Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 8

A CORRECTION:
Before we get into this weekend's result, I have to make a correction to Sunday's Leftovers post. I stated that Saturday's loss to Hamilton-Wenham was the first regular season overtime game for the Pioneers since 1991.

However a loyal reader pointed out that I had obviously forgotten the 21-14 overtime loss to Manchester Essex in 2007.

Now I believe the reason I blocked that one out was because it was such a traumatic experience. Not that it had the same implications as this week's game, but the devastation was clearly just as brutal.

The 2007 squad was a team just trying to learn how to win. Lynnfield had come off of a winless 2004 and successive one win campaigns in 2005 and 2006. They opened the season with a tough 28-20 loss in 100 degree heat in Georgetown.

Game two was against the Hornets, who were coming off a Division 3A playoff appearance and were heavy favorites behind quarterback Pat Orlando. The Pioneers' Chris Grassi gave Lynnfield a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when he hit Alex Mastrangelo with a four yard TD pass. They built that to 14-0 in the third when tri-captain Nick Tropeano blocked an Orlando punt and recovered it in the endzone.

The inspired Pioneer defense had held the dynamic Orlando to a pedestrian 3/9 for 36 yards to that point.   Lynnfield nursed that two touchdown lead until late in the fourth quarter. But with only 2:28 left in the game, the Pioneers were forced to punt into a howling wind at Newell Stadium in Gloucester from their own 34. The result was a two yard kick.

On the first play after the punt, Orlando threw a 36 yard TD pass to Sam Cohen to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 to play. M/E forced another punt on a three and out and got the ball back at their own 34 with 1:42 to play in the game. It took them only five plays to eat up the 64 yards and Orlando hit Cohen again with a 32 yard TD pass to tie the game with 38 seconds left.

The Hornets had erased a 14-0 lead in 64 seconds.

The overtime was a foregone conclusion from that point. M/E scored to make it 21-14 (PAT's were allowed with those overtime rules.) The Pioneers fumbled after a completed pass on their first play of the OT and the Hornets recovered to nail down their improbable comeback overtime win.

And you wonder why I didn't want to remember that one?

Now on to this week's wrap up.

Things are starting to sort themselves out with only three weeks left in the season. First let's take a look at the standings.



Speaking of Manchester-Essex, they gave North Reading all they could handle in the battle of Hornets before falling 14-0. The big M/E line gave the NR wing some trouble, holding outstanding running back Carl Lipani to only one touchdown although he did pick up 179 yards on 33 carries. Lipani now has 15 TD's on the season and sits atop the Division 3A scoring race with 98 points. Joe Epps of Bourne is four points behind.

C. J. McCarthy gave NR a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10 yard run which was set up by his own 50 yard jaunt. Lipani punched it in from the one in the third quarter to make it 14-0.

M/E has struggled to score in their past three games, all losses, tallying only two touchdowns and 12 points. They will try to get back on the winning track when they host Ipswich this Friday night.

Meanwhile, North Reading heads up Route 128 to Hamilton to take on the Generals Saturday afternoon at 2:30 in a battle for first place in the CAL/NEC 4. Like Red Sox fans who were forced to root for the Yankees against the Rays in the dying days of the September Wild Card chase, Pioneer rooters must hope for a Hornet win against undefeated Hamilton-Wenham. A North Reading win would put the Hornets in first place at 3-0 but more importantly, would give the Generals a loss. Then at least the Pioneers would have a shot at throwing the title race into a tiebreaker situation if they could win their last three games including what could be a huge contest on Thanksgiving Day.

So Lynnfield fans should be wearing some green and gold under their Pioneer gear this Saturday.

Ipswich was finally rewarded for its hard work with a 26-6 win over Georgetown that wasn't quite as convincing as it looks.

For the second time this year, the Tigers started the game with a blitz, sack and fumble recovery for a touchdown when they did the trick against Royal quarterback Tyler Wade. Ipswich opened their loss to Newburyport the same way.

Georgetown answered back with a long drive but fumbled. They then recovered an Ipswich fumble and turned that into a score that made it 6-6 after one quarter. They had a chance to take the lead moving to the Ipswich 10 but couldn't get any further and turned it over on downs.

The Tigers answered with a 90 yard drive aided by two fake punts and scored to go up 12-6 at the half.

The Royals looked like they were going to tie the game on their first drive of the third quarter, moving all the way to the Ipswich 5 yard line. Again they stalled and turned it over on downs.

The Tigers put it away with a long drive to make it 20-6 in the third and sewed it up with another time consuming march that made it 26-6 in the fourth.

Ipswich goes for their second league win at M/E on Friday while the Royals prepare to host the Pioneers.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for my next post on the Super Pioneers of 1986.

Hamilton Wenham Leftovers

When is a touchdown not a touchdown? 

When's it's ruled an interception or when it's called back on a holding call. 

The Pioneers' valiant effort fell just short on Saturday, but you have to wonder what might have been if even one of those two scores stayed on the board. Either one would have put the Pioneers up by two scores and could have been the death knell for the Generals. H-W was clearly reeling after dominating much of the first half but going in at the break down 7-6. 

Then the Palumbo Pilfer that put the Pioneers up 14-6 clearly rattled the undefeated Generals early in the second half. But the nullified Mike Karavetsos touchdown seemed to energize the visitors, and the Pioneers' golden opportunity slipped away.

"I felt like (Nico Varano) had possession of it too, so that obviously hurt us," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said of the interception call. (Varano) said he caught it and (Pete Duval) grabbed it. We had that called on us earlier this year where we thought we picked it and it was simultaneous. It was unfortunate because obviously it would have been a touchdown and the other touchdown we had taken back was unfortunate too. But that's what happens in football games."

On Thursday, I presented seven keys to beating the Generals. I thought I'd review the game in relation to those keys to see how the Pioneers did. My original points are in red and the results are in black below each one.

1. Fast Start. The Pioneers have struggled out of the gate allowing both Pentucket and Ipswich to score first the past two weeks. They were able to come back and win, but falling behind to a juggernaut like Hamilton-Wenham would be fatal. On the reverse side, if the Pioneers can score first, it would be the first time all year the Generals will have trailed in a game. It's a lot different "grounding and pounding" when you are behind, than when you are ahead.

Negative. The Pioneers string of slow starts continued as they allowed the Generals to take the opening kick and march the field to go up 6-0. The Pioneers had the ball for only 28 seconds in the first quarter and only 5:09 of the 22 minute first half. They didn't get their initial first down until the last three minutes of the half.

"That's what they do," Weidman said of the Generals' clock eating offense. "They have a couple of guys that run the ball well and they did a good job controlling the clock. They can control the clock if they want to but they also have some explosiveness."

As has been the case, the Pioneers rebounded nicely from the slow start to take a lead at the half.

"It was good," Weidman said of the recovery. "We actually played a good first half."

2. Neutralize the H-W Offensive line. The Pioneers were able to comeback and beat Pentucket by dominating the line of scrimmage. Tri-captain Jonathan Roberto, Andrew Kibarian, D.J. DeGeorge and Zack Panzini will have to do that Saturday against the best offensive line they will probably see all year. If the General O line allows Burr to get to the Pioneers' young linebackers or lets Lyons get to the edge, the home team will be in for a long day.

Check. The defensive line of Roberto, Kibarian, DeGeorge, Panzini and Mike Soden did an admirable job against an offensive line that has been dominant this year. The Pioneers held the Generals to "only" 216 yards rushing, which is an improvement over the 275 they had averaged coming into the game. It is also interesting to note the Pioneer improvement as the game went along.

In the first period, the Generals averaged 5.4 yards per carry. That dropped to 4.9 yards per carry in the second quarter, then to 3.6 in the third and finally to 3.3 in the fourth quarter and overtime. That may not sound very impressive, but with running backs like Trevor Lyons and Elliot Burr, that is quite an accomplishment.

"The kids have come a long way," Weidman said of his team's ability to control the running game. "They've improved a lot. They're really doing what we've asked them to do and they've improved because of it."

"The line played well. They played tough. Extremely tough," Weidman said.

3. No mistakes. Frankly, the Pioneers are going to have to virtually play a perfect game. Turnovers and penalties will be deadly. H-W is too good. The Pioneers can't help them.

Not so good on this one. Turnovers and penalties ultimately were deadly. The "interception" and a holding penalty nullified two TD's and the face mask penalty on the Generals' last drive hurt as well. As I said, the Generals are too good to give them any help.

