It was the first day of school for the Pioneers and the squad seemed to suffer from some opening day blues when they took the field in a two quarter scrimmage against Pat Sheehan's Vikings. The Vikes are in full rebuilding mode, with sophomores scattered throughout the lineup on both sides of the ball, but they played the Pioneers evenly, as the contest ended in a 6-6 tie.
The Lynnfield offense managed only two first downs gaining only 30 yards on 10 carries, but 26 of that total came on one carry by captain Mike Karavetsos late in the second quarter. Of the other nine rushing plays, two were for losses and four were for two yards or less.
The passing game wasn't much more effective with Karavetsos completing three of eight passes for 23 yards. Add in a Triton sack and the Pioneers had net passing yardage of 17 yards. Total offensive output in the half: 47 yards.
On the defensive side, the Pioneers allowed the young Vikings to move the ball on several drives including a 60 yard march for Triton's only score. The home team picked up 19 yards on the ground but the Viking quarterbacks were 7 for 11 for 61 yards including a three yard TD pass.
The defense did come up with two turnovers on an interception by A. J. Gallo and a fumble recovery by Alex Roper that he returned 55 yards for the Pioneers' only TD.
It was safe to say that it wasn't Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman's favorite half of football.
"No, it was embarrassing," the coach agreed after the scrimmage. "Honestly just unfocused, not ready to play. We just didn't have our head in the game. It was a little bit of 'woe is me we had school today, then we had to get on the bus and get here.' That was what that was."
"Probably the best thing for us," Weidman continued. "We could use a kick in the butt."
The Pioneers conclude their preseason scrimmage schedule with a traditional battle against Northeast Regional on Saturday morning. The matchup goes back as far as I have been covering the Pioneers which started in 1989.
The scrimmage in Wakefield starts at 10 am.
Around the CAL/NEC 4
Triton scrimmaged North Reading on Tuesday and I asked Sheehan how Lynnfield's arch rival looked.
"They looked good," he told me. "(Tailback Carl) Lipani is the real deal."
Sheehan was pleased with the way his front line played against the veteran Hornets.
"We matched up well up front and we're playing a lot of sophomores," Sheehan said. "But a good back can change things up in a hurry and Lipani can certainly do that. I was pleased with how we did against them."
Up north last Saturday, Manchester-Essex hosted Pentucket in a scrimmage in a battle between two teams the Pioneers will face this year. M-E figures to be in the hunt for the league title and they held their own against the Sachems according to Nick Curcuru reporting in the Gloucester Times.
The defenses dominated as neither first team offense managed to get into the endzone. Curcuru noted that Hornet coach Mike Athanas "appreciated the physical play of both his offense and his defense."
In an interesting side note, the Hornets have five captains this year, similar to the Pioneers with Karavetsos, D. J. DeGeorge, Andrew Kibarian, Alex Pascucci and Tyler Palumbo. That is something that is not the norm in high school football. The last time the Pioneers featured five captains was in 2000 when Dan Venoit, Jim Motzkin, Mike Geary, Drew Barraford and Kevin Condardo led the squad.
Georgetown, a team that struggled last season and is hoping to rebound this year, got an early season setback because of the EEE situation on the North Shore. After a horse died from the virus last week, the town ordered a town wide spraying including the athletic fields. The School Department must close the fields for five days after the spraying so the Royals weren't able to get on the field to start practice until yesterday.
Not exactly what coach Paul Sobolewski needed to start his second season.
That's it for now. Check back over the week for a recap of the Northeast scrimmage.
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