Hamilton-Wenham Leftovers

The numbness is just starting to wear off from yesterday's stunning ending. Obviously Pioneer fans were hoping for a different result, but it is hard not to congratulate the Generals for a great comeback win and a truly championship season. Sure there was a lot of trash talk before, during and after the game, but that's high school football and that goes on all the time.

But give the Generals their due. They beat all comers, including their closest challengers Lynnfield and Newburyport. They did it on the field, without resorting to tiebreakers and I'm sure they will represent the CAL Small well in the playoffs.

"They're having a great year," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said after the game. "They beat some good teams and they played well today. They're a good team."

It's also good to see a team that has been down get a chance to win a championship. The Generals suffered through a 2-8 campaign last year and were 5-5 when the current senior class were sophomores. This will be their first trip to the postseason.

"I'm so proud of these kids," H-W head coach Andrew Morency said after the game. "You're talking about a veteran bunch of senior leading group that was on the field. Kids that went through their lumps for a little bit the last couple of years and being able to finish strong this way took a whole team effort."

Morency was gracious in victory in his remarks regarding the Pioneers.

"It was a slugfest. I give coach Weidman and that team all the credit in the world," Morency said. "They're a helluva group of athletes. They've set records this year. Coming into this we knew we had our hands full. We really did. We did everything we could to kind of contain what they do on offense and hopefully we thought maybe we'd have a shot on our offensive side of the ball. And that's kind of what happened."

"Lynnfield is a powerhouse," Morency went on. "We knew it would take a team effort and we knew it would be a nailbiter. For us (Lynnfield) has been the standard. We've measured outselves against them. Coming into the game watching them on film you can't help but feel a little intimidated but for us we knew we had a bunch of guys who wanted it. This is something we're not completely surpirised by but we're certainly grateful we're on top in the end."

As for Weidman, the coach was pretty much inconsolable after the game. When a reporter (okay me) remarked that it was still a great season for Lynnfield despite the loss, he wasn't really having any of it.

"We're disappointed right now," he said. "It's going to be that way. You can reflect back on having a good year after the season is over."

It was the appropriate response considering the immediacy of the situation and the coach's overall competitiveness. But when he does have a chance to reflect, he will realize that this team will end up ranking somewhere near the top of best Pioneer teams in history.

The Drive
Not to reopen the wound that hasn't even had a chance to heal yet, but it's worth taking a look at the final game winning drive by the Generals.

They took over on their own 19 with 3:13 left in the game and marched 74 yards to the Lynnfield seven to set up the winning field goal.

In analyzing the drive, it's obvious that the key General was quarterback Dylan Keith. The Pioneers had done a pretty good job on Keith up to that last drive. He was 3 for 12 for 42 yards including a TD. But on the drive, he was 5 for 7 for 36 yards. He also ran twice for 12 yards.

The other General who came alive on the drive was power back Elliot Burr. The Pioneers had held Burr to only 15 yards on 8 carries (1.9 yd average) up to that point. But in the drive, he carried three times for 14 yards (4.8 yd average) including the last two to get the ball from the 16 to the seven.

The biggest play of the drive came with under two minutes remaining when the Generals faced a fourth and one at the Lynnfield 42. A stop there and the game would have been pretty much over. But Trevor Lyons, who burned the Pioneers all day with 84 yards on nine carries and a score, took another counter handoff and picked up five yards and a first down to keep the chains moving.

"We feel good about that two minute drill," Morency said. "After practicing it all year for moments like this and finally being able to use it in a game at the right moment and we kind of had it in our hip pocket. It worked out."

I'll say.

The "What If" Game
Reviewing a one point loss, it is always tempting to look back on one or two plays that if they had turned out differently, might have changed the outcome.

For example, I'm sure the everyone is focusing on the holding call on the point after try after the Pioneers' first touchdown. That moved the ball back to the 13 yard line and forced co-captain Steve Ullian to try a 30 yard PAT attempt that ultimately went just wide left.

There is no question it was a bizarre call.

"I've never seen one," Weidman responded when asked when was the last time he saw a holding call on a point after try. "We don't even tell them to use their hands. We tell them to get big and get in the way. But what are you going to do?"

So some would make the argument that if the penalty had not been called, Ullian would have booted it through and the Pioneers would have had one more point. The progression from there is that the final field goal would have made it 16-16 and the Pioneers would have at least had another chance in overtime.

But here is why such extrapolations don't really work.

