Manchester-Essex Game Preview: Thinking Payback?

The Pioneers go into Friday night's game against Manchester-Essex with not a whole lot at stake. Regardless of the outcome, or the outcome of the North Reading/Ipswich game, the archivals will meet on Thankgiving Day for the CAL/NEC 4 title and a trip to the Division 3A playoffs.

So if the Pioneers need some incentive for the clash with these other Hornets, they need only go back one year, to Senior Day 2011. No, former captains Jon Roberto, John Gaff and Mike Thomas and the other seniors from last year's squad will not be walking through that door, but the 2012 club could do worse than try to make up for the flat-as-a-pancake performance on the those seniors' special day last year.

For those who may not recall, the Pioneers played arguably their poorest game of the year and fell 7-6 to M/E at Pioneer Field. They struggled to get 138 yards of total offense, their lowest total in the past three seasons. They committed three turnovers, one of which was a pick six that gave the Hornets their winning score.

It was not a good day.

So if nothing else, maybe the Pioneers will go out Friday night with the urge to avenge last year's less-than-stellar effort and to head into the Championship Game with some good mojo.

They will be facing a Manchester-Essex team that has been hobbled all season. After a 5-6 campaign last year in which the Hornets followed their win in Lynnfield with a 28-7 beatdown of Georgetown on Thanksgiving Day, much was expected of them this year.

Coach Mike Athanas was confident heading into the season, looking especially at the depth his Hornet team had at the skill positions.

Leading the way was quarterback Cory Burnham, starting his second year, and looking to continue as the next link in the chain of outstanding M/E quarterbacks like Pat Orlando and Alex Carr. His sidekick in the backfield was running back Jake Fitzgerald. That pair scored 12 touchdowns and ran for almost 1400 yards last year and much was expected of them this season.

And it didn't end there. The Hornets also had receiver John Beardsley and running back Zac Fleming to provide more firepower.

On the defensive side of the ball, Fleming and sophomore Doug Rodier were expected to excel while the line was anchored by Julian Flavin.

Things were looking good as the Hornets prepared for their non-league opener against Amesbury.

"We're concerned about depth," Mike Athanas told Conor Walsh of  the Gloucester Times. "Injuries are our biggest concern."

Talk about foreshadowing.

The opening night kickoff had just about left the tee when Hornets starting falling like flies.

Fitzgerald and Rodier went down in the 28-7 loss to the Indians hurting M/E on both sides of the ball. A 31-12 loss to Saugus and a 28-12 defeat to Cathedral followed.

The Hornets finally got into the win column with a last minute 21-20 victory over Pope John, but even that one was tinged with injury as Burhnam played the game on a sprained ankle. They fell to 1-4 with a 32-19 loss to Austin Prep the following week.

Chris Dumont emerged at running back with Fitzgerald out but then he was hurt in a 32-14 loss to Northeast. Fleming was also lost to injury in that game, leaving the Hornets with four of their main players out of action.

M/E opened their CAL/NEC 4 schedule against Hamilton-Wenham with a little more than a dozen healthy players, the result was a 43-13 loss to the Generals. It got worse the next week with a 60-7 beating at the hands of the league's other Hornets from North Reading.

However, M/E turned it around last Friday night, upsetting Ipswich 17-14. Keying the win were two of the key healthy players for the Hornets in Burnham and Beardsley. Rodier returned to help stabilize the M/E defense.

So it will be a rejuvenated Hornet team looking to make some noise in their final two games who will host the Pioneers Friday night.

"They're a good team," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "Their record (2-7) is actually surprising. (Burnham) is very good. He's big and he has a big arm. They have a couple of very good linebackers.

"They're a senior team," the coach continued. "They had injuries early. It's one of those things where things kind of snowballed on them. They were expecting to have a good year because they have so many seniors like us. Things just didn't fall into place for them early on but they looked good (against Ipswich).

"They do a lot of different things," Weidman went on. "We'll have to prepare well to win that game.

This will be the fifth meeting all time between the schools with the Hornets holding a 3-1 edge. The only Pioneer victory came in the first game on the artificial turf at Hyland Field in 2010 when Lynnfield prevailed 37-6.

Game time in Manchester is 7 pm.

Check back after the game for my first thoughts on the contest.