Danvers Leftovers

Before Saturday's game with Danvers, I was talking to Pioneer defensive coordinator Greg Haberland and he made the following comment: "I hope they smack us in the mouth."

I knew exactly what he meant. The Pioneers had pretty much had their own way in the first four victories and they were doing most of the smacking. Everyone wanted to see how they would react if they became the smackees instead of the smackers.

Haberland and the large crowd at the LMS Pioneer Field found out in a hurry.

The frisky Falcons, desperate for their first win, came out soaring, as they knifed through the Pioneers enroute to an opening possession touchdown that stunned the home crowd. Just over a minute into the game, Lynnfield's first defense had given up its first points of the year and the Pioneers found themselves on the wrong end of a 6-0 score. It was the first time all year that they had trailed in a game.

How would they react?

Not bad.

Sophomore Alex Pascucci got things started by returning the following kickoff 18 yards to the Falcon 30. From there, the Pioneers played like their cleats were on fire. No huddle. Up tempo. In quick order,in just over a minute, co-captains Gino Cohee and Jeff Gannon set the tone for the day. Nine yards for Gannon. 24 yards for Cohee. 23 yard for Gannon. One yard and a touchdown for Gannon. Another extra point from co-captain Steve Ullian and the Pioneers had the lead back. They would never trail again.

"They were a little upset about the fact that they were down 6-0," Weidman explained about the energized reaction of his team. "That and I wanted them to have a sense of urgency, get off the ball and be able to run it. I wanted our guys to be able to make a statement that we would be able to do that.

So did Weidman get the test he was hoping for from Danvers?

"I think so," he replied. "Offensively (Danvers) moved the ball a little bit. It was 14-12 late in the first half. We scored two more times in the half which was obviously huge in this game. I like the way we reacted to the adversity. They went right down the field on us and made it 6-0 and we went right down the field and punched one in to make it 7-6. I think we ran the same play every down.

"That first drive I think our guys were playing against a better team than we've played against," Weidman went on. "We weren't quite ready on that first drive defensively to match it."

Pick your poison
The Pioneers ran the ball more than usual against the Falcons and there was a specific reason for that.

"They only played five in the box defensively," Weidman continued. "We thought we were going to get five inside today which is why we had a little emphasis on running the ball today more so than we had in previous games. Teams have been guarding our recievers with four guys kind of forcing our hand into what we've done offensively. (Danvers) was guarding our four with six. If teams are going to play five in the box, you're going to have to run the football."

Layman's translation? The Pioneers' first four opponents were only using four guys to defend four receivers and using seven guys to try and stop the run. The solution? Throw the ball, which is what the Pioneers did in those first four games.

Danvers however, opted to try and shut down the passing game, using six guys in coverage leaving only five defenders to stop the run. The solution? Run the ball, which is what the Pioneers did Saturday.

Weidman's "little emphasis on running the ball" resulted in 284 yards on the ground, 145 for Gannon and 94 for Cohee.

Asked to comment on the day Gannon had, Weidman replied "Great game. We knew we wanted to run the football today. He's been running the ball great all year. He just hasn't had a ton of carries because we haven't had a ton of carries as a team."

In the Pioneers' first four games, even with second halves full of runs due to the scores, Lynnfield averaged 27.5 runs and 14 pass attempts per game. Against Danvers, the Pioneers ran it 37 times, the most all year, and threw it only 12 times, second fewest all season.

You could say Danvers had some success with the strategy, holding Cohee to only five completions on 12 attempts for 90 yards. But two of those completions were for scores, one to Berardino at the end of the first half which was a back breaker and one to Ullian to open the second half which put the game out of reach.

Message to future Pioneer opponents? You have to pick what you are going to stop and hope for the best.


The Great Unknown
So after five straight impressive lopsided wins, does Weidman know yet how good is team is?

"I think we're definitely getting there," he responded. "Our last five games are going to be tough. Newburyport, Amesbury, Ipswich, Hamilton-Wenham and North Reading right in a row and they're all league games and they're all going to be tough games. You know they are going to be physical.

"Can we continue to be sharp on offense? I hope so. There are going to be times when we are going to have to fight through adversity. We're not going to have a great drive every single time. I hope that we haven't quite hit our stride yet. I hope we hit our stride come a couple of weeks from now."

Record breaker
Cohee's pass to Ullian in the third period set a school record for career TD passes. Cohee now has 24, one more than Steve Olsen who had 23 from 1971 to 1973. (You can catch my sidebar article in the Villager on Wednesday about Cohee's accomplishment.).

