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.
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