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.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment