Wednesday's working scrimmage against Triton may not have been very exciting for the group of Lynnfield rooters who lined the field to take it in, but it provided a much needed vehicle for the Pioneers to work on some important game components against a live opponent.
Instead of a game-like scrimmage, the Pioneers and Vikings broke into several groups to work on some key details.
They started with some 7 v 7 passing at one end of the field while the linemen did some one on one drills at the other end. They moved to some live punting and punt coverage work and then went into 7 v 7 running work.
They finished up with a controlled full team scrimmage with each team alternating 10 offensive and defensive plays.
Viking coach and Lynnfield native Pat Sheehan, brought his Vikings to town along with a coaching staff that sports a heavy shade of blue and gold. Should the Lynnfield Football Alumni ever want to put together a reunion, they would do well to start with the Viking staff.
Helping out Sheehan, a former Pioneer captain and assistant coach, are former Pioneer players Mike Geary (also former assistant coach), Rob LeGrow (now a lawyer in Byfield), Andy Poor and Pat's younger brother Ryan Sheehan.
The Vikings rode their two stud offensive players - quarterback Blaise Whitman and running back Derek Paquette to three touchdowns. Whitman ran one in from 12 yards out and threw a 15 yard scoring strike. Paquette, a bull of a running back, exploded in for a 20 yard score.
The Pioneers' only score came on a 3 yard run by Tyler Palumbo.
Sheehan was impressed with the Pioneers.
"They have a good club," Sheehan told me. "Their defensive front is good. I know they were missing A.K (Andrew Kibarian) today and he will be a big addition when he gets back. They have a good team."
He did see some differences from 2009 when he was the offensive coordinator of the CAL Small champs.
"They're doing a lot of the same things but they're doing some new things that I like that they weren't doing when I was here," Sheehan continued. "They're running a lot outside and they're running some two back stuff that we never ran. That causes some problems. Where do we put our extra guy in the box? Where do we put our extra linebacker? They're running a lot more power game out of that. They're looking pretty good."
Sheehan will be looking to pick up his first win as head coach when the season starts after going through a rough 0-11 season last year despite being in most of those games. How are things going so far?
"It's going good," said Sheehan. "We're excited. We came out a little flat today but this is our third scrimmage already. We played North Reading yesterday (Tuesday) and our starters played about 35-40 plays. I think they may have been a little tired or bored of the scrimmages. We have to find a way to motivate them. But it's been great."
With Whitman and Paquette, the Vikes appear to be ready to contend in their new league.
"They are good players," Sheehan said. "We just need to keep them healthy."
The Pioneers wrap up their preseason with a meeting against Northeast Regional Vocational on Saturday morning at 10 am in Wakefield. The Knights are two time defending Division 4A champs and coming off an 11-2 record last year and 8-5 mark in 2009. They will provide a nice final test for the Pioneers prior to their opener against Newburyport on September 10.
That's it for now.
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