Newburyport Leftovers

With their fifth straight win against Newburyport on Saturday, the Pioneers have clearly made the leap from also-rans to contenders. For many long suffering Lynnfield fans, that is going to take some getting used to. In talking to folks before the big game Saturday, I detected a serious case of stage fright. Butterflies were flying in full formation which is understandable - the Pioneer faithful is just not used to this type of thing.

Here's some advice: Get used to it.

I've covered high school football for over 30 years (yikes) and the 2009 Pioneers clearly have what it takes. Great defense, explosive offense, solid special teams and kicking game, great coaching. But it is also starting to show the maturity that you see from perennial winners like Newburyport, Pentucket, Masco and North Andover. They are now going into games expecting to win, not fearing they will lose. That is a huge step.

My experience tells me, however, that there is a lag time between when the kids get this and when the parent and fans do. There is a period there (and we seem to be in it now) when parents and fans go into games terrified - as they did on Saturday - hoping for the best but fearing the worst. Again, to be expected. We are older and have seen the pain and suffering. The young 'uns just go out there and hit people.

Especially this group. You could see they were not intimidated one bit by the Clippers. From the moment Nick Roberts picked up the opening kick at the one yard line and calmly returned it to the 26. The Pioneers were in charge. That was clearly demonstrated on that first drive, when the Pioneers as much as said: "Here we come - stop us," and Newburyport simply could not do it.

That drive was nothing but straight ahead power with captain Jon Leydon, captain Eric Inglese, Doug Ullian, Evan Panzero and Jonathan Roberto ripping open holes and Gino Cohee and captain George Hennessey roaring through for big gains.The Pioneer offense averaged 5.5 yards per carry on the drive. And the one pass from Cohee for Chris Grassi went for 30 yards. The drive consisted of 74 yards on nine straight positive plays. The closest Newburyport came to stopping the Pioneers is when they held Cohee to a two yard gain on third and two. Of course that two yards was for the first down and kept the drive alive. In fact, in the first half, the only Lynnfield play that went for negative yards was Cohee's kneeldown to kill the clock on the half's final play.

I had to stand on the Newburyport side due to the direction of the sunlight and because the Villager need my photos to have some definition and not be totally washed out. As the Clipper players came to the sidelines during that drive you could see the concern (fear?) in their eyes. They knew they didn't have an answer. You could see it in the coaches eyes as well. Now obviously they never gave up and played hard since they have a winning history, but they were clearly shaken into reality by the Pioneers' power and by their inability to do anything about it.

Covering the Pioneers for the past 20 years, there have been too many times I have seen that look in the Pioneer players and coaching staffs. It was actually quite refreshing to have the cleat on the other foot for a change.

You can get all the details on the game and my photos in the Villager on Wednesday.

Still More Work To Do
All that said, the Pioneers still have a lot of work to do, even more than most may realize. The Globe and Herald both reported on Saturday's game (another change that comes with being a contender) and said what I have been saying: A win over Newburyport means the Pioneers only have to win two of three games to clinch the title.

However, that is not necessarily true.

It is true that if the Pioneers finish in a tie with Newburyport and Amesbury, Lynnfield wins the head to head tiebreakers, so it would appear they could lose a game and still win the title. But that is neglecting one inconvenient truth in the form of the Hamilton Wenham Generals. While all the focus has been on Amesbury and Newburyport, the Generals have quietly slipped into second place with a 2-1 record, thanks to their 3-0 win over Georgetown last week.

So let's play out a scenario here. If the Pioneers take care of business against Ipswich on Friday, they would move to 4-0 in the league. H-W hosts Amesbury on Saturday. Should the Generals win, they would eliminate Amesbury and move to 3-1 in league play, a game behind the Pioneers. That would set up a H-W/Lynnfield game the following week that would be just as big as the one just played against Newburyport. A Pioneer loss to the Generals in that case would put the two teams in a tie with one league loss but with H-W holding the head to head tiebreaker.

