Around the CAL Small: Week Two

Two more league games this week, so let's get right to it.

First the standings after Week 2.



The Pioneers defeated Georgetown for their first league win which puts them in a tie for first place.

In the only other CAL Small contest, Newburyport rebounded from their opening week loss to Hamilton-Wenham to pull away from North Reading 19-2. I attended this game (in a steady rain) and it was a lot more competitive than the final score would indicate, especially in the first half.

The Clippers came out sluggish and flat and despite a distinct size advantage in the line, the frisky, young Hornets carried the play in the first two periods. North Reading stopped the Clippers cold in the first half and forced quarterback Ryan O'Connor into a 1 for 9 night and an interception.

Offensively, NR moved the ball deep into Clipper territory on some strong running by sophomore Carl Lipani but they just couldn't punch it in. They stalled on the two yard line but then turned it into points when senior linebacker Jamie Mantho (a beast of a player) sacked O'Connor in the endzone to give the Hornets a 2-0 lead.

The Clippers turned the game around on the Hornet's next possession. NR again drove deep into Clipper territory but Dave Cataldo picked off a R. J. Warnock pass and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown score to make it 6-0.

Newburyport made some significant changes in the second half and decided to pound Andrew Sokol behind that huge offensive line. That began to wear down the young Hornets as the Clippers put two scoring drives together to put this one away.

A word about the Hornets. They will most like struggle this year, but they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. Lipani is a strong runner and Warnock, only a sophomore, will like improve as well. The Hornets have a 46 man roster and 31 are either sophomores or freshmen. It will be interesting to see how much they grow before their Thanksgiving Day meeting with the Pioneers.

The Hornets are probably in for another tough night this Saturday when they travel to St. Mary's who has now scored 90 points in their first two games.

The Clippers play their third straight CAL Small game when they travel to Ipswich on Friday for what promises to be a more interesting game than it might have looked like before the season began.

After a thrilling win over Triton last week, Amesbury stepped up and out of its class taking on North Andover this week. Typical of what happens when CAL Small teams refuse to recognize that they are not competitive with the big CAL Large teams like NA and Masco, the Indians were hammered 41-6. These games are just mismatches, which is why the CAL finally split into large and small divisions.

Amesbury fumbled the opening kick on their own 25, the Knights scored three plays later and the rout was on. NA led 14-0 after the first, 27-0 at the half and 41-0 after three. The Indians finally scored on their last possession to account for the final score.

The Indians return to a more competitive environment when they travel to the airport to take on East Boston this Friday.

Speaking of mismatches, the two game winning streak of the Ipswich Tigers came to an abrupt halt as they were beaten up by Marblehead 34-6. Again, the Tigers were stepping up a division and also had the misfortune of taking on the Magicians following a heartbreaking loss in their opener last week. Marblehead lost to Pentucket 29-28 in the final seconds on a bad punt snap for a safety. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Sachems needed to take it out on someone and they were next on the schedule.

However, the Tigers are much improved and I believe they will give Newburyport a good test when they meet this Friday in Ipswich.

Finally, we may have to start talking about Hamilton-Wenham as a true contender. After their opening day upset of Newburyport, the Generals beat Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings 14-8 to go to 2-0 on the sesaon. H-W won only two games all last year, so their fast start bears watching.

The Generals showed a big play offense and solid defense in handing Triton their second defeat of the year. QB Dylan Keith hit receiver James Love on a 65 yard TD pass on the game's opening play. Love then caught a 39 yarder on a halfback option play early in the second quarter to make it 14-0 for the home team.

The Generals got good production from tailback Trevor Lyons who ran for 117 yards on 14 carries.

Meanwhile, it appears that H-W won the battle of the trenches, harassing Viking QB Blaise Whitman who is running the spread offense for the first time this season. The Generals also held Triton to only 50 yards rushing and forced two fumbles and an interception.

H-W will get an even sterner test this week when they host Pentucket. We will know a lot more about them after that game.

In other games featuring future Pioneer opponents Cathedral beat Hyde Park 26-0. They are now 2-0 having outscored their opponents 58-6.

Danvers lost to Pentucket 31-16 in their opener and Chelsea fell to Brighton 14-12 and stand at 0-2.

That's it for now. Check back on Thursday for my preview of Friday night's game against Bishop Fenwick game.