Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week One

Ipswich had a bye this week before opening up with Marblehead next Friday, but all the other teams in the league saw their first action. Let's take a look.

As predicted here, North Reading appears to be a load this season. They opened at home against Saugus and used their new single wing offense to good effect, rolling over the Sachems 20-0.

The Hornets threw only twice all night as they steamrolled to 232 yards on the ground. Junior running back Carl Lipani, who has played since he was a freshman, appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the new offense. He rushed for 161 yards and three touchdowns (three, nine and seven yards).

Almost as impressive as the offense was the NR defense which blanked Saugus and held them to 124 yards of offense. Saugus did manage to get into the redzone twice, but the Hornet defense, led by linebacker Mike Moscaritolo, shut them down both times.

The Hornets travel to Newburyport this Friday, so we should get a good comparison look at them following that game.

Defending CAL Small champion and preseason CAL/NEC 4 favorite Hamilton-Wenham traveled to Byfield to open up the season last Friday night. I was on hand to hopefully witness Pat Sheehan's first win as head coach at Triton. Unfortunately for Sheehan and his Vikes, Triton continued their snake bitten ways with a 6-0 loss to the Generals.

The General defense was outstanding, shutting down the Lynnfield-like spread offense of Triton. The Vikes made it into H-W territory only once in seven possessions and that only to the General 30. Triton managed only 96 total yards of offense.

Of course it's tough to muster any offense when you can't get your hands on the ball. The Generals still deploy that smash mouth Stack I, but this year they have moved standout junior tailback Trevor Lyons to quarterback with bulldozing runner Elliot Burr as the feature back. With those two backs, the Generals look to play ball control, which they did against Triton.

In the first half, the Generals ran off 31 plays and consumed 16 minutes and 19 seconds of the 20 minute half. The Vikings had the ball for only 3:41 and nine plays.

The General's opening drive turned out to be the only scoring march of the game. H-W drove 76 mind numbing yards in a methodical march that took 15 plays. There was only one pass on the drive and it was a big one.

On fourth and 12 from the 25, it looked like the Vikes might stop the drive and get off the field. But Lyons found Matt Putur over the middle for a 21 yard gain to the four yard line. Two plays later, Burr punched in the TD from two yards out. The kick was no good, but H-W had put up what would turn out to be the winning points.

Triton did better in the second half, picking up 74 yards and holding the Generals to one first down after H-W had picked up 10 in the first half. However, they could never come close to getting into the endzone and the result was another loss for Triton.

"I thought our offense was going to output a little more," Sheehan said after the game. "They did a great job of keeping the ball away from us. The second half I think we made some great defensive adjustments. We started to take the run game away a little bit. Offensively we just couldn't get into a rhythm tonight."

"(Burr) is a big dude, 220 pounds and tough to take down," Sheehan said. "And (Lyons) is getting better at throwing at throwing the ball. We weren't too worried about his arm but he did enough tonight.

"We had a better second half, but we just didn't make enough plays," Sheehan concluded.

The Generals host Pentucket Saturday afternoon.

Georgetown stepped down three divisions and started the season with an impressive 25-14 win over defending Mayflower Small Champion West Bridgewater in the first game for new head coach Paul Sobolewski. The game was supposed to be played in Georgetown, but when some mosquitoes were found to be infected with the West Nile virus in Georgetown, all outdoor sports contests were cancelled so the game was moved to West Bridgewater.

Quarterback Tyler Wade led the way for the Royals with 123 yards rushing, 68 yards passing and two touchdowns. The game was knotted at 6-6 at half time but Georgetown pulled ahead with a TD in the third and early in the fourth to take a 19-6 lead. Both teams added late scores to account for the 25-14 final.

Sobolewski told the Newburyport Daily News that he was particularly happy with the win since the Royals were playing seven sophomores on defense and eight sophomores on offense.

The Royals are off this week then travel to Haverhill to take on Whittier on Saturday, September 24.

Manchester Essex hosted Amesbury, the Pioneers' next opponent, Friday night at Hyland Field, but couldn't control running back Delante Castle and fell 28-7. Castle scored three times to lead Amesbury.

Man-Essex actually led this one 7-6 at the end of the first period, but the Indians ramped it up from there scoring 22 unanswered points to swat the Hornets.

M-E Quarterback Corey Burnham, whose only previous start came against the Pioneers opening night last season,  was at the control for the Hornets. Jacob Fitzgerald scored the Hornets' only TD on a 30 yard run.

Manchester-Essex travels to Saugus to take on the Sachems Friday night.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night, when I'll be starting a special weekly series on a very special Pioneer season.