4. Force Lyons to pass. If the Generals are allowed to run roughshod and pick up over 300 yards on the ground as they have the past two weeks, the Pioneers are doomed. Lynnfield has to find a way to contain Burr and Lyons (way easier said than done) and force Lyons to go to the air. He is still learning the position and has a nice target in Matt Putur, but the Pioneers' chances go up exponentially with ball coming out of Lyons' hands rather than it being under his arm.

Check on this one. The Pioneers did enough to stop the run that the Generals had to go to the air much more than they wanted. Lyons threw 15 passes, probably more than he has thrown all year combined.

"That's what we wanted them to do," Weidman confirmed. "We wanted to make them throw the ball a little bit to get them out of what they were comfortable doing. Defensively, we did a good job doing that."

Lyons actually did pretty well, completing eight for 97 yards.

"But that's what we decided," Weidman said. "If they were going to beat us throwing the ball, then they beat us throwing the ball. We wanted to be able to stop the run. We did a good job containing their big plays for the most part. They got a couple but no long touchdown runs or anything like that which they've had success with this year."

The numbers back that up. The Pioneers "held" Lyons to 120 yards rushing after he ran wild for 432 yards in the past two games. In his last two games, he averaged almost 19 yards per carry. the Pioneers trimmed that to 5.2 yards per carry. 

5. Move the ball. The Pioneers are going to have to find a way to move the ball and score against a stout General defense. It will be tough to run against them, but quarterback Mike Karavetsos is going to have to be quick and accurate and receivers Alex Pascucci, Steve Yobaccio, Nico Varano, Dan Ashwell and A. J. Gallo are going to have to find space in the General secondary and make some yards after catches.

About as good a check as you can get against as good a defense as the Generals'. The Pioneers ended up with 193 yards of offense, 112 on the ground and 81 passing, but managed only one touchdown. The 7 offensive points was a couple of points better than their 5.2 points per game allowed average coming in. The Pioneers also picked up 7 points thanks to a defensive touchdown.

Karavetsos was 8 for 19 for 70 yards with Alex Pascucci the key target with five catches for 46 yards. Alex Roper was 1 for 1 with an 11 yard hookup with Dan Ashwell. Roper was forced into action for one play just before the Pioneer's touchdown when Karavetsos had to come out of the game because his hand was bleeding.

After a rough quarter and a half, the Pioneers put together some semblance of a running game led by Karavetsos' 58 yards and 54 yards from the hard running, continually improving sophomore Kyle McGah. 

"Their defense has been really good all year," Weidman said. "We did move the ball at times and we had the two touchdowns called back. Obviously those would have helped."

6. Convert opportunities. When the Pioneers get into the redzone either by driving or via turnovers, they have to convert. They may not get many of them so they have to cash in when they can.

Unfortunately no check here with an asterisk. The Pioneers scored one offensive touchdown and got the defensive score which were almost enough, but they got inside the General 25 two other times and came away empty. They could have easily come away with two scores which is what they needed to do to win.

7. Want it more than H-W. When you look back at Newburyport's win over the Pioneers last year, one thing was obvious - the Clippers wanted it more. The Pioneers have to bring that same level of enthusiasm and desire, a level that they haven't shown yet this year but will need this week.

Big checkmark on this one. Despite the slow start, the Pioneers were clearly ready to play this one. And once they survived the first General body blow, they recovered nicely and had H-W on the ropes. They just couldn't put them away, but that was not the result of lack of effort or desire. The Pioneers wanted this one and they played like it. 

"It was a good game and we played well," Weidman summed up. "We didn't play badly at the end. Obviously getting the touchdown called back and then we get the facemask penalty on the sideline so a couple of things hurt us there at the end."

"We weren't surprised to be up 14-6," Weidman said. "We knew they were a good team but we knew if we played well we could play with them. Some other teams have played with them throughout the year. They beat Triton 6-0 and Amesbury 7-0 so we knew that we'd have to play well but we knew if we did play well it would be a close game."

Deja Vu All Over Again

At first glance, the Generals fourth quarter drive to tie the game seemed similar to last year's winning march in Hamilton, but on further review there were significant differences. 

This year's drive started at the H-W 36 with 5:05 left and went 64 yards in 12 plays for the score. Last year the Generals started at the H-W 19 with 3:13 remaining and covered 74 yards in 14 plays and ended with a game winning 25 yard field goal.

But last year, the Generals covered half the drive through the air whereas this year's march used only one five yard pass play. 

The unfortunate commonality in both drives is that they resulted in heartbreaking Pioneer losses.

Overtime Blues
Overtime has not been funtime for the Pioneers.

In the past 20 years, Lynnfield has played in four overtime games and is 0-3-1.

The last time the Pioneers played an overtime game was in the playoff against Austin Prep in 2009. The Cougars took that one 26-20. But the last Pioneer regular season overtime game occurred in September of 2007 against Manchester Essex and that one was just as devastating as yesterday's game.

The 2007 squad was a team just trying to learn how to win. Lynnfield had come off of a winless 2004 and successive one win campaigns in 2005 and 2006. They opened the season with a tough 28-20 loss in 100 degree heat in Georgetown.

Game two was against the Hornets, who were coming off a Division 3A playoff appearance and were heavy favorites behind quarterback Pat Orlando. The Pioneers' Chris Grassi gave Lynnfield a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when he hit Alex Mastrangelo with a four yard TD pass. They built that to 14-0 in the third when tri-captain Nick Tropeano blocked an Orlando punt and recovered it in the endzone.

The inspired Pioneer defense had held the dynamic Orlando to a pedestrian 3/9 for 36 yards to that point.   Lynnfield nursed that two touchdown lead until late in the fourth quarter. But with only 2:28 left in the game, the Pioneers were forced to punt into a howling wind at Newell Stadium in Gloucester from their own 34. The result was a two yard kick.

On the first play after the punt, Orlando threw a 36 yard TD pass to Sam Cohen to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 to play. M/E forced another punt on a three and out and got the ball back at their own 34 with 1:42 to play in the game. It took them only five plays to eat up the 64 yards and Orlando hit Cohen again with a 32 yard TD pass to tie the game with 38 seconds left.

The Hornets had erased a 14-0 lead in 64 seconds.

The overtime was a foregone conclusion from that point. M/E scored to make it 21-14 (PAT's were allowed with those overtime rules.) The Pioneers fumbled after a completed pass on their first play of the OT and the Hornets recovered to nail down their improbable comeback overtime win.

The last time prior that was almost 20 years ago to the day on October 19, 1991. The opponent? Yep the Hamilton Wenham Generals.

It was a first place battle between two undefeated teams at the midpoint of the season and the game ended 7-7 forcing the overtime.

Quarterback Chris Sutera scored on the first down of the tiebreaker on a 10 yard naked reverse. However, in the rules of the day, a team could go for one or two points. Under today's rules, a team has to go for two points in the first overtime. 

Pioneer head coach Bill Adams elected to go for the single point but David Picard's kick hit the upright and bounced away, leaving the Pioneers with a 13-7 lead. 

The Generals outstanding fullback and placekicker Mike McGowan tied the game from the one on third down and it was expected that his PAT was a mere formality. Adams called a timeout to ice McGowan and he promptly pushed the kick wide right. The game ended in a tie but as I wrote in my lead of the game story, "The Pioneers won 13-13."

The tie kept both teams alive in the CAL race that would go down to Thanksgiving Day. The Pioneers finished the season 9-1-1 but Ipswich beat H-W on Turkey Day to win the league championship.

The Palumbo Pilfer

The play of the game for the Pioneers had to be the strip and return for touchdown by Tyler Palumbo in the third quarter.

Andrew Kibarian, who played a tremendous game, was in the process of hauling Burr down when Palumbo knifed in and simply ripped the ball out of Burr's hands just before he hit the ground. In one motion, Palumbo grabbed it and headed 37 yards to the endzone for the TD that put the Pioneers up 14-8.

"That was a great play," Weidman said. "He just stripped it. If a guy is held up then the next guys in go after the football and he just took it out of his hands and ran it back to the endzone."

It was the 16th fumble return for a score in the history of LHS football and incredibly, five of then have come since 2009. This was the second one for the Pioneers this season. A. J. Gallo did the trick against Amesbury in the second week of the year.

"I" Trouble?

On the Pioneers' scoring drive, they actually lined up in the I formation for the first time this year other than the Victory kneel down formation at the end of wins. On first and goal from the four, Karavetsos went under center with Palumbo lined up as the up back and McGah as the tailback. 

The handoff went to McGah who was dropped for a two yard loss. The Pioneers went right back to the familiar spread and McGah took the next handoff six yards for the touchdown.

