Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week Two

It was a rough week for the CAL/NEC 4 teams as they all took on non-league opponents. Other than the Pioneers, they all came up on the short end by a combined score of 136-71. Some interesting scores to get to but first let's look at the updated standings.



Let's start with the favorites again and take a look at the stunner of the week.

Hamilton-Wenham, which hadn't lost since Thanksgiving 2010, went up to West Newbury and was drubbed by Pentucket 34-15 falling to 1-1 on the year.

It doesn't sound like General head coach Andrew Morency was surprised given the effort he saw from his two time defending champs.

"Overall, I give Pentucket all the credit in the world," Morency told Dan Harrison of the Salem News. "But we didn't come to play today."

One of the concerns of the Generals was how quickly they could replace the huge talented line that led them to a pair of titles. Triton wasn't able to exploit that area last week, but apparently Pentucket certainly did on Saturday.

The Sachems rushed for nearly 300 yards led by Cody Rothwell's 132 and three touchdowns and Tim Freiermuth's 104 yards. Freiermuth also led the defense with 14 tackles as the Sachems held the Generals to  80 yards of total offense.

H-W actually led 7-6 at the half but were smoked by Rothwell's three TD's in the third to make it 27-7 and sew up the win.

The Generals will have to regroup in a hurry as they host undefeated Newburyport on Saturday.

Newburyport earned their second win of the year with a come-from-behind 19-14 win at North Reading on Friday night.

After a scoreless first period, the Clippers broke the ice with a 19 yard TD hookup from Drew Boudreau to Ian Michaels. The Hornets answered back with a 37 yard touchdown run from Carl Lipani and a 50 yard interception return by C. J. Mccarthy to go in at the half up 14-7.

The Hornet defense, which tends to be overlooked with the success of their explosive offense, picked off Boudreau four times, twice by McCarthy.

Boudreau, who played his first varsity game against the Pioneers last week, came alive in the second half. He led the Clippers on a drive in the third period and ran it in from the one to cut the NR lead to 14-13. The PAT was wide so the Hornets held on to their slim lead.

The Clippers got the ball back on their own 26 with less than four minutes to play and running back Tyler Cusack, who gave Lynnfield fits last week, took over. He carried four times for 34 yards and then Boudreau connected with Michaels on a 40 yard bomb to get to the NR two yard line with less than two minutes left. Boudreau then carried it in from there to give the Clippers their second close win.

"It was a tough one," Hornet offensive coordinator Ed Melanson told me. "Mistakes, killed us. (Michaels) made a heck of a catch on that last pass by them."

The Clippers "held" stud running back Lipani to "only" 90 yards and one touchdown. Lipani had his lowest production of the year last season against Newburyport when he ran for 113 yards.

"As for Carl being contained, they just do a good job of keeping him in check," said Melanson. "It's funny because for most backs 22 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown is a good night, not great but good. But with Carl it's like he was completely shut down and people want to know what went wrong. Sometimes you have to earn every yard. Truth be told Newburyport has an extremely good defense, they are big and fast, they were very good last year and brought back like nine starters."

The Hornets, now 1-1, mirror the Pioneer schedule for a couple of weeks and they host Amesbury Friday night in a game between two teams that are both coming off tough fourth quarter losses.

Georgetown jumped up from a victory over Division 5 West Bridgewater last week to Division 1 when they visited Revere last Friday in the Revolutionary War Bowl. I made that up. Get it? The Revere Patriots against the Georgetown Royals?

The Patriots won this one too despite a strong start from the young Georgetown team.

The Royals took a 12-6 lead into the second period on a touchdown run by Niko Edwards and a 42 yard Edwards to Colby Ingraham TD pass. Revere took the lead back in the second period and led 13-12 at the half. They blew it open with a pair of touchdowns by Tom Portrait in the third period and added one more in the fourth to account for the final score.

"We made adjustments," Revere head coach Lou Cicatelli told Brendan Tyman of the Lynn Daily Item. "They were playing the edge tough so we went off tackle with belly plays and leads. We were able to run effectively in the second half."

The Royals, who fell to 1-1 with the loss, host Whittier on Saturday.

Up in Haverhill, Whittier and Ipswich engaged in the battle of the Tigers and the game needed overtime to determine a winner.

Ipswich, who fell to 0-2 with the loss, took a 12-0 lead in the second period on touchdown runs by Henry Sacco and Derek Chamberlain. They looked to go up by three scores late in the third period but Whittier held them on downs at the 15 yard line.

From there, Whittier tied the game on an 85 yard TD run by Jaylin Deveau and a 50 yard TD pass in the fourth quarter.  With the game tied 12-12, Whittier lined up for a potential 27 yard game winning field goal on the last play of regulation, but a bad snap forced the game into OT.

Chamberlain put Ipswich up 18-12 with a two yard run but then he was stopped on the two point conversion bid.

Whittier quarterback Connor Bradley then tossed a 12 yard TD pass to tied the game at 18-18 and Jesus Sanchez was able to get into the endzone for the two pointer to take the 20-18 win.

"It'll be one of the great challenges of our coaching staff to try to resurrect our kids after two losses," Ipswich head coach Ted Flaherty told Mike Grenier of the Salem News. "We have to learn to play a complete game and not just 90 percent of a game."

The Tigers will try to get in the win column this Friday when they host Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings who are coming off a big 34-6 win over Cathedral.

Another team that fell to 0-2 this week was Manchester-Essex which has gotten off to a surprisingly slow start this year. They started this one against Saugus fast though, when Joe Beardsley took the opening kick and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown.

The Sachems responded with 31 unanswered points, as the Hornets were unable to stop the Saugus Wing T offense. The Hornets were missing two key players in Linebacker/center Doug Rodier and running back/defensive back Jake Fitzgerald who were both out with injuries. At this level, injuries can be crucial as can be seen that two players out hurt the Hornets at four positions.

M-E will visit Cathedral this Friday in an attempt to get their first win of the season.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday for my next post on the 1973 Pioneers.