Danvers Game Preview: Falcon Quest

There should be no surprises when the Pioneers travel to Danvers to take on the Falcons for a rare Thursday night game this week. For the third week in a row, the Pioneers will have to deal with some variation of the run first wing offense.

Last week, the Pioneers got a heavy dose of the double wing attack of St. Mary's. Two weeks ago they saw a bit of the same with Bishop Fenwick. Three weeks ago, they took on the Amesbury offense which is predominantly Wing T. That is what they will primarily see from the Falcons.

Where last week the Spartans lined up with running backs in the wing position on both ends of the line with a fullback behind the quarterback, the single wing is a bit different. As the name implies, instead of having wings on both ends of the line, the Falcons will line up one of the Valles brothers, either Nick or Alex, on one of the wings. Two other running backs, the remaining Valles brother and fullback Jake Palazola, line up behind quarterback Paul Nicolo.

The wingback will sometimes go in motion and 95% of the time that is where the play is going. Sometimes Nicolo will pitch to a running back going wide or give to Palazola up the middle.

"They play a wing T similar to Amesbury," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "Bishop Fenwick ran a little of it as well. With a short week of practice, luckily we have see it already."

Unlike St. Mary's, Danvers will change up their formations. Sometimes they will come out in the double wing, or Double Valles. Other times they will line up in a pro set with three wide receivers and a running back behind Nicolo.

Also unlike St. Mary's, Nicolo will throw the ball, sometimes deep. Last week he only threw four times and connected on three, but all of them were for touchdowns.

They moved the ball well in a 21-7 loss to Peabody but killed themselves with turnovers and penalties in the red zone. Last week in a 47-14 rout of Saugus, they put it all together scoring the most points they have put up in 39 years.

Defensively they are very aggressive with a good defensive line that can get after the quarterback. In the loss to Peabody, they made it difficult for the Tanners to run their spread offense. Most of the Peabody offense came on broken plays and two of their touchdowns came on long runs.

The Pioneers' experienced line is going to have to control the line of scrimmage so quarterback Mike Karavetsos can operate the offense. Karavetsos is coming off two strong games passing, with four TD passes. He may have to attack the Falcon through the air to move the move this week.

Danvers come into the game 2-2. doubling their win total of last year. The dropped Winthrop 18-8 in their opener, then lost two in a row to Peabody then to Pentucket 19-0 before bouncing back last week against Saugus.

Last season, Lynnfield ran up nearly 400 yards of offense in 40-18 pasting of Danvers and you can bet they are itching to make up for that.

The Pioneers will be looking to bounce back after suffering a 40-16 beating by St. Mary's.

Weidman sees a benefit of the short week after that St. Mary's game.

"After a game like that, this is a good time to have a short week," he said. "Hopefully we'll play better on Thursday night."

Game time in Danvers is 7 pm.

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