The touchdown was particularly impressive. Karavetsos handed McGah the ball at the ten yard line. He broke two tackles at the five, started to go down but dove in from the two before his knee touched the ground to get the score.

The sophomore dynamo continues to run hard and refuses to go down without a serious fight.

Paying the Price

Lyons biggest pass play of the game was a 26 yarder completed to Duval in the third quarter. He just got the ball off before being obliterated by A. J. Gallo. It is amazing that he even got the pass off.

Drained

The intensity of the game was exemplified at the end when following the customary handshake line, General lineman Shane Jenkins fell to one knee and couldn't get up. His teammates were yelling to get him some water. He was totally exhausted from his exertion in the game. I'm thinking most players on both sides felt nearly as spent.

Penalized

Just for the record, the Pioneers were flagged 5 times for 45 yards. The Generals had one ten yard penalty in the entire game.

Crossing The 1000 Mark

With his 70 yards passing, Karavetsos crashed through the 1000 yard mark in the game. He is now 61 of 116 for 1016 yards. In the 23 years I have been keeping records, only four other quarterbacks have surpassed the 1000 mark in a season. They are Gino Cohee (2009 and 2010), Chris Grassi (2008), Jason Caggiano (1996) and Luke Kimball (2001).

Still Hope
So after dealing with the disappointment of the loss, it's time to looks and ahead. Although the defeat dealt a serious blow to the Pioneers' title hopes, it is not necessarily fatal.

There are still a couple of ways the Pioneers could come away with the crown. First, they have to win out and finish 4-1 in league play. Then they need some help.

The simplest way would be for Hamilton Wenham to lose two of their three final games against North Reading, Georgetown and Ipswich. Not very likely although remotely possible seeing as the Hornets are solid this year and anything could happen on Thanksgiving Day against Ipswich.

More realistically, the Pioneers have to hope for a three way tie with two other teams and hope to win in a tiebreaker scenario. The tiebreaker that has come into play recently is total points against in games among the tied teams so the best outcome for the NR-HW game would be for the Hornets to win in a shootout. Considering each team plays serious ball control, that would seem unlikely, but that's what Pioneer fans should be rooting for.

The main thing for the Pioneers, though, is to put the loss behind them and take care of business the next two weeks against Georgetown and Manchester Essex.

"It's not over yet," Weidman said. "Next week's going to come no matter what so we have to bounce back."

That's it for now. Catch my game story and photos in the Villager on Wednesday and check back Monday night for my look around the CAL/NEC 4.

Heartbreak

So close. Just missed. Almost.

Use whatever term you want, but it all adds up to the same thing.

Disappointment.

The Pioneers nearly pulled off the upset of the year against hyped Hamilton Wenham at the Middle School field today but it was not to be. The Generals overcame a 14-6 deficit with five minutes left in the game to tie it in the final minute and win it 22-14 in overtime.

You never want to blame the officiating, but there is no question that three huge calls that went against the Pioneers greatly aided the Hamilton-Wenham cause.

A ruling of an interception instead of a touchdown pass completion midway in the third period denied one score for the Pioneers and a holding penalty on an apparent 22 yard Mike Karavetsos touchdown early in the fourth period took away another Lynnfield score. And a face mask penalty on the Generals eventual touchdown drive gave H-W a first down at the Lynnfield 30 yard line.

But give the Generals credit. Despite being outplayed for most of the contest, they found a way to take advantage of every opportunity and win a game they probably shouldn't have. That's the mark of a championship team and this General squad certainly has that look.

The Pioneers now fall to 1-1 in league play and will likely need the Generals to lose twice in their final three games or once and hope for some kind of tiebreaker advantage.

However, the Pioneers should be commended for their outstanding play against a dominant opponent. They can build on this to finish their final three games strong and let the chips fall where they may from there.

More on the game in my Villager game story on Wednesday and my Leftovers post tomorrow night.

Hamilton-Wenham Game Preview: General Alert

See if this scenario rings a bell.

The defending league champion, undefeated and riding high after steamrolling through the non league portion of their schedule, easily defeats a weaker league opponent away from home. Feeling good about themselves, this favorite to win the championship heads out on the road for a second consecutive road league game. Their opponent, though sporting a pedestrian 3-4 record after a tough non-league schedule, remains a dangerous foe and still one of the top contenders for the title.

So what happens?

The underdog contender plays their best game of the year, rises up and smites the favorite, handing them their first loss and ultimately knocking them out of the league championship race.

Sound familiar?

It should.

The 2010 Pioneers were that undefeated, league favorite and the above is exactly what played out last year in Newburyport. The Pioneers were 7-0, coming off an impressive 30-13 come-from-behind win over Amesbury at Landry Field when they traveled north to Newburyport. The Clippers had played a tough CAL Large-heavy non league schedule and came into the game under .500, but still regarded as a major roadblock to the Pioneers' repeating as champs.

The Clippers played an inspired game, dominated the Pioneers on both sides of the ball and scored a decisive 24-7 win. The Pioneers rebounded the next week with a 41-0 rout of Ipswich then lost 16-15 on a last second field goal in Hamilton that clinched the title for the Generals.

Though painful, ultimately that loss to H-W didn't cost Lynnfield the title. The Clippers won the rest of their games and would have beaten out the Pioneers anyway thanks to that head to head win. However, Newburyport lost their matchup with H-W earlier in the year and that gave the crown to the Generals.

So fast forward to this week's game at the Middle School Field.

This year it's Hamilton-Wenham who is rolling into town undefeated off a big league victory, 35-6 over Manchester Essex. Attempting to play the role of Newburyport is your Lynnfield Pioneers.

After playing a fortified non-league schedule and struggling past a revved up Ipswich team 13-6, the Pioneers come in to the game 4-3. But they are still one of the key contenders the Generals have to beat to retain their crown.

The parallel to last season goes even further.

Before the Newburyport game last year, there was plenty of hoopla surrounding the undefeated Pioneers. Fox News selected the game for its High School Friday feature and the Pioneers were the focus of the hype. The pregame circus included interviews with Fox personalities.

This year, Hamilton Wenham is getting all the ink. They were profiled in this feature in Thursday's Globe North and this article in the Salem Evening News.

The Evening News site includes two video podcasts, one featuring sportswriter Matt Jenkins interviewing the three General captains and another in which Jenkins and fellow News sportswriter Dan Harrison preview Saturday's game. Interestingly enough, Jenkins and Harrison spend nearly 10 minutes lauding the Generals, mentioning a half dozen Hamilton Wenham players by name. Guess how many Pioneers they mention. Can you say none?

Talk about flying under the radar.

Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald is also picking the Generals to win in his Thursday Pickorama.

The Generals have obviously earned the plaudits being laid at their cleats.

They are one of only 14 undefeated teams in eastern mass and have now won 11 straight regular season games. They have dominated, particularly on the defensive side of the ball where they have allowed only 29 points in six games, and 13 of those came against the Generals' second team.

Offensively, the Generals present enormous problems.

Quarterback Trevor Lyons is settling in after being converted from tailback last year. He has run for almost 700 yards, over 400 in the past two weeks, and 50 points. Running back Elliot Burr has just over 600 yards rushing and 44 points. He gets most of his pounding on the inside and if you try to shut that down, Lyons will kill you on the edge.

Making them even more difficult to stop is that they are operating behind one of the best offensive lines in the area. Seniors Taylor Drinkwater (6'4 220), Shane Jenkins (6'2 225), Kevin Anthony (6'0 190) and Matt Forninger (6'1 205) and junior Matt Vogus (6'3 220) have been devastating.

"We have three or four wide open holes every time," Elliot Burr told Jenkins in the podcast interview. "We don't have to worry about getting tackled until you get to the second tier so it makes it really easy."

"They're good," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "Right now they're head and shoulders above everybody in our league. They are definitely the team to beat."

The Pioneers have been playing a series of wing T variation offenses which feature tricky inside handoffs, misdirection and sleight of hand. There is no such problem figuring out what the Generals are going to do. They are about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But there is a big difference in knowing what's coming and then being able to stop it.

"What they do, they do really well and you have to stop it," Weidman said. "That's what it comes down to."

They have blown out Bishop Fenwick, Pentucket and Manchester Essex, but they barely got by Amesbury 7-0 and Triton 6-0. They overcame Newburyport 18-6 in a hard fought game.

"They know us and they always do a good job defending us," Weidman said. "They are a physical, tough team and it's always a grind and a battle."

So can the Pioneers fight pull a "Clipper" and halt the General express train?

