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.