It would also be foolhardy.
Yes, the Tigers come into the game with a 1-5 record, their only victory coming against a fellow 1-5 Triton squad. But looking deeper, you see that Ipswich has played a tough schedule, their five losses coming against teams that have no worse than a .500 record. The combined mark of the five teams that have beaten them is 18-11. And despite being one of the smallest teams in the league, they don't go easy on themselves, playing traditional CAL heavyweights Newburyport, Amesbury and Pentucket.
Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman probably put it best.
"Ipswich is tough as nails," Weidman said shaking his head.
You only need to go back to last season if you need a reminder.
The game ended with Ipswich on the Lynnfield 24 yard line and the only thing that saved them from a last ditch hail Mary was the Tiger quarterback losing track of things in the final seconds and spiking the ball to stop the clock on fourth down.
Make no mistake. This will be a tough one.
The Tigers came into the season with high hopes and 15 seniors, the most since the Ipswich Super Bowl team of 2006. Yes it wasn't that long ago that the Tigers captured the league crown and went to post season play.
Injuries have hurt the Tigers this season, but they were healthy enough to battle Newburyport every step of the way last week in a 13-7 loss.
Ipswich is still predominantly a running team, but they show a couple of different packages with two different quarterbacks.
Kyle Blomster started the year behind center and there is a tendency to break out of the traditional Delaware Wing T with him at the controls. Running back Kyle Barber has been seeing more action at quarterback and when he is in the game, expect the same old whirling dervish inside handoff trapping scheme that Ipswich as been running for 40 years or more.
Captain John Elnagger typifies the Ipswich philosophy. He is a safety on defense but plays guard on offense again showing the Wing T's penchant for smaller, quicker linemen. Elnagger is 6'0" 185. He was an all league linebacker last season. Also returning are all league honorable mentions Peter Moutevalis, Derek Chamberlain, Mike Dillon and Nate Glaser.
This will be the third week in a row the Pioneers are facing a Wing T team, but there has been a steady evolution. Danvers runs the Wing T, but breaks out so frequently that you really can't see it. Pentucket stays in it more than Danvers but still runs some spread with quarterback Ryan Kuchar. With Ipswich, you get more of the traditional ball hogging, clocking eating running style.
Newburyport shut it down completely last week with Ipswich's only score coming on Elnagger's 78 yard kickoff return. The big Pioneer line needs to play the way they did against Pentucket if they hope to shut down the shifty Tigers.
Another factor to consider is the weather. Heavy rain is expected beginning Friday morning and carrying through to Saturday mid day. The game itself should be played in cloudy, but dry, conditions, but after 24 hours of soaking rain, Pioneer Field could get mushy.
That would seem to favor the bigger Pioneer team which features more straight ahead bash running and the passing of Mike Karavetsos. The Tigers rely more on quick cuts and shifty moves, something that might be more difficult on a muddy field.
Just for kicks, I googled "wet field, Wing T" to see what I'd get and I found a link to an article from the Harvard Crimson that described the 1950 Yale-Darmouth game. Dartmouth defeated Yale and it's wing T offense 7-0 on a muddy field and the following quote talked about Yale's difficulties with the wet footing.
"Yale was hindered by the wet turf also. The intricate Eli wing-T, with a halfback in motion, depends to a great extent on quick turns and shifts, which were made impossible by the condition of the field. In addition, linemen were unable to pull out fast enough to lead effective interference."
Trouble for the Tigers? Don't necessarily count on it.
The Pioneers are riding some momentum coming off two straight victories by a combined 35-6 score, but Weidman isn't fooled into thinking that means anything going into Saturday's game.
"It's great we won two in a row," the coach said. "but just because you won two in a row doesn't mean you're going to play well next week. It's all about preparation and where their mindset is next week. So if they prepare all week and they're into the game when we start next week then we have a chance of playing well."
The Pioneers are riding a five game winning streak against the Tigers but three of those wins were one score games.
Other than North Reading, who Lynnfield has played all 54 years the football program has existed, Ipswich is the next most frequent Pioneer opponent. The schools have tangled 43 times, with the Tigers holding a 27-16 edge. Those are the most victories against Lynnfield for any school other than - right you guessed it, Newburyport - who has beaten the Pioneers 32 times.
Game time at Pioneer field at the Middle School is 1 pm.
That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night when I'll have a bonus post previewing the upcoming CAL/NEC 4 race.
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