It's Now or Never

"Nobody ever defended anything successfully.  There is only attack and attack and attack some more." - General George Patton.

Wise words from the Hamilton resident for whom the Generals' sports teams are nicknamed. And it might well be a description of  the Pioneers' game plan when they face the Generals in a must win game in Hamilton on Saturday.

The stakes are simple. If Hamilton Wenham wins, they clinch the CAL title and start making plans for the post season. A Pioneer victory lets Lynnfield survive to fight another day, try and beat North Reading on Thanksgiving and root for Amesbury to beat Newburyport.

But accomplishing step one - beating the Generals - won't be easy.

In compiling a 4-0 CAL Small record (6-2 overall) Hamilton Wenham has proven to be tough on both sides of the ball, but their defense, in particular, has stood out. In their six wins, the Generals have allowed 14 points or less. In their two losses, they have allowed 34 and 25 points. They have allowed a total of 116 points or 14.7 per game.

“Our defense has been the back bone of our team in essence all year," General head coach Andrew Morency told me after their 20-6 win over Amesbury last Friday night.

So the plan should be clear: Unleash the cannons and fire at will. The Pioneer defense has put up better numbers, allowing only 82 points total (9.1 per game), but it would appear that the best way to beat H-W is to pressure them like they haven’t been pressed all season.

You can come to several conclusions in analyzing their schedule. In their five games against teams with losing records (5-29 combined), the Generals are 4-1, but their average margin of victory is less than six points. In their three games against teams with winning records (19-8 combined), H-W is 2-1 with an average winning margin of 10 points in the two victories.

“We kind of played to our competition a little bit,” Morency said to John Shimer of the Newburyport News after the Amesbury game. “I don’t know what that means, but when you play big teams, you’ve got to rise up.”

That has certainly been the case with the Generals. They beat Pentucket 27-14, Newburyport 14-7 and Amesbury 20-6 in “big” games. They lost to Wilmington 34-6, but that final score is deceptive. They were down only 7-0 at halftime before succumbing to the CAL Large Wildcats.

But when they have played struggling teams, H-W has also struggled.

They were stunned 25-7 by 3-6 Bishop Fenwick, a team the Pioneers handled easily. They were fortunate to escape with wins against 0-9 Triton (14-8),  1-7 North Reading (13-12) and 1-7 Georgetown 12-10.

I was at the Georgetown game and will back up Pioneer dad Fred Roberto in saying that the Generals did not look good. Although to be fair, the Generals were experimenting with sophomore running back Trevor Lyons at quarterback instead of regular starter Dylan Keith.  I also saw them against Amesbury and they looked like world beaters. So perhaps that illustrates Morency’s comment about his Generals playing to the level of the competition.

Well that will be of little solace to the Pioneers, since this is the biggest game of the year for both teams and you would expect the Generals to be sky high. This will also be their first home game since September 25 as they have played five straight road games which also adds to the emotional mix.

However, there is another way to break down the Generals’ results.

Their two most dominating wins have come against Pentucket and Amesbury, two teams that run the wing T offense. The Indians could do very little with the General defense which was disciplined, stayed at home and didn’t allow Amesbury any operating room.

That appeared to be the same situation with Pentucket.

Wilmington is an old fashioned power I team, and the Generals hung with them for a half.

H-W beat Newburyport, which runs a hybrid offense with some power and some spread.

So they have done very well in games against either conventional or Wing T offenses, both primarily run oriented attacks.

But in games against the full spread, the Generals have not fared as well. They defeated Pat Sheehan’s Triton squad 14-8. They were blown out by Bishop Fenwick 25-7. They needed to survive a two point try to escape from North Reading with a 13-12 win. They had to come from behind to get past Georgetown 12-10.

Could it be they played “down” to the competition or did they simply have trouble handling the spread? That is the big question coming into the game.

If it was a question of simply stopping the spread, H-W has a serious problem on their hands. The Pioneers have a more explosive offense than any of the previous spread team the Generals have faced.

Georgetown had a good deal of success by sprinting out junior quarterback Tyler Wade and giving him the option to run or pass. Wade threw for 127 yards and ran for 12. Look for the Pioneers to try to exploit that with quarterback Gino Cohee and receivers A. J. Roberto, Rick Berardino, Steve Ullian and Pete Foustoukas.

The Pioneers will also get a boost by the return of co-captain of Jeff Gannon. The running back/linebacker has missed the last two games but according to Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman, Gannon will be available for some action on Saturday. His return is huge both for his on field contribution and leadership.

Offensively, the Generals have solid weapons in power back Elliot Burr and speedback Trevor Lyons. Quarterback Dylan Keith can run and throw and he has two outstanding targets in Jake Prince and James Love. They look like they should be able to score more, but they have not instead relying on solid defense and time consuming drives. But don't let that fool you into thinking they are not dangerous on offense. They can move the ball.

"I'm looking for them to do exactly what they do," said Weidman. "They play tough. They run the ball hard. They have a very capable quarterback who throws well and they have several receivers who can make plays."

Morency, too, knows he is in for a battle.

