Georgetown Leftovers

Black and white. Night and day. Apples and oranges.

Pre-bye Pioneers. Post-bye Pioneers.

One only needs to look at the numbers to see that it was clearly a different Lynnfield team that came out of the bye week six weeks ago as compared to the one that went in.

Let's take a closer look.

W/L
Pre: 1-2
Post: 5-0

Per Game Averages
Points For:
Pre: 14.6
Post: 25.8

Points Against:
Pre: 16.0
Post: 5.2

Yards For:
Pre: 256
Post: 319

Yards Against:
Pre: 269
Post: 191

Total Turnovers Forced:
Pre: 5
Post: 17

Total Turnovers Made:
Pre: 8
Post: 9

+/- Turnovers:
Pre: -3
Post: +8

So what magic dust did head coach Neal Weidman sprinkle on his squad following the disappointing 14-7 loss to Bishop Fenwick and prior to the impressive 21-0 blanking of Danvers?

"The Fenwick game we got outplayed. There was no doubt about it," Weidman said. "We didn't help ourselves at all in that game. It was one of those things where the kids could keep going in the direction they were going in which was playing sloppy or they were going to kind of right the ship.

"It came from them because it has to," the coach went on. "You can talk until you're blue in the face but unless they want to do it, it won't happen. It did come from them. They came up with some ideas to try to clean things up as far as practice goes. The captains came to me and asked if we can do this or that if we make mistakes in practice. I said 'fine'. When you get leaders like that, then you have the ability to turn things around."

Weidman was asked if following the Fenwick game was the perfect time for the bye.

"At the time it didn't feel too perfect," the coach replied. "We didn't want to go into a bye week with a loss. It gave us a couple of days to go back to basics a little bit which is what we spent the first couple of days doing. So far, so good. Of course it would have been better doing it off a win."

Regardless of the circumstances, there is no question that the bye week was the dividing line between a team trying to find its way and one that is clearly on a mission. With a berth in a defacto CAL/NEC 4 Championship Game with North Reading now locked up, there are a couple of big steps still remaining. The first one is on Thanksgiving Day.

When all is said and done, Pioneer fans may look back to that break in the schedule in week four as the launching point for the season.

Taking Care of Business
The Pioneers suffered no slipup or letdown in dispatching Georgetown Saturday afternoon, which is what good teams need to do. The Royals are hurting, but the worst thing you can do with a wounded opponent is to let them hang around. Georgetown started strong, but the Pioneers halted that first drive and quickly drove a couple of stakes through the Royal hearts quickly thereafter to make this an easy win.

"They have a young team," said Weidman following the game clearly empathetic to the trials and tribulations the Royals are suffering through. "They played some games real tough this year. They played North Reading tough so they have some tough kids. They've done some nice things this year as well.

"They had a bunch of injuries early in the year," the coach continued. "They were playing well and scoring a lot of points. For small schools, when you have two, three or four kids out, it's tough to overcome."

The win was the Pioneers' fourth straight over the Royals. The four game bulge is 137-13. Lynnfield owns a 4-3 edge over Georgetown all time.

Plug and Play
With A. J. Gallo not suited up for the game, senior Tony Mancini was called on to pick up the slack and did so in explosive fashion. He simply ran past the Georgetown defender on the first Pioneer play of the game, hauled in the Mike Karavetsos pass and flew the rest of the way to the endzone on an 81 yard TD play and his first varsity touchdown. He caught two other passes for 19 yards to hit an even 100 for the day.

"He made a great catch and scored the touchdown and did some other good things as well," Weidman said of Mancini. "He's come a long way. All the receivers, but him specifically have improved blocking a ton. He's been really playing well."

Understudies Stepping Up
One of the late games highlights in the blowout was the terrific goal line stand late in the game with the Pioneer second team in on defense. Georgetown had their full starting team in, including some giant-sized linemen, and they understandably wanted to get into the endzone to break up the shutout.

After recovering a fumble on the Lynnfield 40, they moved down the field on the JayVees and picked up a first and goal at the nine yard line.

On first down, sophomore Jonathan Knee (5'7", 120 lbs) fought off a block from starting Royal fullback Ken Haskell (5'8", 190 lbs) and rode starting tailback Tom Zargaj out of bounds for no gain.

On second down, junior Joe Dias caught Haskell on a dive from behind and held him to a gain of three.

On third and goal from the six, sophomore Lucas Pascucci (5'6" 140 lbs) stayed home on a counter to starting running back Colby Ingraham and held him to a one yard gain.

On fourth and goal from the five, junior James Pierce fought off a Haskell block and corralled Zargaj for a two yard gain, three yards short of the end zone.

Lynnfield took over on downs after the impressive stand by the young Pioneers.

"It was great," Weidman said. "We had some kids step up and make some plays.

"One of the biggest things since the Fenwick game," the coach went on, "is that we've had really good scout looks and the team's been prepared. To try and get a chance to reward all those guys is good. You don't get a chance to reward them as much as you want.

"That sophomore year is the biggest year," Weidman continued. "You're not a freshman but you don't get a chance to run your own stuff that much because you're running everyone else's stuff. It's not always a fun year but they've done a good job. You need those kids."

More Baptism of Fire
Sophomore Danny Sullivan is no stranger to being thrown in the thick of things. If you recall, last Thanksgiving Day, Sullivan was tossed into the line of fire when Karavetsos went down early in the game and backup Alex Roper was not available due to illness. The freshman did a solid job and even threw his first varsity touchdown.

Sullivan was dealt a tough hand twice Saturday when he took over the offense after both the varsity and junior varsity goal line stands. At the end of the first half, he took over when the Pioneers were on the one foot line. On third and ten from his own one yard line, he just missed connecting with captain Alex Pascucci over the middle on a play that would have gotten the first down and maybe more.

According to his head coach, putting Sullivan into those situations is all part of the learning process.

"That's a great situation for him to be in," Weidman said. "He almost made a big play on third down to get us out of there. It may have been a touchdown. Hopefully by getting that experience, next time it will be."

Alive and Kickin'
Senior Alex Roper was five for five in PAT tries against Georgetown giving him 17 for the season. He also upped his career total to 38, moving him past Dave Frontero (1986-87) who had 36. That places Roper second all time behind Steve Ullian (2008-10) whose 75 career PAT's stands as a nearly unapproachable record.

Pigskin Picks
Two more interceptions for the Pioneers this week lifting their season total to 15. Sophomore Cam Rondeau picked up his third and Matt Kramich had his first.

Name Game
Not that it means anything, but isn't it interesting that two of the six quarterbacks in the CAL/NEC 4 have first names of Jackson? Georgetown's signal caller is Jackson Fritz and the Pioneers will face North Reading's qb Jackson Kellogg on Thanksgiving Day.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night when I'll review the other two league games of this past weekend.