It won't be easy, but this is high school football, so anything is possible.

Here are my keys to the Pioneers' springing the upset.

1. Fast Start. The Pioneers have struggled out of the gate allowing both Pentucket and Ipswich to score first the past two weeks. They were able to come back and win, but falling behind to a juggernaut like Hamilton-Wenham would be fatal. On the reverse side, if the Pioneers can score first, it would be the first time all year the Generals will have trailed in a game. It's a lot different "grounding and pounding" when you are behind, than when you are ahead.

2. Neutralize the H-W Offensive line. The Pioneers were able to comeback and beat Pentucket by dominating the line of scrimmage. Tri-captain Jonathan Roberto, Andrew Kibarian, D.J. DeGeorge and Zack Panzini will have to do that Saturday against the best offensive line they will probably see all year. If the General O line allows Burr to get to the Pioneers' young linebackers or lets Lyons get to the edge, the home team will be in for a long day.

3. No mistakes. Frankly, the Pioneers are going to have to virtually play a perfect game. Turnovers and penalties will be deadly. H-W is too good. The Pioneers can't help them.

4. Force Lyons to pass. If the Generals are allowed to run roughshod and pick up over 300 yards on the ground as they have the past two weeks, the Pioneers are doomed. Lynnfield has to find a way to contain Burr and Lyons (way easier said than done) and force Lyons to go to the air. He is still learning the position and has a nice target in Matt Putur, but the Pioneers' chances go up exponentially with ball coming out of Lyons' hands rather than it being under his arm.

5. Move the ball. The Pioneers are going to have to find a way to move the ball and score against a stout General defense. It will be tough to run against them, but quarterback Mike Karavetsos is going to have to be quick and accurate and receivers Alex Pascucci, Steve Yobaccio, Nico Varano, Dan Ashwell and A. J. Gallo are going to have to find space in the General secondary and make some yards after catches.

6. Convert opportunities. When the Pioneers get into the redzone either by driving or via turnovers, they have to convert. They may not get many of them so they have to cash in when they can.

7. Want it more than H-W. When you look back at Newburyport's win over the Pioneers last year, one thing was obvious - the Clippers wanted it more. The Pioneers have to bring that same level of enthusiasm and desire, a level that they haven't shown yet this year but will need this week.

One last note. Tom Waisnor, the Voice of the Pioneers, is urging Pioneer fans to get to the field early and pack the stands, particularly in front of the press box to support the home team.

Finally, this is obviously a huge game for the Pioneers. I'm sure coach Weidman is preparing his pregame pep talk, so I will live him with this  famous pregame speech as inspiration. Just substitute "football" for "hockey."

Game time at the Middle School field is 11 am.  Let the fun begin.

Check back Saturday afternoon for my post game post.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Possessed in Pentucket

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

October 25, 1986

You can't win if you don't score. And you can't score if you don't have the football.

The Pentucket Sachems learned that painful lesson the hard way when they fell to the Super Pioneers of 1986 in West Newbury 25 years ago this week.

Similar to last week's opponent Masco, Pentucket has come to represent winning and domination in the Cape Ann League. However like the Chieftains, the Sachems were CAL also rans in the 80's. Coming into the 1986 game, the Pioneers had beaten Pentucket five straight times, but most of those were close fought battles.

The Pioneers didn't figure to have much trouble with the winless Sachems in this one, but the home team still managed to hang around, despite not having the ball much.

According to the game account by Villager reporter David Angelini, the Pioneers controlled the ball for 30 of the 40 minute contest. They ran off 57 plays to only 33 for Pentucket and they never really threatened.

The Pioneer ground game set the tone early with a numbing opening drive that featured 18 running plays and chewed up 9:41 of the first period. Quarterback David Frontero scored from three yards out and added the extra point to give the undefeated Pioneers a 7-0 lead.

The Lynnfield defense, led by Mike Pascucci, dominated Pentucket throughout. Pascucci, a 5' 9", 150 lb defensive end was filling in for the injured Bill Aldenberg and wreaked havoc on the Sachem offense. He picked up four tackles in the first half and keyed the Pioneers' second scoring drive by recovering a fumble at the Sachem 15 yard line.

Lynnfield turned that into their second scoring drive which was led by co-captain Todd Coviello, who picked up 70 yards on 20 carries on the day. He scored the Pioneers' second TD from one yard out and although Frontero's PAT try was short, Lynnfield still had a 13-0 lead at the half.

In the second half, it was the Pioneer defense that dominated and made the lead stand up. Co-captain Darrell Carty, linebacker Mark Sutera and linemen Chris Loomos and John Dean formed an impenetrable wall that Pentucket could not breach.  The quartet had 11 tackles in the third quarter alone, according to Angelini.

Safety Scott Yerardi had a nice pass deflection that ended one Pentucket drive and Coviello showed what he could do on the defensive side of the ball with a sack of Sachem quarterback Jason Peterson.

The Pioneers finished with 184 yards rushing with Sutera gaining 41 on 6 carries.

The victory lifted the Pioneers to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the CAL. Losses by Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich gave Lynnfield sole possession of first place and they also sat atop the Division Three Super Bowl ratings.

Again head coach Bill Adams was not particularly happy with the win.

"We sat back at times and were just too complacent," Adams told Angelini after the game. "But I give a lot of credit to Pentucket. Every year they play us tough."

Adams must have continued to boil during the long bus ride home because according to Loomos, the coach's anger had not subsided once they arrived back in Lynnfield.

"The coaches were really mad," Loomos told me recently remembering that game. "When we got back to the high school right after the game, Coach Adams lined our whole team up on the goal line. He made us hold hands as he gave us a lecture. He was pretty mad."

Despite the Pioneers being undefeated, Adams knew that something was not right with his team. He wouldn't have to wait much longer to have his worst fears realized.

Next: The Pioneers return home to host lowly Amesbury.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 7

Well the season is underway and the first slate of games went pretty much according to plan. First, let's take a look at the standings which for the first time includes league games.



Of the three league games on opening night, only the Pioneers-Tigers contest had any suspense.

As expected, Hamilton Wenham ran over Manchester Essex 35-6 and it wasn't even that close. The Generals' stellar quarterback Trevor Lyons scored on the third play of the game and would score another touchdown early in the second quarter and rush for nearly 150 yards as the Generals rolled for almost 350 yards of offense in the rout.

H-W built a 21-0 halftime lead and would extend it to 35-0 in the third quarter. The hometown Hornets managed their only score early in the fourth period.

M-E faces another dominating ground game when it travels to North Reading this Friday night.

The Generals are hitting on all cylinders as they head for Lynnfield this Saturday in the biggest game for the Pioneers since.....last year's H-W game.

And speaking of teams on a roll, the North Reading Hornets continue to get comfortable with their "ground and pound" wing T offense. Friday night they crushed Georgetown 35-17 as outstanding running back Carl Lipani scored three more touchdowns.

Lipani is starting to pull away in the Division 3A scoring race as he now has 15 touchdowns and 92 points, a 12 point lead over Joe Epps of Bourne,.

The Hornets scored twice in the first period and two more times in the second to go up 28-0. Tyler Wade nailed a 33 yard field goal with no time remaining in the half to get something on the board for the Royals.

But North Reading iced it on C. J. McCarthy's second score of the night to make it 35-3 after three. Tyler Wade and Jackson Fritz scored two touchdowns for Georgetown in the final three minutes to account for the 35-17 final.

The Royals will host Ipswich in a battle of one win teams. One of them will pick up win number two and their first league win on Saturday afternoon.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for my next installment of the 1986 Super Pioneer series.

Ipswich Leftovers

There's an old saying in golf that applies to the Pioneer victory over Ipswich Friday night: They don't draw pictures on the scorecard.

Yes it was a win. Yes it gave the Pioneers a critical first victory in the CAL/NEC 4 title chase. But it certainly wasn't pretty.

The Pioneers were outplayed for most of the first half and for stretches of the second half, but they made critical plays when they needed to and came away with a win in a place that is always difficult for the Pioneers' to play.

Head coach Neal Weidman will take the victory, but he knows his team dodged a bullet in Ipswich.

"(Ipswich) did a great job," Weidman told me after the game. "Other than making a few mental mistakes like a young team's going to make, but as far as being physical an playing hard, they're good. That's what they do all the time. (Tiger head coach) Ted (Flaherty) does a good job with that. he always has his kids ready to play. They're tough kids. Not always the biggest team in the world, but they're always tough."

So what exactly were the Tigers doing in the first half that allowed them to bottle up the Pioneer offense while slashing through the Lynnfield defense?

