Ipswich Leftovers

It wasn't necessarily pretty but as Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said when I asked him if this was the type of game you just went in, got the win and got out he replied, "Yea we'll take it. We'll definitely take it."

No style points need to be awarded, but the win was huge in that it kept the Pioneers undefeated at 4-0 in the CAL Small with a chance to clinch the title this week against Hamilton-Wenham. Amesbury did Lynnfield a favor with their come from behind 15-14 win over the Generals on Saturday. That gave the Generals two league losses, so even if the Pioneers don't beat them next Saturday, they can still clinch the title with a win on Thanksgiving Day. That is because the only teams that can match one league loss would be Amesbury and Newburyport and the Pioneers have the head to head tiebreaker with both. If H-W had won, they would have come into the game next week with only one league loss and if they defeated the Pioneers, they would own the head to head tiebreaker and would have had the edge in the title chase.

But even though the Pioneers have a mulligan should they need it, I'm sure no one wants to see it come to that. A Senior Day home game would be a perfect way to put the cherry on top of this outstanding season and you can bet the team and coaches feel the same way. I'll have more on the Generals in the preview article on Thursday.

For now, let's clean up some remnants from the Ipswich Game

The Delaware Wing T
I've been watching Ipswich run that confounded Delaware Wing T for over 30 years at various levels of execution. In the seventies when the Tigers had Bernie Adell, still in the top ten all time scoring leaders and even in the 2005-06 seasons when they had Steve Phaneuf, that offense was absolutely lethal. But the beauty of the offense is that even when the talent level was off, they were still able to compete.

That is why the last few years and this 30 game losing streak is such a head-scratcher. If you watched that game Friday and didn't know anything about Ipswich, you would never have believed that they haven't won a game in nearly three years.

That offense clearly gave the Pioneers fits, partially because it is so rare that teams see it and also because it is diifficult to prepare for because it is so hard to replicate it in practice. Pioneer defensive coordinator Greg Haberland had some interesting comments about it after the game. You can read them in my Villager game story on Wednesday.

USA today had an article about the Delaware Wing T a couple of years ago. Here is one excerpt that sums up the offense.

"Named the Wing-T because the formation loosely resembles a T, the offense has endured at the prep and small-college level in part because the deception compensates for a team's shortcomings in talent and size. When worked on so the deception is second nature, the results can be phenomenal."

The article compares the offensive scheme to the same components of magic tricks: "sleight of hand, deception and misdirection." It's an interesting article and if you want to see more, I have included a link to the article here.

Facts and Tidbits

• Gino Cohee's outstanding season continued Friday night when he ran for two touchdowns and passed for another.  Last week we talked about his climb up the all time Pioneer scoring leaders list. After Friday's game, he moved into seventh place all time with 122 points, passing Bruce Rothman (1969-70) who has 112. Next up is Andy Nekoroski (1979-81) who has 126. However, Gino is also moving into rarefied air on the single season list. He now has 84 points this year, edging into the number 10 spot past John Frontero's 1979 season when he scored 82. He is now just behind Jamie Solomon (2003), Charles Meeker (1960) and Jason Caggiano (1996) each of whom scored 86 points in those seasons.  The amazing thing about Meeker is that he finished third that season behind Joe Debella  who had 94 points and the number two player on the list Frank Berardino who tallied 120. Eric Hansen's spectacular 128 point output in 1976 tops the single season list.
• As you'll read in this week's Villager, the Pioneer win on Friday was the 250th in the history of the school. LHS also has 250 losses and sits at a perfect .500: 250-250-11. The Pioneers reached a high point of 88 games over .500 in 1987. Their low point of 8 games under .500 occurred last year after the loss to Manchester-Essex. They have lost only once in the ten games since. They have won 10 of their last 12.
• The eight wins this year equals the victory total of the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 squads combined.
  
• The win was the third straight over Ipswich, the longest active winning streak for the Pioneers over any opponent. Overall Lynnfield is now 16-26 against the Tigers.
• The Pioneers cracked the 200 point barrier with the 20 points against Ipswich. They now have 203 on the year which is ninth best all time. Next up is the 1986 Super Bowl team who scored 205 and the 1973 CAL Champs who tallied 210.

Check back Tuesday for a look around the league.