Let's say the penalty wasn't called, Ullian nailed it and the Pioneers went up 10-7 instead of 9-7. Then when the Pioneers scored again, even with the missed PAT, they would have been up 16-7 not 15-7.

Well when the Generals scored early in the fourth period, trailing by two points, they opted for the two point try and the pass was incomplete leaving the Pioneers with a 15-13 lead.

But if they had trailed 16-7 at that point, they would have been trailing 16-13, and instead of going for the two, they would have probably just kicked the extra point making it 16-14.

So in essence, when the Generals took over on the final drive, it would have been the exact same situation except rather than trailing 15-13 needing a field goal to win, they would have been down 16-14 needing a three pointer for the victory.

The only thing that would have changed is the final score from 16-15 to 17-16.

But the point is really this. You can't just cherry pick a particular play and assume everything that followed after that in the game would remain the same. It doesn't work that way. Each play is linked to the one before it. Change one and the game likely goes in a totally different direction.

Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

Amateur Hour
Regular readers of the blog will note that I really try to focus on the positive. This is high school football after all so there is no need to dwell on the negative. That is why I debated long and hard before including this entry, but I feel it really needs to be noted.

The game announcing from the press box during the contest was really too much.

Look, I understand it is high school football and I'm all for enthusiasm when the home team does well. That's normal, to be expected and perfectly okay. But the basic job of the game announcer is to give you down and distance, who carried the ball or caught the pass and who made the tackle.

I knew we were in for a long afternoon during the introduction of the General's starting lineup when the announcer attached lame nicknames to each player. Lameness in and of itself is not the worst thing in the world and can be amusing, and having raised two high school boys, my guess is that the players were rolling their eyes during that performance more than anyone in the stands.

Once the game started it got worse when the announcer started exhorting the crowd to support the defense or "make some noise" or some other such thing. Again, annoying, but basically harmless.

But then he stepped over the line. First he urged the band to start making noise while the Pioneers were on offense, clearly unaware that this is not permitted. Fortunately whoever was in charge of the H-W band knew the protocol and ignored his request.

Then he really went way over the line late in the game when he was actually calling out the Pioneer plays as they unfolded. "Sweeeep" he called out during one of Lynnfield's plays. Now we're talking about actually affecting the play on the field. Totally not okay.

Again, I understand that he is a volunteer, probably a parent of one of the players or former players and I'm sure a pillar in the community. But if he wanted to root, root, root for the home team, he should have taken his pom poms and gone into the stands with the other General fans and screamed to his heart's delight.

Cheerleaders belong in the stands, not in the press box.

However, what it did do was make us appreciate the professionalism of our very own Voice of the Pioneers TomWaisnor. I'm looking forward to hearing a pro do a game on Thanksgiving Day.

Karmic Coincidence?
In my preview post last Thursday, I recounted the story of the exciting 13-13 tie between the Pioneers and Generals in 1991. Little did I know that Saturday's contest would come down to a General kick much like the game 19 years ago.

But unfortunately for Pioneer fans, where Mike McGowan's kick for H-W went wide in 1991 allowing Lynnfield to avoid the loss, on Saturday, James Brao split the uprights on the field goal to win the game.

Could it have been some kind Karma payback for the game nearly two decades ago?

The high school football gods work in mysterious ways.

Return of the Captain
It was good to see co-captain Jeff Gannon back on the field Saturday  Gannon returned after missing two games after suffering a knee injury against Amesbury. He carried 11 times for 46 yards and was in the middle of the action on defense from his familiar linebacking spot.

Notable
- After Saturday's contest, the Pioneers now have scored 315 points, solidly in second place all time both in total and in average points per game. They will have a chance to add to that total on Thanksgiving Day.

-With his two touchdowns Saturday, Rick Berardino increased his lead in team scoring. He now has 72 points. Gannon has 56 and Ullian has 52.

- Berardino's 6th TD reception also moves him into a second place tie for single season touchdown receptions. Justin Haskell also had six in 1996. Lindsey Ross leads with nine in 1973.

- This was the 38th game between H-W and Lynnfield with the Generals now holding an 19-18-1 edge. They have outscored the Pioneers 635-566.

- The CAL Small championship the last two years has come down to the H-W Lynnfield game. Last season the Pioneers clinched with a 20-3 win and the Generals won it this year with their 16-15 victory.

That's it for now. Check back Tuesday when I'll take a look around the CAL Small.