"They just played the heck out of us," Weidman said. "What they ran is what we thought we'd get. They were tough to block and they were blocking us. That's what it comes down to. We picked it up a little in the second half, blocking them better and we started getting off blocks better defensively too.

"It wasn't just that we were playing poorly in the first half," Weidman went on. "You have to give Ipswich credit. They were playing well. They were ready to play. I'm not going to take anything away from them. Do I think we played our best game? No, but the biggest reason for that was because they made us play that way."

"They're a good team," he summed up. "They only have one win and they haven't had much success the past few years but I've never seen a team play as well as they play without being rewarded for it."

Halftime Adjustment
The Pioneers did a better handling the Ipswich Delaware Wing T in the second half, especially on the Tigers' opening possession of the third quarter. Lynnfield forced the Tigers into their first (of only two) three and outs on the night, giving the ball to the offense quickly.

One of the keys to the change was the Pioneers' switching to a three man front from the four down linemen they came out in. That was the formation the Pioneers' used so successfully against Pentucket, but clearly Ipswich was ready for it.

"We started mixing it in a little bit," Weidman said of the three man alignment. "They were definitely prepared for our four man front so we decided to mix it up a little bit.

The change helped the Pioneers slow down the Tiger offense a little, holding them to that first three and out and then holding them on fourth down deep in Lynnfield territory late in the third period. The Pioneers followed that up with another forced three and out before the nerve-wracking final drive at the end of the game.

Critical Downs
Part of the Pioneers' problem in the first half and at the end of the game was their inability to stop the Tigers on third and fourth downs. Ipswich was 3 for 4 on third downs in the first half. The Pioneers limited that to 1 for 4 in the second half. But on the final drive of the game, Lynnfield allowed the Tigers to convert on their only third down attempt and two of their three fourth down attempts.

The Tigers failed on their other fourth down try when substitute quarterback Louis Galanis lost track of the downs and spiked the ball to stop the clock on fourth down when Ipswich was still a yard shy of the first down marker.

The Pioneers were 2 for 6 on third and fourth downs in the first half but improved to 3 for 4 in the second half.

QB Switch
Speaking of Galanis, the senior was subbing for the Tigers' freshman signal caller Nick Andreas who was injured against Newburyport. His loss obviously hampered the Ipswich passing game as Galanis, who hadn't played quarterback since he was a freshman himself, was clearly rusty throwing the ball. He completed only one pass in seven attempts (of course it was a 23 yarder on fourth down on the final edge-of-your-seat Tiger drive).

"He brings other things that are tough to defend," Weidman said of the QB switch. " We didn't know the freshman wasn't going to play. He warmed up before the game and looked okay but they went with the other guy."

Galanis is clearly a more dangerous runner and hurt the Pioneers several times with keeper sweeps. He picked up 56 yards on 13 carries.

Scary Moment
The Pioneer faithful who journeyed to Ipswich held their collective breath early in the game when quarterback Mike Karavetsos was shaken up on the fifth play of the game. He was stood up by the Ipswich defense and was struggling for another yard or two when he was popped in the side. The Pioneer coaches were yelling for him to go down, but the hit came first.

Backup Alex Roper came in to hand off to Alex Pascucci on third down and then carried on a fake punt that came up a yard short at the Tiger 42 yard line on fourth down.

The Tigers took over and marched to their only touchdown and when the Pioneers got the ball back after the kickoff, Karavetsos was back at the controls.

"He got the wind knocked out of him," Weidman explained. "He came back, didn't have a great first half but he showed some character in the second half and played well. He played well enough for us to win which is good. He didn't have his best game but he still made plays for us to win the game.

Economical Offense?
The Pioneers finished the night with 201 yards of offense. 82 of those came on the Pioneers' two scoring plays - the 30 yard TD run by Karavetsos and the 52 yard TD pass from Karavetsos to Nico Varano.  The Pioneers ran off only 40 plays in the game and of those 15 were for no gain or a loss.

Hole Diggers
For the fourth straight game, the Pioneers allowed their opponent to score first. But for the second week in a row, they were able to dig their way out of the hole and record a win. It is not a trend Weidman wants to continue.

"Right now I don't know what to do about that," he admitted. "We're just not starting games well. I think a lot of it is that they are still unsure of themselves. We're still a pretty young team and we're just a little unsure of ourselves when we start the game, I think. Until they feel it out and then realize that they can play.

"I think it shows character no doubt (that they have been able to come back from those starts," Weidman continued. "The hard part is when you play a real good team it makes it difficult to come back from. Like the St. Mary's of the world. We made a little bit of a run against them, but they were just too good to get behind by that much."

Snapping the Streaks
The win snaps two losing streaks that stretch back a year. It ends a four game road losing streak and a string of three straight night game losses. The last time Lynnfield has won at night and on the road was against Amesbury last October 22.

Keeping Their Balance
Although many look at the Pioneers' spread offense as a wide open passing attack, the numbers actually show a very balanced offense.

Through their first seven games, the Pioneers have run for 1066 yards and 11 touchdowns. They have passed for 961 yards and nine TD's.

Notable
- The Pioneers hold a 23-13 advantage in turnovers through their first seven games
- Lynnfield played without another injured senior in Dan Ashwell who sat out after a big hit against Pentucket. He is expected back against Hamilton Wenham.
- The Pioneers have now won five straight against the Tigers. That includes two tough wins Ipswich - Friday night and a tougher than you would have expected 20-3 win in the 2009 championship year.
- The Pioneer defense has shown huge improvement since being lit up for 82 points against St. Mary's and Danvers. They have allowed only 20 points in their last two games against Pentucket and Ipswich.
- The 13 Pioneer points is the fewest they have scored since the 24-7 loss to Newburyport last year.
- The last time the Pioneers scored as few as 13 points and won was in 2008 when ironically they defeated Ipswich 13-7.
- The 6 points was the fewest the Pioneers have allowed since shutting out - you guessed it - Ipswich 41-0 last year.

That's it for now. Check back Monday night when I'll take a look at the first week of play in the CAL/NEC 4.

Survival

Make no mistake. That is what it was tonight for the Pioneers at Jack Welch Field in Ipswich.

It was another good news, bad news night for Lynnfield.

Bad news is that for the second week in a row, the Pioneers fell behind to an opponent in the first half. The good news is for the second week in a row they came from behind in the second half to nail down a close win.

The Pioneers trailed 6-0 thanks to a lackluster first two periods and a revved up band of Tigers. The home team bottled up the Pioneer offense and sliced through the Lynnfield defense in the first half, but thanks to a couple of turnovers, could only go into the break with a 6-0 lead.

The Pioneers rebounded in the second half on touchdowns by Mike Karavetsos (30 yards) and a Karavetsos to Nico Varano 52 yard pass. Alex Roper hit one of two PAT attempts.

Meanwhile the Pioneer defense made some nifty adjustments at the half and shut down the Tiger Delaware Wing T offense in the second half to escape with a 13-6 victory.

Lynnfield is now 1-0 in the CAL/NEC 4 and a date with powerful Hamilton Wenham is on tap for next Saturday at the Middle School Field.

That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for more on the game in my Ipswich Leftovers post.

Ipswich Game Preview: Task One - Tame the Tigers

To borrow the old tag line from Fox25 sports regarding the MLB All Star Game, this time it counts.

After a six week, non league "extended preseason," the Pioneers get down to real business this Friday night when they visit Ipswich to take on the always dangerous Tigers in the CAL/NEC 4 league opener.

You can read my thumbnail preview of the league in yesterday's Villager, but today I thought we'd do three things: 1) Review the non league portion of the Pioneers' schedule, 2) Preview how the league race could shape up and 3) Take a closer look at the Tigers.

Non League Schedule Review
Last season, the Pioneers played five non league games, along with a league game against Georgetown mixed in, to start the season. The Pioneers breezed through Manchester-Essex (non league last season) 37-6, Bishop Fenwick 42-21, Cathedral 40-0, Danvers 40-18 and Chelsea 28-0. A perfect 5-0 record and a 187-45 scoring advantage.

Fun for the ego, but not exactly challenging. Did that affect the Pioneers' play once the league games got underway? Hard to say.

The Pioneers struggled in the first half against Amesbury in the league opener, then blew the Indians away in the second half to cruise 30-13.

Then came the dreaded trip to Newburyport when the the Clippers chopped down the undefeated Pioneers 24-7. After an easy win over Ipswich, the Pioneers lost a heartbreaker to Hamilton-Wenham 16-15 on a last minute field goal.