So if that unthinkable event happens, this would be the situation going into Thanksgiving Day. If the Pioneers beat North Reading, and H-W loses to Ipswich, Lynnfield would clinch. If Lynnfield and H-W win on Turkey Day and Amesbury beats Newburyport, it would create a H-W/Lynnfield tie, with the Generals owning the tiebreaker. If Newburyport beat Amesbury, it would create a three way tie and would come down to points against among those teams. So to summarize, that is a scenario where the Pioneers would  win two of three (Ipswich and North Reading) and lose one (H-W) and could lose the title. So let's put aside the "two out of three" talk.


Now I know that is getting ahead of ourselves. Amesbuiry could make this a lot simpler by beating the Generals next week. And even if that occurs, it looks like the Pioneers are going to have to beat the Generals on Senior Day in two weeks.

This was all summed up best by Cohee who was quoted in the Herald Sunday morning as saying, "We have three games left and we have to win them all." That would certainly simplify things and seems like the right approach for the Pioneers to take..

Halloween Scare
Since it was Halloween, it was appropriate that there was at least one scary moment in the game Saturday. That occurred midway in the second period. The Pioneers, leading 7-0 had been stopped at the one inch line and then forced the Clippers to punt from their 26. Kyle Leblanc's kick came down at the Pioneer 45, glanced off Roberts and bounced back over midfield into Clipper territory. (I'm also not exactly sure the Clippers gave Roberts enough space to make the catch, but that's a different discussion.)

The bouncing free ball was surrounded by white-clad Clippers but was recovered by Inglese, the lone Pioneer in the area who was hustling back to the play after rushing the punter. If not for that effort, the Clippers would have gotten the ball back and continued their drive to what could have been a tying touchdown. Instead, the Pioneers had a first and ten at the Newburyport 43 yard line. Eight plays later, Cohee punched it in from the four and Lynnfield led 14-0. That one play arguably could have had a 14 point effect on the game.

Clipper head coach Ed Gaudiano was disgusted with the play yelling at his players. "You were all around it and there's only one of them and they get it?"

Stunning Silence
Speaking of the Newburyport sideline, the Clipper faithful were very quiet for most of the game. They were clearly stunned by what was going on. Think 2004 Yankee fans after the comeback or Montreal Canadiens fans last year after the B's sweep. They were very animated however on the two meaningless fourth quarter touchdowns the Clippers notched in the final quarter.

While we are on the topic of stunning, Dan Guttenplan of the Newburyport News had predicted a 22-12 Clipper win. He had a rough week. He also predicted wins by Triton over North Andover (35-8 loss), Georgetown over Hamilton Wenham (a 3-0 Royal loss), and an easy 30-7 Amesbury win over Ipswich (the Indians survived with a 23-17 overtime win), He did pretty much nail Pentucket's rout of North Reading picking the Sachems to win 28-6 (Final score 34-3). Just another reason I don't do predictions. Call it "wisdom of the ages."

Pioneer Tidbits

• The win snaps a 5 game losing streak to the Clippers. It was only the Pioneers' eighth win in the series against 29 losses. This was only their second win in the last 17 meetings between the schools.
• The seven wins by the Pioneers is the most since the nine victories notched by the 1991 team.
• Only 14 of the 52 Pioneer teams have reached seven wins in a season.
  
• The 183 points scored puts the 2009 edition in 11th place all time in Pioneer scoring with three games to play.
• The tenacious Pioneer defense is allowing an average of only 12.1 points per game. That puts them in 25th all time but the best since 2003 when they allowed an average of 11 ppg.
• Steve Ullian is now 19 of 21 on point after tries this year. He is now in second place for the single season record for PAT's behind only Scott Milne who banged through 25 in 1985. 

In Memory of Albert Sykes (1923-2009)
One last note in remembrance of "Big Al" Sykes, a loyal Pioneer football parent and supporter who passed away last week at the age of 86. Many of you may not remember Mr. Sykes but he was active in many town activities. His son Frank played for the Pioneers in the mid-80's but "Big Al" continued to follow the Pioneers long after Frank graduated. He would prowl the sidelines following the line of scrimmage and anyone who played in the 80's and 90's would recognize his booming voice bellowing encouragement to the Pioneers. "Let's go you Lynnfield team!" And trust me some of those years were lean ones, but he was always there, always providing support. He and I had many conversations regarding Lynnfield football and I always enjoyed them. Rest in peace Mr. Sykes.

Check back on Tuesday and we'll take a look around the league.