The 1986 Super Pioneers: The Comeback in South Hamilton

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

November 8, 1986

Coming off a game in which they blew a 14-0 lead and suffered their first loss of the season 20-14 to Amesbury, the Pioneers were still not right and head coach Bill Adams knew it.

"We came into that game deflated from the Amesbury loss," Adams told me last week. "Our bubble had been burst."

At 6-1, they had to gear it back up to face a tough Hamilton-Wenham team on the road. The Generals had just beaten defending co-champion North Andover 7-6 and were flying. They entered the game with the identical record as the Pioneers.

Almost predictably, the Pioneers stumbled out of the gate on a rainy day in South Hamilton. According to the game story by David Angelini in the Villager, General receiver Raimie Reader took the opening kick and returned it 73 yards to take an early lead.

The Pioneers' looked flummoxed when they got the ball on their first possession and fumbled with the Generals' recovering.

"If I remember there was some miscommunication in the first series," recalled Pioneer standout running back Jason Mochi. "It was a pitch pass to me with (Mark) Sutera leading. We went to one side and the ball went to the other. I think that was a turnover that led to their second score."

General fullback Dan Pereira took advantage and pounded into the endzone to give H-W a two touchdown lead. The fired up home team continued to pound the listless Pioneers in the first quarter and Pereira scored again to give the Generals what looked like an insurmountable 19-0 lead after just one quarter of play.

Counting the second half of the Amesbury game, the lackluster Pioneers had given up 39 straight unanswered points. As the rain began to fall harder, things looked bleak for Lynnfield.

Then came "The Speech."

Anyone connected with the '86 team remembers "The Speech."

In speaking to Adams just this past weekend and mentioning this game, the first thing he recalled was "The Speech."

"The first quarter ended and it began to rain harder," Adams remembers. He gathered his team around him and in the pouring rain, he unloaded on them. 

"I gave the most emotional speech of my life," Adams said. "I got very, very emotional. I really got a little vicious. It was one of the few times I used fear. It is a motivator and it needed to be done at that time. After that game, I didn't want to use it again, but it had to be done there."

"His speech was pretty awesome," Mochi recalls, 25 years later. "We still make reference to it! I'm not sure it's fit to print, but it was an amazing and very motivating speech. It got everyone fired up."

Whatever Adams said that day, it certainly had the desired affect. It was a different Pioneer team that started the second quarter. They regrouped, stemmed the General momentum and mounted a scoring drive of their own behind quarterback Dave Frontero. 

With a minute to play in the half, Frontero rolled out and slid into the endzone for a 12 yard touchdown. He added the extra point and the Pioneers were on the board and went in at halftime trailing 19-7.

"That was an important touchdown for us," Adams told Angelini after the game. "It gave us momentum we needed going into the locker room."

The Pioneers picked up where they left off to start the third quarter. A nifty move on a fake pitch rollout by Frontero got Lynnfield to the General four yard line. Co-captain Todd Coviello then drove into the endzone for the score. Frontero nailed the PAT and the Pioneers had cut the lead to 19-14 with a quarter and a half to go.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer defense woke up as well. Led by co-captain Darrell Carty and Chris Loomos, Lynnfield stopped the General offense cold. H-W never got past the 50 yard line in the second half.

The Pioneers got the break they needed with time running out in the third quarter.

General quarterback Chris Schrock fumbled at his own 15 and the Pioneers recovered. Coviello only needed two carries to get into the endzone and give the Pioneers a 20-19 lead.

The two teams plodded through the mud through most of the final quarter, but with a minute to go, Mochi picked off a Schrock pass at midfield and splashed 47 yards for the touchdown to seal the amazing comeback. According to Angelini, Mochi "shook off five General tacklers on the play" which made it 27-19 Lynnfield.

"I remember covering the flat and being at the right place at the right time," Mochi told me. "I caught the ball right next to our sideline and our assistant coach (Paul) Harrington was yelling at me to run it in, so I did."

Coviello was immense in the game carrying 18 times for 118 yards, scoring two touchdowns, making nine tackles on defense, recovering a fumble and getting a half sack.

Once the game was over the party was just beginning for the jubiliant Pioneers. Angelini reported that the "entire team (including the coach) swan dived into a nearby mud bath and slopped around for 15 minutes of triumph."

"After the game we were all pretty pumped up," Mochi confirmed. "We loaded on the bus and I think someone yelled out 'mudslides' and we all piled out of the bus and dove through this massive puddle. Then we got on the bus again. It was a pretty awesome day."

However, the season was far from over for the Pioneers. They would have to return home the following week to face the once beaten Ipswich Tigers in a de facto CAL championship game.

Next: Taking on the Tigers in a battle for first place.

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