Would stiffer competition in the non league portion of their schedule have made a difference once the Pioneers took on the iron of the CAL Small? There is really no way to tell, but this season head coach Neal Weidman made a concerted effort to toughen up the non league schedule, dropping Cathedral and Chelsea and adding Pentucket and St. Mary's. They also continued their rivalries with Newburyport and Amesbury as non league games. Bishop Fenwick and a much improved Danvers team rounded out the slate.

The Pioneers finished that six game stretch with a 3-3 mark and clearly faced much tougher competition.

Did Weidman feel he got what he wanted out of his non league schedule?

"I think so," he told me. "I guess we'll find out. We played against some good competition this year. I think the kids have improved which is good. We're still pretty young but we've gotten a lot of experience. Hopefully that's going to help us going into the league games."

"It was good," Weidman went on. "We learned how to play in some close games. We've had a couple of wins that were close and a couple of losses that were close."

"3-3 would have been what I kind of expected coming into the year," Weidman continued. "We had a chance to be and probably should have been 4-2. But those are the things that you learn about a young team. Hopefully we fixed some of the mistakes that we were making in some of those other games. I think we took a step in that direction this week (against Pentucket)."

Did he see the development of his team that he was hoping to get?

"I was concerned 10-12 days ago that maybe we weren't taking enough steps forward and maybe staying a little stilted," the coach said. "But we took steps forward this last week. Hopefully we continue to do that."

Injuries have ravaged the Pioneers' senior class with tri-captain Mike Thomas heading a list that includes Jonathan Rogers, Frank Coburn and Michael Doherty.

"Our juniors and sophomores are getting a little bit more action than I wanted them to," Weidman said. "Hopefully that will benefit us."

League Preview
Clearly it looks like Hamilton Wenham then everyone else in the CAL/NEC 4. The Generals have dominated in a tough non-league schedule that was heavy on former CAL Large opponents. They stand at 5-0 having outscored their opponents 117-26 and 13 of those points came against their second team defense in a 46-13 rout of Bishop Fenwick.

"Based on the scores, Hamilton Wenham seems to be the most dominant team right now," acknowledged Weidman. "If I had to pick, I'd say they are the team to beat. North Reading based on scores is probably just behind them. The rest of us are kind of together in the middle."

I would agree that the Generals appear to be clearly the class of the league. North Reading is 3-2 with wins against Saugus and Austin Prep which appear to be in down cycles. They routed a young Bishop Fenwick team just as the Pioneers did. The Hornets lost to the Clippers 28-7 a week after Newburyport beat the Pioneers 27-14. North Reading lost an overtime game to Amesbury, whom the Pioneers beat by a point.

Based on those comparatives, I'd say the Chestnut Street archrivals appear to be neck and neck in the next tier behind H-W.

A small step behind them would be Ipswich and Manchester Essex. Ipswich started slowly, losing big to much larger Marblehead, Triton and Pentucket. They then upset Amesbury in four overtimes for their first win. Then they lost to the Connor Wiley/Brett Fontaine Aerial Circus in Newburyport. In a nutshell, don't be fooled by their 1-4 record. This team will contend and you'll get to see them first hand Friday night against the Pioneers.

Manchester Essex has the same 3-3 record as the Pioneers but again they defeated Saugus and Austin Prep as well as Division 4A North Shore. Those three teams are 3-14 combined this season. The Hornets have lost to Cathedral, Amesbury and a strong Northeast Regional team.

Georgetown's numbers are down, so they are struggling. They defeated West Bridgewater to start the season and have since lost four straight by a 119-38 count.

The Pioneers will find out quickly if they are going to be part of the title chance. They open against the Tigers and then face the iron in H-W in week two. They then face Georgetown and Manchester before finishing up with North Reading.

With only six teams and five league games, the pressure is on to run the table. One stumble could prove fatal.

"There is nothing you can really do except prepare each week," Weidman said when asked how to react to that type of presure. "We have to expect to come out each week and prepare for the team we are playing and give ourselves a chance to win that game. If we can do that, there's not much else we can do."

Who knows. If things break right, the Thanksgiving Day games between the Pioneers and Hornets, and Hamilton Wenham/Ipswich could decide the crown.

Let's kick it off

Ipswich Preview
One thing is certain, the Ipswich Tigers are probably not the team you want to start the league season against. Especially not on the road.

The Tigers have slowly come back from a dreadful stretch of losing football and are once again a team to be reckoned with.

Part of what makes the Tigers so tough to deal with is that they run the Delaware Wing T offense. In Ipswich, you run that offense from the first time you strap on an oversized helmet in youth football. They've been running it for nearly 40 years and they do it better than anyone. It is an offense that takes advantage of quick traps, misdirection runs and double handoffs among other sleights of hand.

Depending on the type of quarterback they have, they also add in a sneaky good passing game. This year the Tigers are starting a freshman at quarterback in Nick Andreas, but he is not playing like a ninth grader. He is big at 6'0" 163 pounds and has a good arm. Andreas was hurt at the end of the Newburyport game last week so his availability is not known.

If he is in there throwing the ball, it makes it harder for the Pioneer defense to focus on Ipswich's quick running backs Peter Moutevelais, Derek Chamberlin, Cam Murray and John Elnagger.

The passing game involves receivers Louis Galanis, Chris McCormack and Pat Curran. Galanis can line up a receiver or running back.

They can move easily from the strict run-at-you wing T to the more wide open passing game.

Two all league linemen in center Chris Desmond and guard Peyton Primack anchor the offensive line.

In the past, what has made the Tigers difficult to handle is the fact that their offense was unique and trying to duplicate it in practice is difficult. The Pioneers won't have that problem since they are very familiar with the wing T having played five teams in a row (Amesbury, Bishop Fenwick, St. Mary's, Danvers and Pentucket) that use some variation of the wing. They have been preparing for and playing against this offense for over a month now.

That doesn't necessarily make it any easier to stop.

"They're pretty good," Weidman said of the Tigers. "They run the wing T well offensively. They are similar to Pentucket in what they do. They're very similar in terms of scheme goes."

Defensively, the Tigers try to get pressure on the quarterback, especially when playing a spread offense like the Pioneers. Moutevelis and McCormack key the defensive line from the end position. Linebackers Desmond, Chamberlin, Elnagger and Brenden Gallager are the linebackers.

"They've been good this year defensively," said Weidman. "They're real aggressive and their defensive line is really good. They'll scheme defensively to take our run away. They always do. They always do something a little different against us. That makes it tough because we don't always know what to game plan for. We'll have to see what they come out in and if they are really going to commit to taking away the run, we'll have to make them pay a little bit as far as throwing the ball in order to get them to cover people so we can run the ball. "

This will be the 43rd meeting between the schools, making the Tigers the Pioneers' second most frequent opponent. The number one rival is North Reading, the only team Lynnfield has played all 53 years the program has been in existence.

Overall, Ipswich owns a 26-16 advantage but the Pioneers are currently on a four game winning streak, outscoring the Tigers 94-24 in their last four meetings.

"They gave Pentucket every thing they could handle," Weidman said about the Tigers' 28-12 loss to the Sachems in which they trailed 14-12 going into the final quarter. "It's going to be a tough game."

Game time in Ipswich is 7 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Friday night for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Mauling Masconomet

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

October 18, 1986
When you think of Masco today, you think of the biggest school in the CAL with the powerhouse football team. Such was not the case in the mid 1970's and 1980's. The Chieftains were regularly the league doormats and the Pioneers regularly trounced their neighbors off Route 95.

From 1977 through 1991, the Pioneers amassed a 13-1 record against Masco, outscoring them 446-142. The only Chieftain win in that stretch came in 1982. Following that loss, the Pioneers ran off three straight wins against Masco, including a 55-0 beating in 1985.

With the Pioneers coming into the game at the Middle School field 4-0 and Masco winless at 0-4, the Lynnfield faithful expected more of the same in 1986.

They were not disappointed. 

After four tough games against strong opposition to start the season, the Pioneers got their first "breather" against the Chieftains.

Lynnfield cruised to a 14-0 halftime lead and built that to a 28-0 advantage before Masco put up a meaningless score in the waning minutes to make it a 28-7 final.

Co-captain Todd Coviello scored a pair of touchdowns (one yard, and 14 yards), junior Jason Mochi (9 carries, 74 yards) tallied on a 24 yard run and quarterback Dave Frontero hooked up with converted quarterback Jay Kelleher on a 12 yard TD pass to account for the Pioneer touchdowns. Frontero kicked all four extra points.

