Amesbury Game Preview: Storm the Castle

For the second week in a row, the Pioneers will face a familiar foe from the CAL and CAL Small in the Amesbury Fighting Indians.

The Pioneers and Indians have clashed 38 times since 1973 and Lynnfield owns a 22-15-1 edge in the series. They currently have a two game winning streak as a result of two come from behind victories in the past two years.

In 2009 it was the Evan Panzero strip and Tim Lamusta fumble recovery for a 29 yard touchdown with six minutes to play that lifted the Pioneers to a 14-10 win.

Last year, the Pioneers trailed 13-7 at halftime but exploded for 23 unanswered points in the second half to cruise to a 30-13 win. That outburst included two touchdowns by this year's tri-captain Mike Thomas.

The Indians went on to finish 4-7 last year and lost significant firepower to graduation. Gone are quarterback Tyler Lay, running backs Ian McLaughlin (who also anchored the defense) and Matt Enaire and receiver/kicker Nick Croce.

Left behind to pick up the slack are three dynamic running backs in Delante Castle, C. J. Collins and Stephan Deas. Castle and Deas carried only four times against the Pioneers last year, but they gained 53 yards. Both are electric. Castle dismembered Manchester Essex last week with 110 yards and three TD's in 11 carries in a 28-7 rout of the Hornets. Collins carried nine times for 109 yards.

There was some poor tackling on the part of the Hornets and the Pioneers are going to have to make sure they wrap up those runners or they will run wild again.

The biggest hole that Amesbury head coach Thom Connors has to fill is at quarterback. He held a four player tryout this preseason and the winner was Matt Talbot, who was listed as a running back last year.

Connors has admitted that Talbot has not played very much at quarterback, so expect most of his contributions to come in the running game. Against M/E, Talbot threw sparingly (1 for 6 for 6 yards), but then again, with Castle and Collins, he didn't have to put it up much.

The Pioneers will likely load up on the running game and dare Talbot to beat them through the air. The Lynnfield defense was solid against the run against Newburyport in the first half but the Clippers broke through in the second half behind Tyler Martin's strong performance. The Indians will come in thinking they can run against the Pioneers.

Offensively, Lynnfield will be looking to improve in the passing game as they try to get into the win column. The Pioneers were solid running the ball against Newburyport, picking up 173 yards on the ground behind quarterback Mike Karavetsos (105 yds) and Thomas (68 yds). The Pioneers averaged 5.2 yards per carry.

Karavetsos was 2 for 9 for 12 yards passing, so any pick up there should give the Amesbury defense something else to worry about.

But ultimately the Pioneers want to put the game in the hands of Talbot and to do that, they need to corral the Indians running game. The extent to which they can do that should determine the outcome of this one.

Game time at the Middle School is 11 am.