The Pioneers under Adams and Scott Brennan regular ran out squads with less than 30 players and a handful of seniors. The results were fairly predictable considering the Pioneers played a tough, full CAL schedule for nearly that entire stretch. For the 16 seasons from 1992 to 2007, the Pioneers were 44-123 and were outscored almost 2-1 (3,981 to 2,048).
Georgetown is going through that type of period now and Adams recognized it all too well.
The Royals' new head coach Paul Sobolewski has a roster of 33 with only three seniors and nine freshmen and even two eighth graders. That squad got even thinner against the Pioneers. In the game story at RallyNorth.net, Sobolewski said that there were some "in house issues" that resulted in a half dozen upper classmen leaving the team. That left the Royals with "two seniors, no juniors, 17 sophomores and the rest freshmen" according to the article.
"They have a young team," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman told me after the game. "They're going to have a nice group of kids coming up. They have a lot of sophomores on that team so they're taking their lumps a little bit right now.
Georgetown won their first game this season against West Bridgewater, but have now lost seven straight. With Hamilton-Wenham and Manchester-Essex left on their schedule, the Royals will have a hard tinme getting another W.
This isn't the first year the Royals have struggled. They joined the Cape Ann League in 2008 and with outstanding quarterback Joe Esposito at the controls, they lost out on a tiebreaker from winning the league title and going to the post season. Since that inaugural season, the Royals have gone 3-26.
The Pioneers have added to that misery.
Lynnfield added Georgetown to their schedule in 2006 and were beaten three straight times by the Royals. But the Pioneers have rebounded nicely, winning the last three by a combined 102-13 score. They now stand 3-3 overall against the Royals.
However, Sobolewski has hit bottom but with a huge corps of sophomores, expect the Royals to be heard from in the future.
We can only hope that as the team in Georgetown improves, someone does something to improve the field as well. To be kind, the field up there was a muddy mess (see photo at left), especially at the scoreboard end of the field.
I know in these times of tight budgets, no school system is rushing to spend significant money on field improvements, but when the mud is so bad that the players sink nearly to their ankles, safety has to become a concern.
Title Dreams?
The Pioneers' CAL/NEC 4 title hopes may have turned to title dreams on Saturday when Hamilton Wenham took out North Reading 28-12.
That leaves the Generals at 3-0 in league play with the Pioneers, Ipswich and North Reading at 2-1.
The only scenario that works for Lynnfield is for the Pioneers to end up in a three way tie with the Generals and Ipswich at 4-1. For that to happen, Lynnfield has to win its final two games against Manchester-Essex and North Reading.
The Tigers have to beat North Reading Friday night in Ipswich then spring the biggest upset of the year and beat Hamilton-Wenham on Thanksgiving Day.
Should that all happen, it would come down to the tiebreakers. The first is head to head which wouldn't solve anything since the three teams would be 1-1 against each other. It would then come down to points against in the games among the three teams, which is where it gets interesting.
"One thing I'm not sure about is whether overtime counts," Weidman told me. "I would imagine it would. But if someone went into seven overtimes and won 61-60, they have no prayer of winning it so I'll have to find out if it's just regulation. If it's regulation only, then it's 14-14 with us and Hamilton Wenham."
That would mean it would come down to the Ipswich-HW score. The Pioneers allowed only six against Ipswich giving them a total of 20 allowed vs the two teams. Ipswich allowed 13 to the Pioneers and if H-W has 14 against, that means Ipswich would have to win, score more than six points and allow more than seven points to H-W.
Now all this is moot if North Reading wins Friday night. That would allow the Generals to clinch the title on Saturday with a win against Georgetown at home which is about as sure a thing as tax day coming next April 15.
In reality, the only thing the Pioneers can control is their performance in their final two games and see how it all unfolds.
Return of the Captain
When I talked to Weidman before the Danvers game, he gave me the bad news that tri-captain Mike Thomas was lost for the season with a broken collarbone suffered against St. Mary's.