Linebacker Scott Yerardi paced a swarming Pioneer defense that held Masco in check all afternoon. Yerardi recovered a Chieftain fumble on the two yard line on a kickoff setting up the Pioneers' fourth TD. Mark Sutera and Bill Aldenberg recorded sacks and Steve Bucci picked off an interception for the second game in a row. 

According to the account in the Villager by reporter David Angelini, the home crowd received a scare in the fourth quarter when Aldenberg went down with what appeared to be a serious injury. He was not moved and emergency personnel had to remove him from the field. Fortunately, the injury did not turn out to be as severe as first feared. Aldenberg was diagnosed with a neck strain, according to Angelini.

The win was the Pioneers' 12th straight, stretching back to 1985 and kept them in a first place tie in the CAL with Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich who both remained undefeated at 4-0 in the league. Lynnfield's overall 5-0 record lifted them into sole possession of the Division 3 Eastern Mass Super Bowl rankings 

Next: The Pioneers travel to last place Pentucket.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 6

Well that's it. The Preliminaries are over. Time to get down to business. The league race starts this week. But before we get into it, let's take a look at the final week of non-league play.

First, let's take a look at the standings.



Hamilton-Wenham came off its bye week with a vengeance, mauling Bishop Fenwick 46-13 to remain undefeated at 5-0. Although there wasn't much doubt, this final non league tuneup cemented the Generals as the team to beat in the CAL/NEC 4.

Trevor Lyons, the running back turned quarterback, did most of the damage for the Generals scoring five first half touchdowns and rushing for nearly 300 yards before heading to the sideline early in the third period.

The Generals rolled to a 46-0 lead before the Crusaders' Rufus Rushins scored a pair of TD's against the Hamilton-Wenham junior varsity. In all, the Generals rushed for nearly 500 yards in picking up their 10th straight regular season win.

The Generals travel to Manchester by the Sea to open their league season against the Hornets this Friday night. Barring a monumental upset of seismic proportions, Hamilton Wenham will strut onto the Middle School field a week from Saturday with a 6-0 mark looking to put away what might be their biggest obstacle to the league crown in the Pioneers.

Manchester-Essex was worn down by Northeast Regional in their final non league contest, falling to the Knights 26-7.

The Hornets hung tough with the two time defending Division 4A Super Bowl champs, battling through a scoreless first period and most of the second before giving up two late first half scores to go in at the break down 12-0. M/E kept it that way until early in the fourth quarter when they couldn't convert after getting a first and goal at the Northeast one yard line.

The Knights took over on downs and drove the field to go up 20-0 and seal the win. The Hornets came back to make it 20-6 but Northeast scored as the game ended to account for the final score.

According to the Nick Curcuru of the Gloucester Times, the game got ugly as the Knights were flagged for 120 yards in penalties, including seven personal foul or unsportsmanlike calls. According to Curcuru's article, Hornet coach Mike Athanas refused to allow his team to participate in the traditional post game handshake line, fearing that things might get out of hand.

The Hornets will be decided underdogs when they host Hamilton-Wenham to start their league schedule Friday night.

Georgetown suffered the wrath of Amesbury in their final non league tilt losing 33-6 at Landry Stadium. The Indians, still smarting from their four overtime upset loss to Ipswich, took it out on the Royals who suffered their fourth straight loss.

The Indians scored the first three times they touched the ball rolling for nearly 300 yards in the first half and putting this one out of reach quickly. They led 27-0 before Tyler Wade connected with Nevs Dana for the Royals' only score just before the half ended. Amesbury added a fourth quarter score to account for the 33-6 final.

Georgetown travels to North Reading to open their league season on Friday. The Hornets were off so will have had two weeks to prepare for the Royals.

Ipswich traveled to Newburyport for their final non league game fresh off their first win of the year in the overtime classic against Amesbury. They would not have a similar experience against the Clippers.

The Tigers started strong sacking Clipper quarterback Connor Wile on the first play of the game causing a fumble which Peyton Primack returned for a score. Before everyone was settled into their seats at War Memorial Stadium, Ipswich led 7-0.

It was shortlived as Newburyport answered with a quick march down the field for a score to tie it 7-7. Then Wile tossed the first of three touchdown passes to Brett Fontaine to give the Clippers a 13-7 lead.

The Tigers would not go away as they came up with another defensive score when Nate Glaster picked off a Wile pass and returned it 93 yards to give Ipswich a 14-13 lead. That would be it for the Tigers as the Clippers scored twice more before the half to go in up 27-14. Wile and Fontaine connected for the third time in the third period to make it 34-14.

The Clipper defense completely shackled the Tiger Delaware Wing T, which couldn't manage a score.

Ipswich returns to Jack Welch Field Friday to host the Pioneers in the league opener for both teams.

I'll have a full preview of that game on Thursday. Meanwhile, check back on Wednesday for my next post in my series on the 1986 Super Pioneers.

Pentucket Leftovers

After allowing 729 total yards and 82 points combined to Danvers and St. Mary's in back to back games, the Pioneers made a significant change to their defense. Until this week, the Pioneers had been using three down lineman rotating D. J. DeGeorge and Zach Panzini in the lineup.

Against Pentucket, the Pioneers came out with four down linemen with both DeGeorge and Panzini joining tri captain Jonathan Roberto and Andrew Kibarian on the Lynnfield front. It was an inspired move by head coach Neal Weidman and his staff and the results were dramatic.

The Pioneers held an explosive Sachem offense to only 152 yards rushing and only one long TD drive. This was a Pentucket team that shredded a bigger Haverhill team for 342 yards rushing last week and the Pioneers clearly contained them. Using the four big linemen, Lynnfield won the battle in the trenches and that translated to a huge victory for the Pioneers heading into their league schedule next week.

It was especially important for the Pioneers to figure out how to stop the Wing T offense, since they will be seeing it again Friday night when they open up their CAL/NEC 4 season in Ipswich.

"It's good," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said about facing the same offense he will see next week. "We haven't stopped it until today. That's the first time we stopped it this year. It wasn't good leading up to this game. I didn't realize until the season started that we weren't going to be able to stop the Wing T until we couldn't in the scrimmage. Then we end up playing six wing T teams. But that's great. Now hopefully we can build on it and play well going into next week too."

You can get all the details in my game story in the Villager on Wednesday, but let's take a deeper look at Saturday's big victory over Pentucket.

Early Jitters
For the third week in a row, the Pioneers allowed their opponent to score first, and this time it was particularly disappointing. They held Pentucket to a three and out and had the chance to get out to a fast start. However, the Sachem punt hit sophomore Kyle McGah and Pentucket recovered on the Lynnfield 19 yard line. Five plays later the Sachems punched it in from the one to take a 7-0 lead.

"We gave them the first (touchdown) on special teams," Weidman said. "We should have fair caught it in the first place. Kyle was working his butt off to make a block and no one lets him know the ball is near him. You can't do stuff like that. Those are the things that we're slowly improving upon. We still have some things to clean up."

The Pioneers appeared to have recovered their composure as they immediately drove the ball down the field and looked ready to score the tying touchdown. However, McGah was stripped inside the five as he struggled to get to the endzone.

"We moved the ball down and fumbled," Weidman said. "Still the young stuff. Kyle ran the ball hard. He ran it great. He fumbled on the one yard line. He bounced it out and he shouldn't have. But that's just the things that sophomores do."

Tough Guy
Despite the early miscue, McGah continues to impress as he picks up the running load for injured tri-captain Mike Thomas. The young sophomore picked up 80 yards on 16 carries and is clearly getting more comfortable running the ball. He's run for 155 total yards the past two weeks and is proving to be a tough guy to bring down.

One run in particular demonstrated what a tough runner McGah is becoming.

Midway in the second period, a Pentucket punt pinned the Pioneers at the ten yard line.  On first down, quarterback Mike Karavetsos handed McGah the ball at the six yard line. At the nine yard line, a Pentucket defender grabbed a piece of McGah's jersey but he shrugged that off.

A Sachem grabbed his leg at the 11 and he broke that one as well. He broke a third tackle at the 15, stumbled and nearly went down but put his hand down and regained his balance. He was hit low at the 20 and kept going then hit high at the 22. He finally started to go down and dragged both tacklers all the way to the 26.

End result? An impressive 16 yard run and a first down that got the Pioneers out of trouble.

"He's a nice little player," Weidman said. "He's got a low center of gravity. He's thick. He needs to develop a little more upper body strength but he's got big, thick strong legs. He's just young, that's all. He's getting a lot of valuable experience right now. He doesn't come off the field."