Hail to the Line
One of the newest readers of the Gridblog is Pioneer line coach Gino Fodera. He came up to me before the game to talk about it and as he turned away, he good naturedly said "Hey put me in the blog". I answered, "You have to do something first."

I'm not sure if his charges heard the exchange or not, but the way the lines, particularly the offensive line, performed against Danvers, they certainly earned their coach a shout out in the Gridblog. So here it is.

Fodera's line manhandled the Falcons, allowing the Pioneers to roll for almost 300 yards on the ground. Not that they were doing badly before this one. After the first four games, the Pioneers were averaging 184 yards per game on the ground. With the effort against Danvers, the Pioneers crashed through the 1000 yard mark rushing and now sit at 1019 for the season.

When asked to name other standouts after the game, Weidman was quick to laud the play of the offensive line.Noting that all the skill position players deserved all the recognition they were getting but that none of it was possible without the play of the offensive line of Andrew Kibarian, Craig Cataldo, Nick Burtman, Jon Roberto, John Gaff and D. J. DeGeorge.

Which brings me to a pet peeve which is the labeling of  the players that handle the ball "skill" position players.

As the proud father of former Pioneer center and co-captain Kevin Condardo (1998-2000), I always was concerned about that description. Anyone who doesn't think it requires any "skill" to battle in the trenches, hasn't had the experience of having some 260 pound lineman try to rip your head off. The boys engaging in hand to hand contact on every play may not get the glory, but they certainly do the heavy lifting so I was happy that Weidman made sure to recognize their efforts. It is well earned.

Worth noting
Senior Wes Sullivan, battling a sore shoulder, picked off his first interception of the year against the Falcons. Junior Cam Weeks, playing with the JV's in the fourth quarter came up with his second sack of the season.

Leading men
So let's talk a little about the Pioneer "skill" position players, because after all, no matter how good the line is, they still have to lug it across the goal line.

Midway through the season, Gannon and Berardino are co leaders in scoring with 42 points. Ullian is right on their tails with 37.

Gannon is the leading rusher with 326 yards (9.6 per carry average) and six touchdowns. He also has a receiving TD.

Berardino's five TD receptions leads the team, but A. J. Roberto has the most catches with 13 and Ullian has the most receiving yards with 247.

To the record books
We've talked about Cohee's passing record, but here are some other notable historical facts and milestones:

- The Pioneers have now scored 194 points through six games, and that places them in ninth place all time for season scoring with five games to play. Their 38.8 ppg average is second only to the 45.6 ppg posted by the 1960 team.
- Ullian's four more PAT's extends his career extra point mark to 63. His 22 this year has him on pace to pass his own single season record of 30 set last season.
-With all of Cohee's passing exploits, he hasn't been running the ball as much, but his rushing TD on Saturday gives him 24 points on the season and 158 in his career. That lifts him into a tie for fourth all time with Jamie Solomon (2001-03).
- Ullian's 37 points this year gives him 87 for his career and vaults him into the top 20 of all time Pioneer scorers. His ten points Saturday lifted him into 19th place past Lindsey Ross (80 points, 1972-73) and Jeff Milinazzo (84 points, 2005-07).

Pioneer Pitchmen
If you were paying attention, you may have noticed a couple of former Pioneers in some recent TV commercials.

During last Monday night's Patriot's game, former Pioneer defensive end and fullback Dom Botticelli was out their pitching his family's business, Dom's Sausage in Malden. Botticelli was a co-captain of the 2005 Pioneers along with Gino's brother Tino Cohee and Jared Provost.

And if you watch Sports Sunday on CSNE on Sunday night's you'll see a commercial for JRM Hauling and Recyling owned by the Motzkins of Lynnfield. If you pay close attention, you'll see another former Pioneer captain, Jimmy Scott Motzkin in a cameo appearance.

Motzkin was the quarterback of the 1999 and 2000 Pioneers and went on to star at RPI where he played linebacker and was named the team's defensive MVP in 2005. He led RPI with 84 tackles, 35 unassisted and 11 for losses. He also had an interception and a forced fumble. He was named the Liberty League's Defensive Player of the Week twice and earned RPI's "Junkyard Dog Award.

76 Trombones
Maybe not 76, but a whole bunch as part of the impressive Danvers High Band which was out in full force Saturday afternoon. It took four busses to carry the band to Lynnfield and they put on a tremendous half time show. The band, which has marched in the Rose Parade, performed a sixties salute with a medley of hits by the Doors.

That's it for now. Check back on Tuesday when I'll take a look at what happened around the CAL Small this past weekend.