Pioneers Open Season Against "Green" Hornets

It's go time.

After a winter of lifting, a spring of workouts, a summer of 7 on 7's, and three weeks of preseason preparation, the Pioneers are ready to kick off the 2010 season this Friday night.

For their opening act, they travel to Manchester-Essex to face a Hornet team that was cratered by graduation. Eighteen seniors exited a team that went 9-2 last year and only five 12th graders will suit up for M-E this season. With only three returning offensive starters and no returnees on defense, you can certainly color the Hornets "green" in 2010.

However, one of those returning seniors and starters is captain/quarterback Alex Carr. Last year, the talented signal caller threw for 1603 yards and 15 TD's and ran for 416 yards and seven scores. He was at the controls of an offense that scored an eyepopping 345 points in 2009.

The problem for Carr this season is that he is going to have to carry much of the load by himself. His entire backfield and wide receiving corps is gone. His main targets this year will be Joe Burgess, Cam Davis and Alex MacEachern. None touched the ball much last year.

The Hornet running attack will be led by senior Calvin Cook and sophomore Jake Fitzgerald.

Captain Matt Wescott centers what appears to be the strength of the Hornets this year, their offensive line. Wescott and junior Paul Pennoyer, the only other returning starter on offense, head what promises to be a big, physical front wall. If the line can protect Carr and give him enough time to find his young receivers, then the Hornets could once again light up the scoreboard.

And keep in mind that Friday night Carr will be working against a relatively inexperienced Pioneer defense that returns only one starter in captain A. J. Roberto. The entire defensive backfield of Wes Sullivan, Tim Shannon and Rick Berardino will be starting their first varsity game and Carr will certainly provide a baptism of fire. It will fall on the Lynnfield defensive line of senior John Bossi, junior Jon Roberto and sophomore Andrew Kibarian along with the linebacking crew of A. J. Roberto and fellow captains Gino Cohee, Steve Ullian and Jeff Gannon, and newcomer senior Craig Cataldo to not only contain Carr but to get some pressure on him.


On the other side of the ball, the Hornets will be trotting out 11 new faces as graduation took the entire starting defense. M-E coach Mike Athanas has admitted he was not happy with his defense last season. The Hornets gave up 245 points, compared to 143 for Lynnfield, so turning over a complete new leaf may not be a bad thing for M-E.

Again, the strength of the Hornets on defense appears to be their line featuring four 200-plus pounders. Pennoyer, MacEachern and sophomores Julian Flavin and Chris Wright gives M-E a solid front.

Whether the retooled defense can control what promises to be a prolific Pioneer offense is the key. Cohee, starting at quarterback for the third year, has proven to be a dangerous runner, as his 15 TD's last year will attest. Should he decide to throw, he has solid receivers in A. J. Roberto, captain Steve Ullian,  Rick Berardino and Pete Foustoukas. Captain Jeff Gannon also appears ready to break out in his first year as starting running back.

And as usual, it could come down to what happens in the trenches. Kibarian at center, guards Nick Burtman and Cataldo and tackles Jon Roberto and John Gaff must give the Cohee and the offense the room it needs to operate.

If the game gets close, the Pioneers can trot out a dangerous weapon in record setting placekicker Ullian, who set the mark for most PAT's (30) and field goals (3) in a season and most points after (41) and field goals for a career (3) in 2009.


"They are a winning program," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. As evidence, the Hornets are 22-2 over the past two years and 39-9 since 2006. "They are used to winning."

This will be opening night at brand new Hyland Field at the refurbished M-E high school and the Pioneers hope they can recreate their role as rude guests as they did last Thanksgiving Day when they thumped North Reading 35-14 in their first game on their new field.

For more on the Hornets check out this article by Nick Curcuru in the Gloucester Times.

This will be the third meeting between the schools and the final one as a non league game. Next season, M-E enters the CAL, and if the proposed merger with the Northeast Conference goes through, they will be placed in Tier 4 along with the Pioneers, North Reading, Hamilton Wenham, Ipswich and Georgetown.

There are not a lot of fond memories from the previous two meetings. In 2008, the Hornets visited Lynnfield and battled to a 35-21 win. M-E was enroute to an undefeated season and a Division 4 Super Bowl championship. Athanas has been quoted several times as citing the Lynnfield game as one of their toughest in that championship season.

But the heartbreaker was in 2007 when the Pioneers travelled to Newell Stadium in Gloucester to play the Hornets while their high school was under reconstruction.

The Pioneers, behind sophomore quarterback Chris Grassi, receiver captain Jeff Millinazzo and a tenacious defense led by captains Pat Lamusta and Nick Tropeano, built a 14-0 lead. Grassi had hit Alex Mastrangelo with a four yard TD pass and Tropeano blocked a punt and recovered it in the endzone for the second score.

But with 2:28 left in the game, the Pioneers were forced to punt into a howling wind from their own 34. The kick went only two yards and on the next play Hornet quarterback Pat Orlando, who has just been named the starter for the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs, connected with Sam Cohen for a 36 yard TD to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 left to play.

The Pioneers recovered a Hornet onside kick but lost seven yards on the drive and were forced to punt again.M-E took over on their own 34 with 1:42 left and knifed 64 yards through the Pioneer defense in five plays the final one a 32 yard Orlando to Cohen strike to tie the game with 38 seconds to play.

The game went into overtime and the Hornet's Brian Ciccone punched it in for a 21-14 lead. On the Pioneers first of four plays, Grassi hit Lamusta with a short pass, but he was stripped of the ball, M-E recovered and the Pioneers had one of the most frustrating losses in school history.

"This was the difference between a team that's been there and one that hasn't been in the driver's seat for a long time," a stunned former head coach Bill Adams told me after the game.

So if the Karma police have any soul, the Pioneers are owed one. They would love to get some payback on Friday night.

Game time in Manchester is 7 pm.

And just a reminder, if you can't make the game you can still follow the action realtime. Click on the Twitter logo to the left to sign up to follow me. I will be tweeting updates throughout the game.