"This week will be special," the coach said. "We've been on a five game road trip. The kids are dying to get home. We can't wait. We know Lynnfield is tough. They're a great program and we're going to have our hands full but we'll be ready."

Last year, the Generals came to Lynnfield and the Pioneers beat them 21-3 to clinch the title. The Generals will be looking to return the favor on Saturday. That irony was not lost on Morency.

"It's funny how things work out in football," he said. "Lynnfield poses special challenges and matchup problems. We'll be ready but we have a lot of work to do this week."

1991 Showdown
In view of the upcoming battle on Saturday, I decided to dig through the archives to find the last truly big game between the Pioneers and Generals.

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for October 19, 1991.

In the fall of 1991, the Pioneers and Generals both came into this matchup at Pioneer Field undefeated. Lynnfield was 5-0 while Hamilton Wenham was 4-0. Both were 3-0 in CAL so this was a battle for first place. There was only one division in those days, so it was a ten team battle royale, so one loss usually knocked you out of contention.

The Generals were led by bruising running back Mike McGowan the CAL’s leading scorer. He was also the General’s placekicker and came into the contest averaging 17.5 points per game. The Pioneers countered with an attack led by quarterback Chris Sutera, running back Steve Migliero (fourth in the league in scoring) and receivers David Picard, Greg Fellows and tight end Billy Adams, son of head coach Bill Adams. (See my Villager photo below)

But the story of both of these teams was not on the offensive side of the ball. It was their tenacious defenses that keyed their success, and this game illustrated that perfectly.

It was hand to hand combat as both teams hammered each other yielding ground grudgingly. The two teams combined for only 305 yards of offense. The hard hitting resulted in nine turnovers between the teams, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries by the Pioneers and two interceptions and two fumble recoveries for the Generals.

The Pioneers “Mad Dog” defense led by Adams, Dan Tamarro, who was hurt early but returned in the second half, Harry Loomos, Greg Fellows, Carmine Nappa, Jay Nugent, Dogan Tuncel, Picard and Sutera was at its snarling best.

“It was just a slugfest out there,” Adams told me after the game. “Two excellent teams brawling it out. It was a battle of the unbeaten and it couldn’t get much better.”

The Generals drew first blood on their second possession of the game when McGowan broke free and rumbled 38 yards for the score. He added the PAT and H-W led 7-0.

After that score, the Pioneers held the Generals to only one first down until midway in the fourth period. In their final 11 possessions of the game, H-W managed to get into Lynnfield territory only three times, once on an interception and twice only to the Pioneer 48 yard line.

In such a defensive battle, it was appropriate that the Pioneer defense would tie the game which they did midway in the second period. Fellows picked off a Dave Craigen pass at the 38 and sprinted to the corner of the endzone. Picard booted the PAT to knot the score at 7-7.

The score would remain that way until the end of regulation, and appropriately, it would take an overtime period to settle this one.

The Pioneers had the first possession from the ten yard line and scored on their first play when Sutera ran a naked reverse to cruise into the endzone. Ominously, Picard’s PAT try clanged off the upright and the Pioneers led 13-7 and had to face the league’s best runner on four downs from the ten.

Things got worse in a hurry.

On the General’s first play, McGowan fumbled, but when the pile was untangled, H-W’s Steve Lombara was left holding the ball - at the Lynnfield one foot line.

The Pioneers stopped McGowan on second down, but on third down he plowed into the endzone, tying the score at 13-13. He dusted himself off and prepared to kick the extra point that would give the Generals a dramatic one point victory.

Adams then called a time out to ice McGowan. Most of the large crowd had already resigned itself to a well played loss that would drop the Pioneers into second place.

Play resumed. McGowan took his stance, moved into the ball and drilled it. But incredibly for the Pioneers, the kick sailed just above but outside the right upright. The Pioneers had “won” 13-13.

It’s not a win, but it’s not a loss either,” Adams told me after the game. “It would have been a tragedy if we had lost that game. Neither team deserved to lose. That was one of the best high school games you’re ever going to see.”

And he was right.

As testimony to how hard the game was played, both the Pioneers and Generals suffered their first losses of the season the following week. Lynnfield was hammered by Ipswich 35-14 and H-W lost a tough 7-0 battle with Masco.

It would be the only loss for the Pioneers in 1991 as they then reeled off four straight wins to finish the year at 9-1-1. They remained in the hunt until Thanksgiving Day and depending on how things broke, determining the CAL champion could have come down to a coin flip. But Ipswich beat H-W that day to earn the league title and the Pioneers settled for second place.

That Pioneer squad was the most successful Lynnfield team for the next 17 years until last year's team posted a 10-1 regular season mark, captured the title and went on to the post season.

With just as much on the line as in 1991, something tells me we may be in for another exciting tussle with the Generals on Saturday.

Game time in Hamilton is 1 pm.

Veterans Day
Finally, I know there are many former Pioneers who have served or are serving in our Armed Forces so I want to wish them a Happy Veterans Day. Thanks to them and all the brave men and women in our military who put their lives on the line so we can obsess about football games.

We owe them all a great debt of gratitude.

That’s it for now. Check back for my post after the game.