at this point what the next tiebreaker would be.

If Spellman wins and Austin loses, AC would go becasue they defeated Spellman.
If Austin wins and Spellman loses, AP would go because of today's Austin win over AC.
If both AP and Spellman lose, then obviously AC would go.

So bad news for the Pioneer brain trust if they were hoping to get a start on preparations for the playoff game. The site and time of that game will be announced by the MIAA on November 27th.

In any event, much more football to be played which is exciting for the Pioneer program.

Check back for more.