"Knute" Weidman?
Trailing 14-0 after two quarters, the Pioneers roared out after the break, scoring on their first three possessions of the second half to earn the come from behind victory.

What inspirational half time speech did Weidman deliver at halftime?

"The attitude was great," Weidman said of how his club was feeling at the break. "You know why? Because they knew they were playing better defensively especially. To be honest with you, win or lose that's what we were looking for. And I told them that. I said if you guys improve and do the things we ask you to do and improve on those things, we have a chance to win this game too. And we did. That's a good one for us."

The Pioneers were particularly sharp on the first drive of the third quarter. They marched 80 yards in nine plays capped by Mike Karavetsos' 30 yard TD run to cut Pentucket's lead to 14-7.

"That's huge," Weidman said of the drive. "I always tell the kids that the first possession of the second half is the most important drive of the game. Whether it is or isn't, I always tell them that at halftime because it can change momentum whether you have the momentum going in at the half or whether you don't. You can either keep the momentum or you can change the momentum. That's what we needed. We went down and the kids did a great job."

Standing Tall
As big as that TD drive was, the goal line stand on the following Pentucket possession was nearly as important.

After the Pioneers scored, the Sachems answered with a long drive that got them to the Lynnfield two yard line. On fourth and goal, Mike Soden fought off a block and dragged Sachem running back Cody Rothwell down short of the first down marker and the goal line.

"If they punched it in it's going to be real tough for us to come back," acknowledges Weidman. "That would make it 21-7 late in the third. That would be a difficult task. That changes the momentum. Then we turn around and get the ball back and go the length of the field and score."

Gamblin' Man
Another key play occurred on the winning drive when the Pioneers pulled off the successful fake punt with Alex Roper hitting Tyler Palumbo for a first down.

How hard was it for Weidman to make that call with a fourth and five from his own 35 yard line?

"I guess it was  kind of hard but not super hard," Weidman said. "Honestly, it's a non league game. They were coming (to block the punt). We told them at halftime if we get a chance we'll call it and then let them know if we're going to punt it or run the play. (Pentucket) came (to block it) and came close a couple of times. It was good down and distance. Fourth and five. If we punt it back to them and if they drive the field the game's over.

"We had to use it eventually," he continued. "We've practiced it for four years and never used it. The good thing is that Alex is the backup quarterback but he plays (on defense). So you're not having a kid go in there cold and try to make a play. He throws the ball well. And he did the right thing too. (Palumbo) was wide open. (Alex) didn't try to over do it. He put a little air on it and got it to him. Tyler comes up big too. He's got to catch it and run with it."

Roped In
And speaking of Roper, the junior had a superb all around game. On the fake punt, he actually had to make a nice catch as the snap was down and to his left. He had to go down and get it.

Roper also played strong at his outside linebacker position. Containing the dangerous outside run game of the Sachems and also doing a nice job in pass coverage. At the end of the game on Pentucket's last ditch try to tie it, Roper knocked down two straight Kuchar passes.

And for good measure, he was three for three on PAT tries.

"He played a great game," Weidman said. "He's been doing well for us all year."

Dragon Slayer
Pentucket running back Nolan Dragon, who had 237 yards last week against Haverhill, was held to 46 yards rushing by the Pioneer defense. However, Dragon is also Pentucket's best defensive player, but was neutralized there as well. Weidman credited lineman Andrew Kibarian as being responsible for that.

"Defensively (Kibarian) was good," said Weidman. "But I tell you what, he was real good on the offensive line today. He got the best linebacker in that league (Dragon) blocked. Dragon didn't play much in the second half but in that first half he blocked him. There haven't been too many people blocking him this year."

Dragon hurt his arm sometime in the first half and played sparingly on both sides of the ball in the second period.

Be Careful What You Wish For
Pentucket is predominantly a running team. In their first five games, Sachem quarterback Ryan Kuchar threw only 23 times total. He completed 13 of those for 249 yards and that included a 95 yard TD pass.

However on Saturday, the Pioneer defense was so effective at stopping the Pentucket run game, that the Sachems had to go to the air. And they did a pretty good job of it.

Kuchar was 6 for 17 for 101 yards including a big 39 yard Kuchar to Jon Simard strike on the their second TD drive.

"They're very capable of doing both," Weidman said of the Sachem offense. "Obviously Dragon didn't play much in the second half. He got hurt which obviously is going to hurt their running game a little bit. He's a beast. He ripped off two 60 plus yard traps last week against Haverhill."

Karavetsos Measures Up

Going into the season, there was obviously a good deal of concern with the loss of a talented senior class. Among those graduating were quarterback Gino Cohee, who set the record for single season and career touchdown passes, is the number three scorer in LHS history and was named All CAL twice.

Stepping into those shoes was a tall order for junior Mike Karavetsos, but he has done a superb job running the explosive Pioneer spread offense thus far. With the season just over the half way point, I decided to compare Karavetsos' numbers to Cohee's first six games his junior year of 2009 and last season.

Karavetsos measures up very well.

In the first six games of his junior year, Cohee ran 75 times for 468 yards and 8 touchdowns. In the same period his senior year, Cohee carried 46 times for 338 yards and 4 touchdowns. During the non league part of the schedule, Cohee was not asked to run as much since he was nursing a balky ankle.

For his first games this year, Karavetsos has rushed 79 times for 531 yards and five touchdowns.  

After the Pentucket game, another reporter remarked to Weidman that Karavetsos didn't look like he was running fast or hard but that he just kept picking up yardage.

"He glides a little bit," Weidman responded. "He's not overly powerful. Although for his weight he's very strong. He's just light. He worked really hard (in the off season). He never missed a lift. Not one. But he's fast. He can run. When he gets some green in front of him it's tough to catch him. He's shifty."

To that point, four of his five touchdowns are from 30 yards or more and two are 50 yards are longer.

As for passing, through six games in 2009, Cohee completed 40 of 74 passes (54%) for 487 yards, 4 TD's and 4 interceptions. Through six game in 2010, Cohee connected on 41 of 77 (53%) for 778 yards, 11 TD's, 1 two point conversion and 4 interceptions.

Through six games this year, Karavetsos is 50 of 87 (57%) for 861 yards, 8 touchdowns, 2 two pointers and 4 interceptions.

Quite an impressive performance for the first six starts of his career.

Silver Celebration

Saturday's win marked the 25th victory for Weidman as head coach of the Pioneers. It took him 40 games to do it. 

He obviously doesn't pay much attention to those number since he was not aware of it and asked me "Is that good or bad?" 

I told him it was better than his 25th loss. He responded "Do I have 25 losses?"

The answer is no. He is 25-15 overall, and 22-7 since the beginning of 2009.

For comparison purposes, former Pioneer head coach Bill Adams' (1985-94, 2000-07) was the fastest Lynnfield coach to get to 25 wins. It took him 30 games. Steve Sobiek (1958-66), the Pioneers' first coach got to 25 wins in 35 games. It took Bill Rodan (1969-84), the most successful Lynnfield coach with a 101-52-2 mark, 38 games to reach 25. Garland Johnson (1967-68) and Scott Brennan (1994-99) did not reach the 25 win mark. 

Comparing Comebacks

The 14 point deficit the Pioneers overcame is the longest in the 23 seasons that I have been keeping records. The closest I could dig up in the past two decades came in 2007 when the Pioneers fell behind 12-0 to Lawrence, but came back to win it 30-24. Chris Grassi tossed a 30 yard TD to Jeff Milinazzo with a minute and a half left to nail down the win. It was one of only three victories for the Pioneers in 2007. 

TEASE ALERT: If you want to know about the most famous comeback in Lynnfield High history, you'll have to check back in four weeks in my Wednesday series on the 1986 Pioneer Super Bowl team. That was one for the ages.

Senior Injury Bug

Senior Dan Ashwell suffered a hand injury in the first half and did not play the rest of the way. It's not known how serious it is but it's another senior that has suffered a injury that forced him to miss playing time. Seniors Thomas, Jonathan Rogers, Frank Coburn and Michael Doherty have already been lost this year to injury.

Notable:

- The 355 yards of offense against Pentucket marks the third time in the last four games that the Pioneers have topped 350 yards of offense. For the season they are averaging 304 yards per game.

- The win was the 15th victory at home for the Pioneers in the past 16 games.

- The victory snapped an 8 game losing streak against Pentucket. The last time they beat the Sachems was in 1997 when they prevailed 13-0. Lynnfield is now 17-16-1 all time against Pentucket.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow for my look around the CAL/NEC 4.