Pioneers vs Hornets: 2009

Thanksgiving Day: Turkey, apple pie and high school football.

For those out of the area (and I'm told we have folks following from Wisconsin and Florida at least), our custom of playing high school football on the holiday morning may seem quaint, but for those of us who grew up around here, we just can't picture Thanksgiving Day without a high school rivalry game. Some of these games go back over 100 years and are treated religiously.

Our little Battle of Chestnut Street with North Reading is young by comparison, going back "only" to 1958. Which brings up a point that may cause some confusion to anyone looking at previews in various newspapers. This will be the 52nd meeting between the schools, with the Pioneers holding a 30-21 edge. However, if you read today's Villager, the headline on my preview story reads "Pioneers, Hornets in 51st Thanksgiving Day Battle." It will also show that the Pioneers lead the series 30-20. Today's Boston Globe shows the same thing.

So what's the problem?

Well, this WILL be the 51st meeting between the schools "on Thanksgiving Day," but it will be the 52nd time the teams meet. That is because the very first game in 1958, a 26-12 Hornet win, was played the first week in November, not on the holiday. The traditional Thanksgiving Day schedule was established in 1959.

Now if you really want to get technical, this will actually be the 50th game played on Thanksgiving Day since the 1989 game was snowed out on the holiday and postponed until the following Saturday. I know from first hand experience that this is the only time that has happened since 1976 (this will be my 34th straight game in the series I will be covering). I am not aware of it happening before that, but someone else out there may. Drop me a line if you do.

No matter how you slice it, this will be the 52nd reenactment of the rivalry.

Opposites Attract
Looking at the records of the two teams would lead you to believe the Pioneers are heavy favorites and that is probably accurate.

But other factors are involved. First is that Lynnfield has the playoff game to play on Tuesday, so the ideal situation is that  the Pioneers get a big lead and let some of the younger guys play most of the second half. Considering this is rivalry game and the Hornets' struggles this year, you can bet North Reading will be playing this like it's their Super Bowl. They would like nothing better than to tarnish the Pioneers' newly won CAL Small Crown in their final game of the year.

Also, there will be added hype in North Reading with the christening of the new turf athletic field at the high school. This will be the first contest played on it, and there should be a huge crowd on hand to root the Hornets on., Bottom line: if the Pioneers hope to win this one, they should expect to have to battle for four quarters against a pumped up Hornet team.

Three Pronged Attack

The Hornets scored only 115 points on the season (about half the 224 the Pioneers racked up) and 96 were scored by three players: Running back brothers Bobby and Nick Rosano along with quarterback John  Brooks. Bobby is the Hornet's leading scorer with 48 points (7 rushing TD's, and three 2 point conversions). Right behind is brother Nick who has 34 points on three rushing and two receiving TD's along with two 2 point conversions. Brooks has rushed for a pair of TD's and has tossed 4 TD passes, two of them to Richard Schaeffer. Eric Valenti has a field goal and seven PAT's and that's about it for Hornet scoring.

They've also been hurt by turnovers. "They've been down inside the red zone quite a bit and haven't scored," said Pioneer coach Neal Weidman. "But sometimes a lot of turnovers come when you're down and you're trying to throw the ball and the pass gets intercepted. When you don't have a lot of wins for the season, some of those numbers get inflated."


Defensively, North Reading has had issues as well. They've allowed 243 points, about two and half times as many as the Pioneers, but they have definitely been in some games.

In six of their 10 games they have either been ahead or down by a touchdown or less at halftime. Of those games, they won two and lost the other four, one by 28 points and one by 23 points. Offensively they've done better in the second half ironically, scoring 68 points to only 47 in the first half. However they have allowed 132 points in the second half compared to 112 in the first half.

"That's pretty typical for a Lynnfield/North Reading type team," explained Weidman. "Depth. They've hung with a lot of teams for a while then ended up getting worn down a little bit. That's always a problem that towns like us struggle with."

Two interesting stats stand out. In the first period they have been outscored 64-27 which says they tend to get off to poor starts. But the big problem for the Hornets comes in the third period. The period right after halftime has actually been their most productive, as they scored 43 points, most of any period. However, it has also been their poorest defensively having given up 85 points their worst period by far.


Impressive Start


North Reading had high hopes of contending in what appeared at the beginning of the season to be a wide open CAL Small. They got off on the right foot by bludgeoning Ipswich 26-0 on opening night which looked pretty good at the time since Ipswich, with 17 seniors looked like they might turn it around this year.

The Hornets looked strong the following week when they travelled to Newburyport to take on the preseason favorite Clippers. The visitors hung tough in the first half, and went in at the half down only 14-13. But four second half turnovers doomed them and a late field goal gave Newburyport a 17-13 win. The close loss raised some eyebrows around the league and served notice that the Hornets might be for real.

Unfortunately for them, that was the high point of their season. The Clipper loss turned into the beginning of a seven game losing streak. Two of the losses were particularly jarring. After Newburyport, the Hornets lost to Cardinal Spellman 28-16. North Reading then hosted likely Pioneer playoff foe Austin Prep and were crushed 36-6. The unkindest cut of all was that most of the Cougar damage was inflicted by North Reading residents quarterback Ryan Havey, Ray Acciavatti and J.R. Richard. The trio figured in four of AP's five touchdowns.

The Hornets' struggles continued the next two weeks as they were bludgeoned by a pair of CAL Large teams in Triton (33-14) and North Andover (28-0). The NA game was particularly deceiving. The Hornets trailed only 7-0 at halftime. However, they fumbled at their own 10 yard line in the third period. The Knights punched it in, took the air out of the Hornets' upset balloon and went on to score two more TD's.

The low point of the season for North Reading came the next week at Hamilton Wenham. The Hornets and Generals battled to a scoreless first half, but North Reading jumped all over HW in the third period, scoring 16 unanswered points. But they could not hold on to the 16-0 lead. The Generals scored one late in the third to make it 16-8, then tallied two more touchdowns in the fourth period to take a 24-16 lead.

The go ahead score came with just over two minutes to play but the Hornets roared back and got to the General four yard line with less than a minute to play but three runs and an incomplete pass sealed their fate.

The Hornets were hammered by Pentucket 34-3 the following week but did bounce back with a come from behind 14-13 win over Georgetown.. Valenti's PAT was the game winner.

North Reading finished up their preThanksgiving schedule with a 30-7 loss to Amesbury. Again, it was only 10-7 at the half, but a 13 point Indian uprising in the third allowed Amesbury to pull away.

"They will be fired up," said Weidman. "Brand new field. There will be a lot of people there."

Fast Track
And speaking of the new field, it will be interesting to see how the Pioneer team speed translates on the new artificial turf. Most of their games this year have been played either in the rain, on the day after rain or at night on a frosty field so they haven't been able to exploit their quickness as much. This will be the first time Lynnfield plays on a fast track which should be interesting for speedsters Chris Grassi, Gino Cohee and Ty Surette among others. It will also give the quick Pioneer defense the best footing they have had all year, so that bodes well also.

So there is nothing left but to play the game. As I said before, I am not one for making predictions, but for anyone interested, the Massey Ratings predict a 28-10 Pioneer win.

Game time in North Reading is 10:30 am.