And by "that place" I mean Newburyport's World War Memorial Stadium, the Pioneers' personal House of Horrors.
What makes it so tough for the Pioneers' to win there?
"Well they're good for one," replied Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "That always makes it difficult."
In the end, that really does explain the Clipper's dominance of the Pioneers in Newburyport. In the seasons of the previous 12 straight wins, the Clippers had teams with winning records in all but two of them. And even those teams with losing records were 3-8 and 5-6. In those same 12 seasons, the Pioneers had only two winning seasons. Newburyport's overall record in those dozen years is 75-51 versus Lynnfield's mark of 36-87. The hard truth is that in most of the years, the Clippers were simply the better team.
However that wasn't necessarily the case in 2010 when the Pioneers finished 9-2 while the Clippers ended the year 7-4. Newburyport just played a far superior game that night and clearly outplayed the Pioneers.
How the two teams ultimately finish this season is yet to be determined, but the frustrating aspect of Friday night is that it was a winnable game that the Pioneers just let slip, almost literally with five turnovers, through their hands.
"Coming into the game we knew if we were going to win we would have to play well and it wasn't going to be easy," said Weidman after the game. "We played well but the bad part is we had a chance. There were times in the game where we were really controlling momentum, but every time we started to do something, we fumbled or whatever so...."
The coach's voice trailed off at that point.
"We had some other issues as well (other than the turnovers)," Weidman went on. "We were just trying to do too much. We just have to straighten that stuff out."
So what did Weidman learn about his team after their first live battle?
"I think we're tough," the coach said. "We played tough for four quarters. Now the question is can we play tough for four quarters for ten games. It's the first night so it's easy to get up for the first game of the year. So now you have to do it nine more times. We'll see what happens.
Taking the heat
Both teams suffered in the warm, muggy conditions and both sidelines were littered with players in various positions trying to work out the cramps. Co-Athletic Director and head trainer Sean Roach and his staff had their hands full trying to keep as many players upright as possible. The Pioneers dipped heavily into their depth chart, especially in the second half.
"We were trying to sub guys in to keep them fresh," Weidman explained.
It had an effect in the fourth quarter when the Pioneers were trying to mount some kind of an attack for a potential go ahead touchdown.
"We just couldn't muster up a drive at the end," the coach went on. "We had too many guys out. Linemen especially were down."
Streaking
The loss, combined with season ending defeats to Manchester-Essex and North Reading last year means the Pioneers have now lost three straight. Ironically, two of the losses were by the score of 7-6. Both Friday night's game and the loss to M/E on Senior Day last year were one point losses when PAT's were blocked. It was the seventh time in school history the Pioneers have lost by a 7-6 score.
For the last three game Pioneer losing streak you have to go back to 2008 when Lynnfield lost seven straight prior to a 21-0 win over North Reading on Thanksgiving Day.
DeGeorge Expressway
As the game wore on, the Pioneers became more and more righthanded and there was a good reason for it. The right side of the Pioneer line was manned by the brother tandem of captain D. J. DeGeorge at guard and freshman Cam DeGeorge at tackle.
Beginning in the second period, the DeGeorge brothers were doing some serious road grading to the left side of the Newburyport line, paving the way for the Pioneer running backs. As a result, Kyle McGah, captain Tyler Palumbo, captain Mike Karavetsos and Anthony Costa enjoyed some tollfree cruising into the Clipper secondary.
My unofficial tally had the Pioneers running12 plays down the DeGeorge Expressway for a total of 90 yards, or nearly half of the Lynnfield total of 203 and an average of 7.5 yards per carry. During the late second quarter drive the Pioneers ran four of the first five plays of the drive between the brothers for gains of 10, 10, 12 and 5 yards. On the opening drive of the second half, the Pioneers ran five of the first six plays that way for gains of 14, 6, 13, 7 and minus 1.
Once the Clippers began to adjust sending help to the beleaguered Clipper linemen, Karavetsos began faking that way, pulling and going the other way for good gains. That is the play on which Karavetsos scored from the five yard line.
Look for the Pioneers to spend more time on the Expressway as the season progresses.
Near Disaster
Much has been said about the five Pioneer turnovers, but there could have easily been a sixth on the Pioneer touchdown run. Karavetsos was hit hard at the goal line and the ball popped loose. As the quarterback twisted around and backed into the endzone falling to the turf, the ball bounced back into his arms resulting in the score. If that one had bounced the other way, the Pioneers could have been looking at a shutout.
Highlight Catch
The play of the game for the Pioneers was the Brandon Lloyd-like catch made by A. J. Gallo on Lynnfield's scoring drive. From the Lynnfield 41 yard line, Karavetsos drilled it to Gallo streaking down the right sideline.
Clipper defensive back Caleb Stott couldn't have been in better position, stationed squarely between Gallo and the ball as it came toward the pair at the Clipper 32. But at the last minute, the 6'0" Gallo leaped over the top of the 5'7" Stott and snatched the ball away.
And he wasn't done yet.
Gallo then broke Stott's tackle at the 26 and headed down the sideline. He made a move to avoid Colton Fontaine at the 16 and took it all the way to the five before he was dragged down by Trevor Bradbury. The final result was a 54 yard completion and a first and goal for the Pioneers at the Newburyport five yard line. Karavetsos took it in on the next play for Lynnfield's only score.
The senior was the Pioneers' leading receiver with three catches for 78 yards.
Gallo also had a solid day from his outside linebacker spot on defense.
"He played a great game," said Weidman. "Probably his best game in the two years he's been with us. We're looking for big things from him. Hopefully he'll continue and have a great year."
Clipper Star
Probably the player of the game for Newburyport was captain Sam Francis who punted eight times for 248 total yards, more than the Clipper total offensive output of 186 yards. He avoided blocks several times and pinned the Pioneers inside their ten yard line twice.
Perhaps his best play of the game came early in the fourth quarter. The Clippers were faced with a fourth and 34 from their own 40 yard line. Francis lined up to punt and took the snap at his own 28. Senior Mike Soden broke loose on the right side and appeared ready to block the kick. Francis quickly pulled the ball back and looked like he would run for it which would have given the ball to the Pioneers in Clipper territory.
But the heady senior instead dodged Soden at the 30, took three steps and booted it from the 35. The ball sailed out of bounds at the Lynnfield 25 for a net 35 yard punt, getting the Clippers out of deep trouble.
Line Domination
After the first long Newburyport scoring drive, it became obvious that the Clippers didn't have an answer for the Pioneer defensive front of captain Andrew Kibarian, D. J. DeGeorge and Soden. The trio spent much of the evening wreaking havoc in the Clipper backfield and harassing junior quarterback Drew Boudreau.
Boudreau was subbing for injured starter Connor Wile and had a good debut, completing 8 of 18 for 113 yards, but he spent a good deal of time on the run. Kibarian got him twice for sacks of 13 and 14 yards.
"The linemen played well," Weidman said. "We expected them to have a good year. We knew that Newburyport has a huge line and a good one so we knew it was going to be a battle."
You can read my game story and see my photos in the Villager on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, check back Monday night when I'll take a look around the weekend games of the CAL/NEC 4 teams.
That's it for now.
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