In last year's 42-21 Pioneer victory over the Crusaders, Bishop Fenwick ran the spread offense similar to Lynnfield's. They had an experienced senior quarterback in Bret Kidik who threw for 2711 yards and 23 touchdowns on the season and a receiver in Ryan Lipka who caught a record setting 115 passes.
They have also ditched the spread offense and now focus on the ground game from the I formation. Unless they go into their Wing T offense, a long time favorite of BF coach Dave Woods. Suffice to say, they pose a lot of preparation problems.
"They do a whole bunch of stuff that we're going to have to prepare for," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "They're in the spread a little bit, the wing T a little bit and the I a little bit. They do a ton of stuff."
In their first two games, both losses, the Crusaders ran the ball 95% of the time. That would be expected with a sophomore quarterback in Nick Bona at the controls. Although he was named a captain as a sophomore, he is still feeling his way with the varsity, and in 34-14 loss to Northeast and a 20-0 defeat to Weston, Woods was hesitant to put the ball in the air.
Against Weston, they trailed 14-0 at halftime and came out running in the second half. Even falling behind 20-0, they continued to run the ball.
Which brings up another oddity about Fenwick. They are not very big, except in the backfield. Their two monster runnings backs are Fran Hannon (6'1" 210 lbs) and freshman Rufus Rushins (6'1" 220) (and isn't that the perfect name for a running back.)
However, their offensive line averages 5'10, 192 lbs.
Their game plan is to clearly pound the two running backs out of the I formation. They like the quick give to Hannon who is the up man in the I. If he doesn't get the ball, he becomes the biggest lineman on the field opening up holes for Rushins, or Eric Razney, another back that sees a lot of action.
Against the big line of Northeast, which the Pioneers tangled with in their scrimmage, Fenwick could not get much going from the I. NE defensive coordinator Joe Papagni put seven or eight men in the box to stop the running game, daring the Crusaders to pass. They never did, but they did switch to the wing T (think Amesbury and Ipswich with inside handoffs and reverses) in the second half and had a little more success.
Against Weston, they ran the I most of the game, and sustained several long drives but were unable to score.
Defensively, Fenwick was no match for the Northeast roadgrader offensive lineman and the Knights jumped out to a 20-7 lead. The Crusaders closed to 20-14 but NE blew it open in the fourth quarter as they wore down the smaller Fenwick line and won going away.
Weston runs the spread like Lynnfield. They didn't throw often, although they did score on a 36 yard TD pass. They did have good success with the quarterback running on the pull and go play out of the spread. Their first two touchdowns came on that play and they also had several other big gainers that way.
With the way Mike Karavetsos has been deftly handling the fakes, look for him to do some damage running the ball.
Which brings us to the Pioneers, which has also shown a split personality so far this year.
Against Newburyport, they ran for 173 yards but only had 12 through the air. But last week against Amesbury, Karavetsos had a breakout day completing 11 of 18 for 214 yards and a TD but they could manage only 44 yards rushing.
They will be looking to get the best of both worlds against Fenwick.
The key will be controlling the two big Fenwick backs and forcing them to go to the air, which they have been reluctant to do. If the Pioneers allow the bruising runners to run wild, that would mean trouble for the locals. Offensively, they need to continue to fine tune the spread and convert some of the plays that Weidman felt were there against Amesbury.
Game time at the Middle School field is 11 am.
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