Northeast Scrimmage, First Peek at Hornets and More

Lots of things to get to as we get ready for the Pioneers' opening game against Newburyport on Saturday.

First a reminder to pick up a copy of the Villager on Wednesday for my comprehensive season preview. I talk to head coach Neal Weidman about the season ahead and we go over the starters and key contributors at each position both offensively and defensively.

Let's begin with a wrap up of the Pioneers' final preseason scrimmage.

"Northeast"-er Buffets Pioneers
The Pioneers were nursing a 13-12 lead at halftime of their final preseason scrimmage against Northeast Metro last Saturday. But five plays into the second half, the complexion of the game changed completely and the end result was a convincing 28-13 win for the Knights.

Northeast came into the traditional Labor Day weekend tilt against the Pioneers as defending two time Division 4A Super Bowl champions. They look hungry for a third as they displayed a devastating power running offense that rolled through the Pioneer defense for 381 yards. Running back Bobby Novello led a rushing attack behind a huge forward wall that moved the ball pretty much at will.

The Pioneer offense, clearly improving over recent scrimmages against Triton and Masco, kept up with the Knights in the first half of the game-like scrimmage. After Northeast marched 70 yards to take a 6-0 lead on their first possession, the Pioneers answered back with a 70 yard drive of their own. The big play was a 62 yard catch and run from junior quarterback Mike Karavetsos to junior Alex Pascucci that got the Pioneers to the Northeast three yard line. Tri-captain Mike Thomas bulled his way in from there and junior Alex Roper nailed the PAT to give Lynnfield a 7-6 lead.

Once again though, the Knights went on the attack, bulldozing 80 yards on 16 plays to take a 12-7 lead.

The Pioneers answered once again on a 75 yard scoring drive. Karavetsos and Pascucci hooked up again for a big gainer, this one for 47 yards and a score. The kick was wide left but Lynnfield had a 13-12 lead.

Northeast mounted another drive and got as far as the Lynnfield five yard line. However a huge third down sack by junior DJ DeGeorge pushed them back to the 16 and time ran out on the Knights.

Things went south quickly for the Pioneers in the second half. On the first play of the third period, a Northeast lineman batted a Karavetsos pass, caught it himself and roared in for a 25 yard defensive score. Northeast made the two point conversion to take a 20-13 lead.

Things didn't get much better from there. The Pioneers took the following kick at their own 20, lost five yards and then gave up a safety when the snap from center sailed over the punter's head.

Leading 22-13, Northeast put together another long drive, this one 60 yards on 10 plays to score again and go up 28-13.

The Pioneers answered with a drive of their own but stalled at the Northeast 10 yard line. The fourth period was cut in half to give the teams a chance to work with the younger players in alternating 10 play sets and the game ended with a 28-13 Northeast win.

"We knew they were pretty good this year," Weidman told me afterwards. "They scrimmaged some good teams and have done well against them. That was a nice offensive line with two good backs."

"To be honest, if that ball doesn't get tipped at the beginning of the second half and we go down and score on that drive, we probably win the scrimmage," Weidman said.

I spoke to former Pioneer defensive coordinator Joe Papagni who now fills the same role with Northeast after the game and asked him if their running game was as good as it looked.

"We lost two linemen from last year, but the replacements are good," said Papagni, current Pioneer head lacrosse coach. "The kids are picking it up but the running backs are what makes it. Those kids are determined kids. They just want the ball all the time and they are competing against each other. That makes for a nice situation."

What did Papagni think of the Pioneers?

"Their backs made some of us miss," he said. "Our tackling is usually better than that. They seem to have a lot of numbers and they never give up.  It's good to see some of my lacrosse kids out there. Neal's got some multiple sport athletes out there so that's good."

The Pioneer offense picked up 201 yards in the 3 1/2 quarter scrimmage. Karavetsos was sharp completing 10 of 12 for 154 yards and a touchdown. His only incompletion other than the interception came on his last pass of the scrimmage. He also rushed five times for 18 yards.

Pascucci caught five passes for 116 yards and a score and senior Dan Ashwell had four receptions for 31 yards.

Sophomore Kyle McGah had a pair of carries for 13 yards.

Quick Start for A. J. Roberto
Not surprisingly, former Pioneer captain A. J. Roberto made his presence felt in his first game at Merrimack Saturday night. According to the game stats posted on the Merrimack web site, Roberto had three solo tackles in the Warriors' 60-3 demolition of WPI.

I ran into him at the Northeast scrimmage prior to the game and asked him what the biggest difference was between between high school and college ball.

"It's a lot faster and there's a lot more to learn," A. J. told me. He said the defensive playbook is about an inch and half thick.

I'm thinking those first three tackles are just the beginning of what will be an outstanding career for Roberto at Merrimack.

Hornets Should Sting This Year
It's never too early to take a quick look at the Pioneers' archrivals over in North Reading, especially this year when the Hornets look to be one of the primary contenders for the CAL/NEC 4 title.

Triton scrimmaged North Reading the day before facing the Pioneers and I asked Viking head coach Pat Sheehan how the Hornets looked.

"They are going to be a tough team," Sheehan told me. "They have a big line and have gone to "toe-to-toe" splits. They are tall and long and I'd say they look to be in the 220 pound range. They are running the Peabody single wing very similar to what Austin Prep runs - like novocaine. They love fourth and one. They are going to be a lot to prepare for with all the shifting they do.

"They moved the ball on us in smaller chunks, but they kept moving it," Sheehan said. "Offensively we moved the ball pretty well against them mostly through the air. It was a pretty evenly contested match."

"(North Reading head) coach (Jeff) Wall brought in Ed Melanson from Peabody and that's why they are running that offense. Wall does a tremendous job with the defense. Every year they haven't done very well with wins and losses but they were like us last year where they just compete every game until the end."

I asked Pat to compare the Hornets to the Pioneers.

"They are new to what they are doing right now and you can tell there's some confusion," he said. "But they are firing off the ball and doing a nice job. And Lynnfield came out and they fired off the ball and they hit us in the mouth a couple of times. That should be a really good Thanksgiving Day matchup this year."

Power Posting
With the season ready to begin, I'll be going into regular season posting mode so you're going to have to check back often to keep up. I'll have my game previews on Thursday night, my first game look right after the contest on Friday or Saturday, my more detailed Leftovers post on Sunday night and a look around the league on Monday nights.

And for those of you who enjoy my Glory Days look at Pioneer games of the past, I am hoping to begin a special series on Wednesdays that should run the entire season. Tentative start date for that will be September 14.

We'll kick it all off with my preview of the Newburyport game on Thursday.  Let the games begin.