Georgetown Leftovers

The season could not have begun better for the Pioneers. Two games - two convincing victories.

But it may be time to temper the expectations a bit. I actually had more than one person come up to me at halftime Friday saying essentially the same thing: "Gee they look great. Is there anyone that can beat them?"

This comes under the heading of what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan would call "Irrational Exuberance."

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for enthusiasm for Lynnfield football. However, let's take a step back for a minute and summarize what has happened so far.

The Pioneers have come out and dominated two teams by a combined score of 72-6. Both teams have storied histories and solid pedigrees, but being totally honest, they are both young and inexperienced this year. And they both faced the Pioneers shorthanded - M/E was without their main weapon in QB Alex Carr and Georgetown was missing a bevy of seniors including two captains.

Now I don't think the eventual outcome would have been different had both teams been at full strength, but anyone who has watched high school football for any length of time would have to admit that both squads are probably in for a tough time this year as they rebuild.

That is not to take anything at all away from the Pioneers. They did exactly what good teams are supposed to do: beat the living daylights out of inferior teams, get the starters off the field early and get the underclassmen some invaluable varsity experience. Check. Check. Check.

So all that said, my answer to the above question was yes there is serious competition to come. Amesbury is lurking. Hamilton Wenham beat Triton and is now 2-0 and looking good. Newburyport has looked sluggish against H-W and North Reading but you have to figure they will get things going by the time the Pioneers travel to War Memorial Stadium, a place in which the Pioneers never play well.

In summary, the Pioneers are 2-0, 1-0 in CAL Small play and are playing like a team determined to defend their CAL Small Championship.

How does head coach Neal Weidman guard against his team getting too overconfident?

"We have to keep telling them that the goal is that no matter what, we can't be the same the next week as we were this week," Weidman said. "We have to get better. We HAVE to. We can't be the same team five weeks from now as we are right now. Every team is going to continue to improve. We just have to practice more and get used to running our plays more. Everyone else is getting better and we have to continue to get better too. That is the message that we need to send."

Pick up a copy of this week's Villager for my Georgetown game story complete with photos, but in the meantime, here is some additional info on the game and other topics.

Pass or Run?
There was some discussion following the game on co-captain Steve Ullian's 47 yard touchdown in the second period. Was it a pitch and run or a pass? The coach saw it as a pass.

"(Cohee) did pitch it forward so theoretically it was a pass," Weidman explained. "The way the play is drawn up it's actually a bubble pass. So it was a pass."

That gave co-captain Gino Cohee three  TD throws for the day and six total for the season. That lifts him to 19 for his career and ties him for third best all time with Chris Grassi (2006-09). Next up for Cohee is Jason Caggiano (1994-96) who has 20 career TD passes. Steve Olsen (1971-73) leads the list with 23.

"He's started for two and a half yearss and continued to improve," Weidman said of his senior quarterback. "When he started out, we ran him a lot as a sophomore. We ran him a ton as a junior. He started to throw more as a junior and this year our passing game has been pretty good. We've been up and down but its been pretty sharp at times. We're going to need (Cohee) to have success for us to go anywhere this year, so I hope he breaks (the record)."

Room to Run
After rushing for 142 yards against M/E last week, the Pioneers moved the ball even better on the ground against Georgetown. They picked up 153 in the first half alone and finished with 198. Obviously that would have been a lot higher had the starters not been pulled after the first half.

In particular, co-captain Jeff Gannon had a big game after struggling against M/E, leading the Pioneers with 53 yards and a touchdown on only 4 carries, an impressive 13.3 average. Against the stacked up M/E defense, Gannon carried only four times for nine yards.

"He got a lot more opportunities this week," explained Weidman. "Last week they were blitzing everyone and begging us to throw the ball. We had to go with that. We don't want to whip the ball around, but if they keep everyone inside, then we have to do that. Today (Georgetown) stayed in a two deep shell and they stayed loose and we're going to run if they do that. If they come up and bring everyone in the box, then we're going to throw it. It's kind of that simple."

And to Weidman's point, although the Hornet defense stacked up Gannon on the ground last week, he did get free for a couple of pass receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown.

As a side note, with the Pioneers emptying the bench in the second half, Lynnfield had 11 players officially have at least one carry, eight of them running backs.

That brings to mind a quote from former Pioneer head coach Bill Adams several years ago when Lynnfield was on the wrong side of one of these games and Newburyport had eight or nine running backs notch carries.

"They had nine running backs get carries," he told me after the game. "We don't even have nine running backs on our roster."

Times certainly have changed.

