Ipswich Game Preview: From the Wing to the Spread

by Tom Condardo

Death, taxes, and the Ipswich Delaware Wing T.

Those were always three absolutes. And while the first two aren't going anywhere, you can now scratch the Tiger Wing T off that list. Legendary Ipswich head coach Jack Welch ran the Wing T for 32 years and his successors kept up the tradition until now. The many Pioneer defenders who have been confounded over the past 40 years by the whirling dervish trickery will not mourn its demise

New Tiger head coach Greg Brotherton, a product of the Wing T who played on Welch's 1991 Ipswich championship team (the one that edged out a 9-1-1 Lynnfield team by a half game), took over as head coach this year and has burned up the wing. The Tigers are now running the Spread, one very similar to the Pioneer offense.

Brotherton was a defensive coordinator at Lynn English where they ran the spread and he brought that with him when he returned to his Alma Mater.

"I'm a wing T guy. I love it," Brotherton told Jean Deplacido in the Salem News season preview earlier this season. "If I thought I could run the Wing T now I probably would but we need a fresh start."

Installing a brand new offense, especially one as complicated as the Spread comes with growing pains as Pioneer head coach

Neal Weidman is well aware. He brought the Spread to Lynnfield as the Pioneers' offensive coordinator in 2006 under head coach Bill Adams and things were rocky at the start.

Lynnfield finished 1-10 that season and managed only 111 points for the year. They completed only 36% of their passes and threw 21 interceptions. Things improved a bit in 2007 when the Pioneers went 3-8 and scored 187 points. Now in the eighth year running the offense, things have worked out quite nicely as evidenced by three championships in the last five years. Last year, the Pioneers racked up 276 points in compiling their 9-3 record.

The Tigers are still in that learning phase and have only one win in their first six games with it, but they have shown improvement since the beginning of the year.

They managed only a touchdown in each of their first two lopsided losses to North Reading and Newburyport. They ramped it up to two touchdowns each in their next three games, a 28-14 loss to Hamilton-Wenham and a 35-14 defeat against Amesbury sandwiched around a 14-0 win over Georgetown. Last week they lost a 26-20 overtime heartbreaker to Manchester Essex.

Their offensive output has steadily increased with totals of 98, 122, 204, 296, 260, and 256 in consecutive weeks.

"They've gotten much better from the beginning of the year and even from last week to the week before," said Weidman. "And they're doing some different things too that I saw (Friday night) that I wasn't really psyched about because I thought I had (their offense down)."

Quarterback Kyle Blomster is at the controls of the Spread and has gotten more comfortable every week. He's tossed three touchdown passes, two of them to his favorite receiver Nate Glaster. The running game is led by Curtis Levasseur and Derek Chamberlain.

The Tigers came into the season with only one experienced lineman in Matt Carey, but now the rest of the line has had six games of experience and seem to be improving.

Ipswich Always Tough Venue
Despite their 1-5 record, the Pioneers would be wise not to overlook the Tigers. Despite winning the last six meetings between the schools, the games in Ipswich have been a struggle.

In 2007, the Pioneers trailed 14-6 midway in the third in a steady rain. Pat Lamusta tied it up with a 16 yard run late in the third and Jeff Milinazzo won it 20-14 with a two yard run in the final minute of the game.

The 2009 championship team went into the Tiger's den to face a team that had lost 29 straight but the Pioneers found themselves up only 14-3 at halftime. They needed a Gino Cohee to Ty Surette TD pass in the third to nail down a 21-3 win.

In 2011, the Tigers dominated the first two quarters but went into the half up only 6-0. Lynnfield got the lead early in the third on a 30 yard run by Mike Karavetsos and a PAT by Alex Roper. They gave themselves some breathing room when Karavetsos hit Nico Varano on a 52 yard bomb to account for the final score.

So despite the fact that the Pioneers will be toting the CAL Baker Division trophy into the game, no one should expect an easy night. You know the Tigers would love to tarnish up that trophy with an upset win.

And even though the Pioneers have nailed down the title and a place in the post season playoffs, the game still has major significance. Lynnfield needs to win if they hope to cement the second seed in Division Four North. By doing so, they ensure themselves two playoff home games should they advance that far.

Game time in Ipswich is 7 pm and the temperature is expected to be around 40 degrees. I suggest you wear your official Pioneer long underwear.

Harry Jameson
On a somber note, for those who may not have heard, the Lynnfield football community lost one of its founding fathers this week with the passing of long time coach and teacher Harry Jameson. Jameson was a member of the original Pioneer coaching staff in 1958 and was an assistant until the mid 1980's. He was also the long time head baseball coach and a teacher at the high school for 40 years before retiring in 1998.

He was my "go to" guy whenever I wanted to add some flesh and blood to the statistics I was digging up. Whether I needed information about the first ever Thanksgiving Day game, or the 1986 Super Bowl season, the epic Thanksgiving Day battle with North Reading in 1960, or the scoring exploits of Frank Berardino, Mr. Jameson was always happy to fill me in on the details. And you knew they were accurate since he was there.

Over the years he would write articles about the various football teams and players for the Villager or the Weekly News and was a font of historical information regarding Lynnfield High School Football. He will be missed and may he rest in peace. His full obituary can be found here.

That's it for now. Check back after the game.