So it was quite a surprise when Thomas lined up next to Mike Karavetsos in the backfield on the first play of the second half against Georgetown. In a storybook return, Thomas took the handoff, burst through a big hole up the middle and romped 76 yards for the touchdown. It was his only carry of the game.
"We got him a little action," Weidman said. "I wanted to get him a whole series and get him tackled a couple of times to get his feet a little bit but I couldn't put him back in the game at that point with the score 35-7."
"I did not," the coach replied when I asked him if he expected Thomas back this season. "And if it was, I was definitely thinking Thanksgiving. He broke his collarbone. He told the doctor he wanted to play and the doctor said it's healed but it's up to him. He said 'I want to play. I only have a few games left and I want to play.'"
That certainly bolsters the Pioneer offense for the final two games of the year and gives them an impressive one-two rushing punch with Thomas joining improving sophomore Kyle McGah.
1200th
Speaking of McGah, the sophomore continues to impress, picking up 77 yards on five carries and a touchdown against the Royals. His second period 24 yard TD run turned out to be the 1200th touchdown in the 54 year history of Lynnfield High football. The Karavetsos to Yobaccio score was 1201 and Thomas' score was 1202.
The complete breakdown: 828 rushing, 281 passing, 30 punt returns, 24 interception returns, 21 kickoff returns, 16 fumble returns, 2 blocked punt returns.
Karavetsos Rates
Quarterback Mike Karavetsos had a particular efficient day completing 4 of 7 passes for 135 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Pulling out the NFL formula, the junior signalcaller had a passer rating of 141.4. A perfect rating is 158.3. Through nine games, Karavetsos has a passer rating of 97.9.
"He's really coming into his own," Weidman said. "The kid's really come a long way since he was a freshman. It's unbelievable."
It's Good!
Junior Alex Roper has been impressive in his first season doing the placekicking for the Pioneers. He has nailed 21 of 24 attempts. His five on Saturday tied him for third place for most PAT's in a single game by a Pioneer.
Scott Milne holds the record for booting seven against Masco in 1985 and Steve Ullian ranks second for his six PAT performance against Bishop Fenwich last year. Ullian is one of the Pioneers Roper tied for third place for his 5 kick games against Georgetown and Ipswich last season. Mark Owens also had five against Masco in 1978 and Kris Borkowski kicked 5 against Hamilton-Wenham in 1998.
Roper's 21 for the season puts him in fourth place for single season PAT's. Ullian holds the top two spots in that category with 34 last year and 30 in 2009. Milne is in third with 25 in 1985.
Teamwork
Everyone knows that it is the job of the "rookies," i.e. freshmen and sophomores, to take the water bottles out to the starters during timeouts.
But with the second half of the Georgetown game turning into a showcase for the youngsters on the squad, some role reversal was in order. During a timeout in the fourth period, Pioneer starters D. J. DeGeorge and Connor Lordan trotted out to the huddle on the field to get the water to their young teammates.
It was a nice display of teamwork by the juniors.
Turnabout
While on the subject of Adams, I am reminded of a post game interview I did with him some years back in a game against North Andover when the Pioneers had taken it on the chin. The Knights emptied their bench and ultimately had 10 players with carries in the game.
Adams quipped that he didn't even have 10 running backs on his squad, let alone getting them all into the game.
Flash forward to last Saturday.
Roles were reversed as the Pioneers had this one sewn up by halftime and were able to empty the sideline for the second half.
The result? 10 players ended up having carries for the Pioneers in the game. McGah, Thomas, Karavetsos, Roper, Palumbo, Anthony Costa, Daniel Sullivan, Kevin Lee, Joe Mehr and Tyler Shaffer all contributed to the 247 yards rushing the Pioneers picked up in the game.
Times certainly have changed.
Notable
- There were only two penalties called in the game - 2 for 20 yards on the Pioneers and none on Georgetown.
- It was the second straight win on the road for the Pioneers following a 4 game road losing streak
- It was the third time the Pioneers have scored 35 points this season. They also did it in a win against Bishop Fenwick and a loss to Danvers
- With the win, the Pioneers are now 14-3 in league games since October of 2008.
That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night for my look around at the weekend's league action.
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