Heading to the House of Horrors

At this time of year, it's quite traditional for people to visit a Haunted House or two. So it's therefore appropriate that the Pioneers get in the true spirit of season on the Friday before Halloween by trekking north to their own personal House of Horrors - World War Memorial Stadium in Newburyport.

Now I chronicle the following not to make anyone nervous or to be an alarmist, but only to lay out an obvious fact. For the Pioneers, playing the Clippers in general and traveling to Newburyport in particular has rarely been a pleasant experience.

The Pioneers began playing the Clippers in 1973 when Lynnfield joined the Cape Ann League. In the 37 games played between the schools since then, the Pioneers have come out on top a grand total of nine times.

Playing the Clippers in the quaint little stadium behind Newburyport High School has turned into the Nightmare on High Street for the Pioneers. In 18 trips to World War Memorial Stadium, the Pioneers have enjoyed the bus ride home only three times. The last time they celebrated a win on Newburyport sod was in 1986 – 24 years ago.

Since that 19-7 win by the Pioneer team that would go on to play in the school's only Superbowl, Lynnfield has made 11 straight futile trips to the “Home Port of the Clippers” as the scoreboard proclaims.

The only other years the Pioneers have won in Newburyport were 1982 (14-7) and 1978 (28-8).

Playing the Clippers at Pioneer Field at LMS hasn't been a whole lot better. In games against Newburyport at home, the Pioneers have posted a 5-14 mark.

Prior to last year’s dominating  27-13  win in the de facto CAL Small Championship game, the Pioneers had lost six straight and 16 of the prior 17 meetings between the schools.

Granted, the Clippers have had a good deal of success in general over the years as one of the CAL powerhouses, so the string of dominance over the Pioneers is not merely the result of some hex. But there is no denying that Newburyport certainly has had Lynnfield’s number over the nearly four decades they have been meeting.

All of that mean nothing as far as the game on Friday night is concerned, by the way.

The Pioneers come into the game riding high after a tough, come-from-behind win over the Amesbury Indians last week. Lynnfield would like nothing better than to notch another league win and hand the Clippers their second, and possibly crippling, second league loss. Dispelling some of the ghosts of the past along the way would simply be a side benefit.

“They’re a good team,” said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. “They run some “I” and they run some single back. They throw it a little bit too. They’re definitely different than (Amesbury). They have a couple of good running backs and the quarterback throws a good ball. They also have a couple of big kids.”

It's hard to get a handle on the strength of this Clipper team. They come in with a 3-4 record that is broken into two distinct parts. They are the only CAL Small team to play a full CAL Schedule, meaning they play all of the CAL Large teams in addition to their regular CAL Small schedule.

In fact, in a quirky arrangement, the Clipper games against the Large schools count in the CAL Large standings but obviously not for Newburyport.

In the four games against the Large teams, the Clippers have sprung an upset, played to a tough loss and been blown out twice.

In the past two weeks Newburyport was whitewashed by Wilmington 29-0 and North Andover 40-0. Those games really need to be discarded for any real analysis purposes. NA is simply on a level well above the CAL Small and the Wilmington loss was played in the same Nor’easter that the Pioneers battled in Chelsea.

The one thing you can take out of that Wilmington game however is that it shows just how reliant the Clippers are on the passing game. The Wildcats were able to run through the storm with their ground game, similar to what the Pioneers did to the Red Devils. Newburyport, however, fizzled when quarterback Ryan O’Connor was shackled by the howling winds and the Wildcat defense.

When the weather, or an opposing defense, shuts down O’Connor, the Clippers have limited options. The main reason for that is the loss of their main running back, Andrew Sokol, who is gone for the second season in a row with a torn ACL.

In Newburyport’s opening game, Hamilton Wenham put enormous pressure on O’Connor, bottling up the Clipper offense. The result was a 14-7 league loss putting the Clippers in the hole right off the bat.

In the Clippers’ second game which was another rain storm in North Reading, O’Connor struggled (1 of 9, 38 yards, 1 interception). They led 6-2 at halftime only because of an interception return by Dean Cataldo.

In the second half, they changed gears and had Sokol simply run behind their mammoth offensive line which includes sophomore Tyler Souther (6’2” 270), senior Timothy Lawler (6’5” 270) and sophomore Kyle Monahan (6’0” 265). The Clippers rolled over the young, tired Hornets, scored twice and came away with a 19-2 win.

With Sokol gone, their running options have been weakened. Sophomore Tyler Martin and junior Tyler Cusack have filled in at running back, but they are both a cut below Sokol.

However, when O’Connor is on his game, the Clippers become very dangerous.

They upset Pentucket 21-18 in the final minutes on a 59 yard pass from O’Connor to Brett Fontaine. They also blocked a kick that led to another score.

Against Ipswich, O’Connor was hot, connecting on 9 of 14 for 152 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 17-12 win.

Against Masconomet, O’Connor was again on fire, hitting on 15 of 24 attempts for 144 yards, 1 TD and one score. It wasn’t quite enough as the Chieftains marched the length of the field in the final minutes to prevent the upset 20-15.

So the pattern is clear. Pioneer defensive coordinator Greg Haberland has to find a way to stop O’Connor if the Pioneers are going to beat the Clippers.

O’Connor, a well spoken senior, was a guest of Pete Kelly on the WNBP pregame show before last week’s Newburyport-North Andover game. He noted that the team has suffered some injuries but that a lot of his teammates have stepped up. He call Cataldo the “core of the defense” and said that the Clippers have a lot of interchangeable parts.

When asked how he saw the CAL Small race, O’Connor said that, “Lynnfield is the front runner. That’s is a team that is real tough.”

He also talked about the Clippers tough schedule including the murderous stretch they are in now facing Pentucket, Masco, Wilmington, North Andover and Lynnfield in a row.

