Bishop Fenwick Leftovers

I'm running out of reasons to play down the Pioneer's early season domination.

Let's review and compare to the latest rout:

Manchester-Essex and Georgetown were both young. Well Bishop Fenwick featured 15 seniors and 9 juniors so they are hardly young so we can't use that one this week.

M-E and Georgetown both played without their starting quarterbacks so that is why they couldn't generate any offense. Well the Crusaders certainly had their starting QB in Brett Kidik. Here is a quote from head coach Dave Woods about the BF signal caller taken from the preseason preview in The Daily Item.

"Brett has been throwing the ball as well as anybody we've ever had here." Reminder: The Crusaders won five league championships and two Super Bowls in the last 13 years under Woods.

The Pioneer starters smothered the Crusader attack, limiting Kidik to 10 for 15 passing for 27 yards, an interception and two sacks.

Nope can't use that one.

Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman expected a closer contest.

"There are some good looking kids on that team," he said. "They have some pretty big and athletic players. I think they are trying to do some new things offensively. Sometimes it takes a little time to get used to that. I thought it would be a little different from the first two games but the kids came out ready to play."

Although the Crusaders will not be the toughest opponent the Pioneers will face this year, they were a significant step up from the first two games and the result was the same: big victory.

We may just have to acknowledge that the 2010 Pioneers have the chance to be something special. We'll know better as we move into the tougher part of the schedule.

You can check out the full details and some interesting stats the Pioneers are putting together in my game story in the Villager on Wednesday, but in the meantime, here are some other extra points from the game and Lynnfield's season so far.

Speed Kills
One of the emerging stories surrounding the Pioneers this season is their team speed. Woods' was clearly impressed as he said in the Daily Item following the game. "They have an incredible amount of team speed. They do a good job with it, and that's been one of our weaknesses (stopping other teams' speed)"

It will be interesting to see how the Pioneers fare against Cathedral this Saturday. One of the key reasons for the Panthers 3-0 start is supposedly their team speed. I'll have a full look at Cathedral on Thursday.


Moving On Up
Weidman celebrated his 16th career victory (in 26 games) against the Crusaders Friday night. That moves him ahead of Scott Brennan into fourth place all time for wins by Pioneer head coaches. Brennan posted 15 wins from 1995 to 1999. Weidman was on Brennan's staff on the 1999 team.

Lynnfield's first head football coach, Steve Sobiek is next on the list with 49 wins from 1958 to 1966. Bill Adams (1985-1994, 2000-2007) is in second with 69. Bill Rodan (1969-1984) leads the pack with 101 wins.

Happy Returns
Rick Berardino's 93 yard opening kick off TD was the first kickoff return for a TD for Lynnfield since 2002 when Jamie Solomon ripped off a 75 yarder against Newburyport. There have only been 21 kickoffs returned for touchdowns in the history of the school.

Balancing Act
I got a hint of the Pioneers' game plan in chatting with coach Weidman before Friday night's game. Noting what a perfect night it was, we discussed how it was actually a bit windy. I noted that this was probably not good news for a game that might feature 30 passes from each team. His comment: "I hope we don't have to throw it that much."

True to his word, the Pioneers featured a run heavy attack, rushing the ball 26 times and passing 13. The yardage was a little more even as Cohee was 6 for 10 for 130 yards (three to Roberto for 67 yards) and Gannon's 73 yards led a rushing attack that finished with 149 yards on the ground.

The Crusaders, however, went all in on the passing game, with Kidik throwing 34 times and only 12 runs for the Crusaders. Kidik didn't have much luck against the starters but finished 21 for 34 for 168 yards, two TD's and two picks. He fattened up that line mostly against the junior varsity. He had only 27 yards against the Pioneer first team.

Go Fourth?
A couple of head scratching decisions from the Crusader coaching staff came in the first half when they elected to go for it on two fourth down plays at midfield. The first was a fourth and one from the Pioneer 49 on their first possession. Lynnfield stopped Kidik for a one yard loss and took over at midfield.

They were only down 7-0 at that point but three plays later co-captains Gino Cohee and A.J. Roberto hooked up on a 40 yard TD pass to make it 14-0. A punt there would have at least lengthened the field for the Pioneers.

The second came in the second period on a fourth and three from their own 44. Again the Pioneers threw the Crusaders for a one yard loss and took over with a short field. Again three plays later the Pioneers took advantage, this time on a three yard run by Mike Thomas to make it 28-0.

Return Engagement
The Pioneers sprinted out to a 35-0 lead which the Crusaders cut to 35-7 with a kick return for a score on the opening kick of the second half. The Pioneers quickly matched that on a Cohee 21 yard run to make it 42-7 and the starters headed for the sideline, seemingly for the night.

However, late in the game, the Crusaders managed to score twice against the JV's and when the score got to 42-21 with 4:59 left in the game, Weidman sent the starters back in.

"They got it down to three scores and that's kind of the general rule," Weidman explained. "A couple of onside kicks....We probably should have gone another series or two in the third period (when it was 42-7). They scored on the second half kickoff and we weren't planning on putting the first team back in. Once we scored again I said 'let the other kids play.' That was one of those catch 22's. If we kept the first team in one more series and scored it would have looked like we were piling on."

Pinball Wizards
The Pioneers have been posting points like an out of control pinball machine in the first three games, forcing me again to scour through the Lynnfield record books for comparisons.

The 114 points scored is the highest three straight game total since 1961 when the Pioneers posted consecutive wins against Bedford 63-0, Westford Academy 30-6 and Ashland 34-8.

This is also the first time since those three games that Lynnfield has scored more than 30 points in three games in a row.

Boston.com 100: Abridged
Apparently, Boston.com has realized the nearly impossible task of ranking 100 teams of various sizes and schedules and the absurdities that creates. This week's ranking has reverted back to the Top 20 which they have been compiling for years. That really makes the most sense.

Check back Tuesday for a look around the Cape Ann League Small and I'll discuss the emergence of some surprising new contenders.