Countdown to Kickoff

Well it seems like just yesterday that the Thanksgiving Day game was played, but the fact is that the new season is only a couple of weeks away.

So today I'll cover several topics including the preseason schedule, a sneak preview of this year's Wayback Wednesday post where I feature a Pioneer team of the past and a recap of Pioneers' solid performance in the recent UnderArmour 7 v 7 tournament.

UnderArmour 7 v 7 Tournament
Let's start it off with the tournament held on Saturday, July 21 at Bishop Fenwick High School.

The tournament, started years ago by Lynnfield and Swampscott and played for several years at Lynnfield High, is a passing only/touch tournament. The event has grown exponentially and now consists of three separate tournaments, North, East and South with two finalists from each regional and four wildcards advancing to the New England Championship at Gillette Stadium.

As the name suggests, each team has seven players and is played on a 40 yard field with a 10 yard endzone. There are only two yard markers on the field, one at 25 yards and one 10 yards from the endzone. A team has three downs to earns a first down by passing one of those yard markers. A touchdown is worth six points and a team can elect to go for one point by taking the PAT from the five or they can go for two by going for it from the ten. Tie games are decided by an overtime which consists of each team running one play and whoever gains the most yards gets a point and wins.

The games consist of 25 minutes running time. The quarterback has four seconds to get off a pass once he gets the ball or the play is blown dead.

The Pioneers were one of 32 teams that participated, and they acquitted themselves quite well. Phase one of the tournament consisted of a round robin schedule among the four teams in each of eight divisions. The top three teams in each division would moved on to the championship round which was a one and done format.

The Pioneers were placed in a division with Methuen, a team that won the North Regional on June 20th, Cathedral and Revere.

Lynnfield's opening game against Cathedral was a tight one. Captain Mike Karavetsos opened the scoring with a TD pass to Tony Mancini. The point after was no good and Lynnfield led 6-0. Cathedral then scored twice to take a 13-6 lead. The Pioneers tied it up on a Karavetsos to A. J. Gallo pass and a conversion pass to captain Alex Pascucci. Cathedral took a 19-13 lead but again Lynnfield knotted it up, with another Karavetsos to Mancini hookup.

At this point, time ran out, so an overtime tiebreaker was needed. Cathedral went first and gained about 20 yards, but then Karavetsos connected with Gallo for 30 yards to take the point and a 20-19 win.

The Pioneers faced Revere in the second game and it was another seesaw contest. The Patriots went up 6-0 and Lynnfield tied it up with a Karavetsos to Gallo bomb. Both teams missed the conversions. Revere went up 12-6 and went for the two points and failed. That proved fatal for the Pats when the Pioneers scored on a Karavetsos to Kyle McGah pass to tie the game at 12-12. Karavetsos then hit Pascucci for the one point conversion and the Pioneers held on for the 13-12 win.

Lynnfield took on powerhouse Methuen in their third round robin game and they hung tough in the early going. The Rangers took a 7-0 lead but the Pioneers tied it up when Karavetsos connected with Gallo for the TD and then hit McGah for the conversion. Methuen went up 13-7 and the Pioneers again tied it up on a Karavetsos to Mancini score. It was all Methuen from there as the Rangers scored two more TD's and a 2 pt conversion to win 27-13.

The Pioneers 2-1 mark in their division earned them a second seed and their first game in the championship round was against Pinegree, a team that had lost to Methuen in the finals in the North Regional.

Pinegree scored first to go up 6-0 but the Pioneers roared back to take the lead with a Karavetsos to Mancini score and a one point conversion pass to Gallo. Lynnfield went up 13-6 when Karavetsos found Gallo again. Pinegree would not die and scored to make it 13-12 with time running out. They went for the two pointer and the win but sophomore Cam Rondeau saved the win with a diving breakup in the endzone.

The win lifted the Pioneers into the Sweet Sixteen, but they ran into a tough Bedford team in their next matchup. The Buccaneers scored first and again the Pioneers tied it on a Karavetsos to Mike Soden TD. Both teams missed the conversions so the game was tied 6-6. Bedford went up 12-6 but the Pioneers took the lead 13-12 when Karavetsos hooked up with Mancini for the touchdown and then a diving McGah for the one point conversion.

Bedford then took a 20-13 lead but the Pioneers were not done. Karavetsos found Soden again to make it 20-19 and Lynnfield went for the two pointer and the win, but the pass was picked off to end the Pioneers' day.

Overall it was an impressive performance for the Pioneers who went 3-2 on the day. Karavetsos tossed 12 touchdowns, five to Mancini, four to Gallo, two to Soden and one to McGah. McGah had two extra point catches and Pascucci had one. He also had many catches that weren't scores in the five game set.

Reading took top honors for the day and along with Methuen and Pinegree advanced to the finals at Gillette. Andover ultimately won the New England championship beating Reading in the final.

"It was a good chance for the kids to get together and play together," said Pioneer coach Neal Weidman who took in the event as a spectator. "They played some decent competition and competed. Those are all positive things.

"Some of the younger guys stepped up," he continued. "A couple of guys we weren't sure about because we never saw them play at the varsity level made a couple of decent plays. It was good for those kids to come here and play with varsity players."

The Pioneers have been seeing good competition in 7 v 7 action for the past month since they play in a Sunday morning league in Reading against Reading and Methuen.

All in all it was good to see footballs flying and the Pioneers coming up with a strong performance.

Preseason Schedule
Weidman outlined the preseason schedule the Pioneers' would be following. They start practice on Monday, August 20 and their first scrimmage will be on Saturday, August 25 at Masco against the Chieftains and Stoneham.

The Pioneers return home to face former Lynnfield captain and assistant coach Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings on Wednesday, August 29th and then will play their traditional final scrimmage against Northeast Vocational on Saturday, September 1 in Wakefield.

The Pioneers open the season on Friday, September 7 under the lights in Newburyport.

"It's getting here fast," Weidman said. "I'm looking forward to it this year. It should be good. We have a tough schedule and it will be tough competition for us again this year but that's good."

Weidman AD Resignation
I asked the coach about his resignation as Co-Athletic Director.

"I enjoyed doing it for seven years," Weidman said. "But it's time to focus on teaching and coaching."

He said he did plan on continuing to coach the Pioneers.

Wayback Wednesday
Last season each Wednesday I ran a weekly post following the historic season of the 1986 Pioneers, the only Lynnfield team to reach the Super Bowl. This year marks the 40th season the Pioneers will be playing in the Cape Ann League so I thought it would be appropriate to focus on the very first Lynnfield team to play in the CAL, the 1973 Pioneers. Not only did that team blaze the CAL trail for all Pioneer teams to follow, but they did it in impressive fashion, crashing the league and taking home a share of the CAL Championship.

Last year's series was greatly enhanced by some recollections from "those who were there" and I'm hoping that anyone involved with the '73 team will drop me a line so I can add some eyewitness color to the historical accounts I've compiled from back issues of the Villager and the Wakefield Item.

If you have anything to share about that stellar season, please drop me a line at tcondardo@gmail.com. Look for my first Wayback post on Wednesday, August 29th.

That's it for now. As the season gets underway, I'll be posting more frequently, so check back often once preseason practices begins.