Anger Management
Weidman is clearly taking nothing for granted as evidenced by his reaction to the less than stellar performance of his squad on the one drive of the first half in which the Pioneers DID NOT score.

The sequence in question came latet in the first quarter. The Pioneers had already scored twice and led 14-0 when they took over on the Royal 44 yard line. An incomplete pass, a Cohee run that was shortened to a 12 yard gain because of a holding penalty (one of eight Lynnfield penalties for 75 yards), another incomplete pass, a two yard loss and an illegal procedure call set the Pioneers back to the Georgetown 49, a net loss of five yards on the drive. Ullian came out to punt.

Weidman was visibly upset on the sideline and let his offense hear it - with full volume- when they trotted to the sideline.

"We had a really bad offensive series," Weidman explained. "It's one of those things where we got two quick scores but then just didn't go out on that series and focus. They need to realize that they can't do that as the season goes on. They can't waste a whole drive. There's going to be games when we're not going to get the ball 10 or 15 times. We were in games last year when we got the ball only twice in a half. They just can't give up a whole drive."

Hit of the Day
There were several big hits in the game but the trophy for the biggest hit of the game goes to junior Frank Coburn who completely leveled Georgetown kick returner Thomas Zargaj at the Royal eight yard line late in the first half. The crack was clearly audible and drew considerable oohs and aaahs from the large opening day crowd.

Stellar Performers
Most of the Pioneers played well, but Weidman had words of praise for two in particular.

"A. J. Roberto has really stepped up all around on both offense and defense," Weidman responded when asked to name a player who has really stood out so far this year. "He's playing like a senior captain should play. He's been very, very good. He was good last year as a junior but he's really stepped it up to another level in his game. He's a physical player and sets the tone for us."

Weidman also lauded Andrew Kibarian, whose name game announcer Tom Waisnor seemed to be shouting out all during the first half.

"He had a great game," Weidman said of the sophomore two way lineman. "He got a lot of playing time as a freshman last year. He's starting to get it. He's becoming a nice player. He's a big, strong kid and we're expecting him to continue to improve."

Youth Movement
With the lopsided win, the Pioneers were again able to get their underclassmen some valuable game experience against Georgetown's varsity. And the youngsters performed well.

The Young Pioneers outgained the Royal varsity 56-15 in a scoreless third period. In the fourth, Georgetown put in what ever backups they had and Lynnfield put together a nice little 26 yard drive getting to the Royal 16 yard line as time ran out.

Sophomore quarterback Alex Roper was 2 for 2 passing including a beautiful 28 yard hookup with sophomore Mike Soden. Running backs gaining yardage were junior Joe Mehr (16 yards), sophomore Tyler Palumbo (15 yards - 14 with the varsity) and  freshmen Anthony Costa (5) and Matt Kramich (2).

Among others seeing action were seniors Matt Kelly and Rich Dimare, juniors Jared Owens, Dan Ashwell, Tyler Shaffer, Cameron weeks (who had a sack) and Steven Yobaccio, sophomores Mike Karavetsos, Alex Pascucci (who made a nice upending tackle of Royal quarterback Jackson Fritz), Michael Bonafine, Connor Lordan, Corey Ragusa, Zack Panzini and DJ Degeorge and freshmen Kyle McGah, Matt Connolly and Joe Dias.

If I missed someone, I apologize. As you can imagine, there was a lot of ins and outs as the staff shuffled players into the game.

Making Points
The Pioneers' offensive outburst in the first two games had me scurrying into the records books for comparisons.

The 72 points in the first two games is the most by a Lynnfield team since 1960 when the Pioneers opened the season by slamming Dracut 54-12 and followed that up with a 22-16 win over Weston.

The two game total is the most in consecutive games since 1978 when the Pioneers had a three game streak against North Andover (21-0), Masco (56-0) and Pentucket (24-21).

The 72 points so far is already more than was scored by Lynnfield teams in the entire seasons of 1958 (64 total points), 1965 (63), 1989 (57) and 1990 (55).

Top 100???
Finally, for a few laughs, check out the Boston.com 100 which was "updated" last Thursday.

Unfortunately, the Pioneers' convincing 37-6 win over M/E last week wasn't good enough to get them to crack the Top 100. However by losing by four touchdowns, Manchester-Essex was able to move UP a couple of places from 58 to 56. Hello???

Ipswich joined the list at #92 after their win over North Reading but Hamilton Wenham's victory over Newburyport only got them in at #93.

I realize it is an impossible task to compare schools from different divisions, sizes, schedules, etc, but that begs the question: If they are going to just pick names out of a hat, why bother with it at all?

That's it for now. Check back on Tuesday for my wrap up of the weekend action in the CAL Small.