Pioneers Need Royal Focus

My mother used to tell me that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

The Pioneers would be wise to follow that advice Friday afternoon when they take on the Georgetown Royals in their 2010 CAL Small opener.

The key word this week needs to be focus.

There are a lot of things that could distract the Pioneers in this game including: 1) Their convincing, relatively easy win over M/E last week 2) The boxscore of the 42-7 St. Mary's win over Georgetown which showed the Spartans running over the Royals like the bulls at Pamplona. 3) An abnormal 3:45 afternoon start which wreaks havoc on a normal game day schedule.

The Pioneers need to block out all those things and to paraphrase the Great Hooded One, they need to simply Do Their Jobs.

On paper it would be easy to see this one as a mismatch. The Royals gave up nearly 500 yards on the ground to St. Mary's last week while never bothering to throw a pass. Somewhere Woody Hayes is smiling. (Anyone under 40 will have to seek out an elder for that reference.)

But let's consider a few things.

1) St. Mary's is very good. They returned most of their offense from a 7-4 team last season. They are ranked third in the Boston Herald's Division 3A Super Seven. (Lynnfield is ranked 6th). They appear to be a real wagon.
2) Five of the Spartan touchdowns came on runs of 36 yards or more, so clearly there were some breakdowns in the Georgetown defense. Royal coach Matt Bouchard is a very good coach and you would expect that he will work on fixing what went wrong. He told Josh Zywlen of the Georgetown Record that "we actually did a great job of getting to the point of attack. So the kids were there on their assignments. But we didn't finish the play once we were there." That is a correctable problem.
3) The Royals did show some signs of life early. After St. Mary's took an 8-0 lead, the Royals drove to the Spartan 14 yard line but a couple of bad snaps (first game jitters) and they turned it over on downs. Who knows what might have happened had they punched something in there. The Royals are a young team and it appears that they just couldn't stand up to the Spartan onslaught.
4) Georgetown moved the ball. They put together three drives of over 65 yards, but as in the opening march, they made key mistakes which blew them up.Quarterback Tyler Wade was 8 of 12 for 110 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 60 yards.
5) The Royals are not as bad as the 42-7 score would indicate and they will most likely be a tougher test than the Manchester Essex team, especially with a game under their belts.

Bouchard said in a preseason interview with the Georgetown Record that he felt going into the season his offensive and defensive lines would be the strength of his team. Returning to anchor both lines are captains Ryan Moriarity (6'1" 240) and Eric Gesualdi (5'9", 250) along with seniors Ricky Charron (6', 210) and Nicholas Carbone (6"0", 180) and junior Michael Bjork (6'4", 195).

Wade, a 6'0", 160 lb junior, has able wideouts in Niko Edwards, Jared Lathrop and Michael Watson. His running backs are Max Mangano, Derek DePasquale and captain Luke Prescott.

You can be sure that Bouchard and his staff has spent the week telling his young team to forget about the St. Mary's game. He is preaching that Friday is the real beginning of the season and a win against the highly regarded Pioneers will give them a leg up in the CAL Small title chase. They will be ready.

That is why the Pioneers must attend to business quickly. They need to come out hard and score early to make the Royals feel like this is going to be another dose of what they got Saturday night. The longer Georgetown hangs around, the more dangerous they become.

And if the Pioneers need any further inspiration, they need only look to fellow contender Newburyport, who may not have taken Hamilton-Wenham seriously enough and the result was a 14-7 H-W victory. The Clippers are now sitting with an 0-1 league record one game into the season. It would behoove the Pioneers not to find themselves in that same leaky boat.

Game time at the Middle School Field is 3:45.