“We looked at the schedule at the beginning of the year and asked ‘what have we got ourselves into,” O’Connor said.

Dan Guttenplan, sports editor of the Newburyport Daily news, was also a guest on the show and said that “injuries have plagued” the Clippers so far this year. He said “they have looked good in spots.” He also said they are not deep but “they have a lot of good athletes, guys that can step in.” He noted that they have good defensive backs in John Wright and Fontaine.

Clearly the Newburyport defense is going to have to slow down the Pioneer offense, something no one has been able to do to date. The fewest points the Pioneers have scored all year was the 28 against Chelsea, and that was as much a result of the weather as the Devil defense.

The Lynnfield offense will not be at full strength however. According to Weidman, co-captain Jeff Gannon will not be available for the game Friday. That will put more responsibility on junior Mike Thomas who filled in with a strong second half against Amesbury. The Pioneers will need a similar effort this week.

Thomas is a capable substitute and is in fact the second leading rusher on the team with 407 yards to Gino Cohee's 482. He has scored five touchdowns and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry. He has also shown the ability to hit the home run, breaking a 97 yarder against Cathedral and a 41 yarder against Amesbury last week.

However, if the Clippers allow the Pioneer offense to run free, they could be in trouble since they have clearly struggled to score points this year.  Newburyport comes in with a total of 79 points scored. Of that, six came from the defense and Sokol scored 15, so the Clipper offense without Sokol has tallied 58 points in seven games- an 8.3 per game average.

The Pioneer starting defense has given up only 25 points all season, so that would appear to pose a problem for Newburyport. That said, the Clippers, under head coach Ed Gaudiano, are always well prepared and very scary, especially in their House of Horrors.

The Pioneers will likely not take anything for granted.

Pioneers on the Air

As mentioned before, the game will be featured on Fox25 High School Friday, so expect a circus like atmosphere in Newburyport.

Also, the game will be broadcast on WNBP AM 1450 and on wnbp.com. Pete Kelly’s pregame show is broadcast at 5 pm.

Spirit of '77

Finally, since I started this post in somewhat depressing fashion, I will end it on a more uplifting note.

So we will be heading back in time to relive one of the more positive Lynnfield experiences in the Pioneer-Clipper series.

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for November 12, 1977.

The Pioneers of 1977, under head coach Bill Rodan and captained by Steve Defillippo were struggling heading into their game with the Clippers at Pioneer Field at LMS. Lynnfield sported a 2-7 record, and were coming off a 27-8 beating at the hands of Ipswich.

There was no reason to expect that things would get any better on that fall afternoon with juggernaut Newburyport coming to town. This would be the fifth meeting ever between the schools, and the Clippers had manhandled the Pioneers in the previous four games winning all of them by an aggregate score of 133-18.

The 1977 edition of the Clippers expected to administer another beating to the Pioneers. They came into the contest atop the Cape Ann League standings with a 7-0 record and were riding a 38 game winning streak, the longest in the state at that time.

Well you can probably guess the rest. Actually, you probably can’t. We go to the game story in the Lynnfield Villager.

Lynnfield held Newburyport  without a first down in the opening quarter and only 13 yards of offense in the first half.

The Pioneers had the Clippers on their heels all day.

Lynnfield opened the second quarter with a drive to the Newburyport 16 yard line but stalled and turned the ball over on downs.

Later in the period, the Pioneers sacked Clipper quarterback R. J. Welch, forcing the Clippers to punt and Steve Bunker returned it to midfield. Seven plays later, Eric Hansen, the number three leading scorer in Lynnfield school history, bulled in from the two to give the Pioneers a 6-0 lead. Hansen picked up 44 of the 50 yards on the drive.

The Clippers picked up the pace in the second half, marching to the Lynnfield 13 yard  line on their opening possession after the break. On 3^rd down, Welch fired one into the endzone but sophomore Rich Erb made a diving interception to end the threat.

Newburyport had another golden opportunity midway in the fourth quarter. Back to back penalties forced the Pioneers into a 3^rd and 30 from their own 12. They fumbled and the Clippers recovered giving them a first and goal from the Pioneer six yard line.

But Lynnfield’s inspired defense held forcing a fourth and goal from the four. Again it was Erb who saved the day, picking off his second interception in the endzone to preserve the Pioneers’ shaky 6-0 lead.

The Clippers were still not done, playing with desperation, knowing their record setting streak was on the line.

The Pioneers drove to midfield and were forced to punt. Newburyport blocked it giving them another scoring chance with time running out. Unable to run against the charged up Pioneers, they went to the air. Welch threw four straight incompletions as the clock wound down and the scoreboard still read 6-0 in favor of the Pioneers.

Newburyport's streak thudded to an end  at 38 on the field at the Lynnfield Middle School at the hands of the giant killing Pioneers.

According to the report in the Villager, “Lynnfield took over and one play later mayhem broke loose. The frenzied Pioneer crowd exploded with excitement at the incredible upset victory.”

The Pioneers held the Clippers to 108 total yards of offense and only six first downs in the improbable win. There was outstanding play from the line of Defillippo, Bill Long, John Mastrangelo, George McCarthy, linebackers Mark Owens, Hansen, Mark Gianelli, Mark Connolly, Mark Supino and Erb.

That was the apex of the 1977 season for the Pioneers. Ten days later,  the Pioneers traveled to North Reading on Thanksgiving Day forced to take on their archrival without the injured Hansen. Owens would suffer a first half injury and missed most of the game. The depleted the Pioneers were thumped 30-0 to finish the year 3-7.

But that would take nothing away from the defeat of mighty Newburyport on that November day which still stands as one of the brightest moments in Lynnfield football history.

That's it for now. Check back after the game on Friday.