Taming the Tigers

It may have been a week late for Halloween, but this was the type of game that was particularly scary. There are several reasons.

• Possible letdown after an exhilirating victory over Newburyport last Saturday
• Night game on the road against a team pumped for Senior Night
• Facing a team that has lost 29 in a row but has been playing well lately.

That last one was the most unnerving. Think about it. 29 in a row. That is almost unimaginable. In high school football, you would think a team would have to win one game in three years just by shear luck. On paper and in fact, the Pioneers should be able to beat the Tigers easily, but the football can take crazy bounces. With a clear path to the Cape Ann League title, Lynnfield did not want to have Lady Luck step in and allow the Tigers to make "a dog's breakfast" out of the Pioneers' season.

Thankfully it never came to that. The whirling dervish Delaware Wing T offense allowed the Tigers to be annoyning most of the frigid evening, but ultimately was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. The Pioneers put in a workmanlike effort and subdued the Tigers 20-3.

The win means the Pioneers can clinch the league title with a victory over Hamilton-Wenham next week no matter what the Generals do on Saturday against Amesbury. That is the biggest takeaway from this game.

They did what they had to do. Nothing glamorous, but they got the "W". Now they can move on to the next most important step.

You can get all the details in my Villager game story on Wednesday and I'll have more on the game right here on Sunday.