Triton Leftovers/Baby Bump

by Tom Condardo

Okay where have I been? I know many of you have been waiting breathlessly for this post since Sunday night, but I've been kind of busy. And the reason is right there below. I've been celebrating the birth of my first grandchild - and newest Pioneer fan - Jackson Smith Condardo - who joined us this past Saturday morning. At 20", 7 lbs 5 oz, he's not quite ready to plug into the offensive line, but give him some time.

Jackson Smith Condardo

We actually thought he was coming Friday and my wife Noreen and I raced out to Greenfield, MA (north of Springfield) to be with my son Corey and daughter in law Skye for the blessed arrival. But anyone who has gone through these things knows, the little ones have a mind - and clock - of their own, and make their entrance when they see fit. Skye went into labor Thursday night/Friday morning but things stopped mid day on Friday. I think Jackson just wanted me to come back and cover the game against Triton, which I was able to do. He made his grand entrance on Saturday at 8:56 so it was back to Western Mass for my wife and me.

So to make a long story longer, that's why this post got put on the back burner for a bit, but here it is, better late than never.

Mentor vs. Student
It wasn't a totally fair fight, but the Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman (aka the Mentor) got the best of Triton head coach Pat Sheehan (aka the Student) Friday night in Lynnfield's 36-7 win at Pioneer Stadium.

The Pioneers had their way with the banged up Vikings who made it interesting for a time. They got to within a score early in the second quarter but were capsized when the Pioneers swamped them with two quick touchdowns in 2:46 of game time. Lynnfield added one more in the waning seconds of the half to put the game out of reach at 36-7.

When I talked to Weidman after the game, I could tell he wasn't comfortable playing against someone he has become quite close to. What was it like?

"Weird," Weidman replied. "I'm not exactly thrilled about it. It was bitter sweet."

Sheehan took it all in stride.

"It was a lot of fun," he said about the matchup against his former mentor. "During the game you're just worried about your kids, alignment, and scheme and that sort of thing but there were a couple of times I looked over and it was fun seeing the same things we did six or seven years ago."

Both teams had to adjust to the fact that they essential run the same offense with similar concepts and terminology.

At one point early in the game, Weidman had someone shield him from the Triton defense with a towel so they couldn't get the signals he was sending it to the offense.

"We tried to hide my calls and stuff like that just in case the defense was looking over trying to watch," Weidman explained. "We didn't change a lot."

Sheehan likewise had to resort to some trickery to throw the Pioneers off the trail.

"We're obviously doing a lot of the same things here," Sheehan said. "It was funny. I actually at one point was giving some dummy signals on the sidelines and I gave one play and all eleven Lynnfield players called out the exact play I called."

Sheehan was resigned to the fact that he was facing an uphill battle against the Pioneers since he was missing seven two-way starters from the team that started the season. I asked him if he would have liked to have a shot at Lynnfield with all his weapons.

"We're going to get another shot at some point," he said with a smile. "and they'll be a whole different team. High school football teams have a shelf life of one year. Next year's team for both him and me will be completely different. And we'll coach that team up as hard as we can and at some point we'll see each other. Hopefully it will be a playoff game next time."

Starters Finish
For the third week in a row, most of the starters played the whole way. That's probably a good thing heading into what will certainly be a tough, four quarter battle against North Reading. I asked Weidman if there was a reason he kept the first team in most of the way despite the score.

"We didn't take all the starters out," he answered. "We took out about half of them. (Triton) is a better than most (of the teams we played). If we had scored on the first drive of the second half, it would have been a different story."

Moving On Up
Captain Drew McCarthy and Dan Bronshvayg continue to move up on the all time Pioneer career scoring list.

Bronshvagy put together a quad offensive night, scoring on a running TD, receiving TD, kicking four PAT's, and tossing a two point conversion. He had a chance for a quinella but his 30 yard field goal attempt sailed wide left. His 16 points gives him 141 for his career, lifting him past Jake Rourke at 130 into ninth place all time.

McCarthy's TD gives him 78 points on the season and 120 for his career putting him in 11th place all time.

Nicked
The Pioneers were without the services of their second leading rusher in Nick Kinnon, who suffered a fractured collarbone against Pentucket and is out for the rest of the season. Kinnon finishes a stellar sophomore campaign with 449 yards on 27 carries - an impressive 16.6 yards per carry average. His speed was particularly effective on the jet sweep.

Kinnon's five rushing TD's and kick return score gives him 36 points for the season, the most for a sophomore since Chris Grassi tallied 48 as a sophomore in 2007. For reference, here are the top five all time Pioneer scorers and their sophomore point totals. Frank Berardino (72), Kyle McGah (30), Joe DeBella (0), Gino Cohee (30), Eric Hansen (8). Berardino (12), McGah (6) and Cohee (8) also scored as freshmen.

First Time
I don't have the complete empirical evidence for this, but I'm fairly certain that the point after by Jessica Greaney was the first ever point scored against the Pioneers by a woman. Greaney, a senior, was a team manager last season for the Vikings and was joking around with Sheehan that she could kick. He called her out on it and invited her to try out in the preseason and she won the placekicker job.

The 300
The 36 point outburst against Triton gives the Pioneers 323 points heading into the Thanksgiving Day game and puts them in fifth place on the all time team scoring list. The 1960 team is tops at 410, followed by 2014 (400), 2013 (345), and 2010 (336). This marks the third straight year Lynnfield has topped the 300 point mark in scoring. This is the fourth time in the eight year Weidman era that the Pioneers have passed 300 points and only the fifth time it's been done.

After the 1960 team hit the 410, the Pioneers went 48 seasons (1961 to 2008) topping 200 points only seven times. Only Weidman's first squad in 2008 with 165 failed to top 200 points in a season in his eight years as head coach.

Meaningfulness
During the postgame interview, a reporter (not me) remarked that even though the games were "meaningless" Weidman still had to feel good for the seniors. The coach did not let that pass.

"They may be meaningless as far as the playoffs go obviously, but not meaningless to kids who practice six days a week," he replied.

I continue to be amused by the people who say the games don't mean anything once a team doesn't make it or gets knocked out of the playoffs. How is that any different than in years past in a 10 team Cape Ann League or Northeastern Conference when team lost two or three games in the first month of the season and had ZERO chance to win the league. Were the rest of those games "meaningless?"

The fact is that high school football is unique in that every game is meaningful for the players and coaches who want to win the battle THAT WEEK regardless of the impact or standings, playoffs or whatever. I love the playoff format, but I still consider the non playoff games important.

The kids and coaches on the field in the Pentucket game for example certainly didn't consider that game "meaningless." It was an exciting, well played high school football game. Isn't that what it's all about?

And don't tell the kids from Georgetown who finally got a win against West Roxbury last week that the game was meaningless. My guess is the Royals would say that was the most meaningful of the year for them.

Pentucket Redux
Speaking of the Pentucket game, Weidman still has that tough loss on his mind. Early in the Triton post game interview he switched gears back to that game.

"It was a great effort," Weidman said of the performance against Triton. "We had a great effort last week too (against Pentucket.) We played pretty well last week. I watched the film and we didn't play that poorly in the second half. We played as well as we did in the first half."

Danvers Redux
While we're in a retrospective mode, it might be time to revisit that Danvers game back in week two. The Pioneers were in control and the contest turned on a couple of controversial calls and some Lynnfield miscues leading to a 22-15 loss.

If you haven't been paying attention, Danvers has gone on to an 8-2 record and will be playing in the Division Three State Semi-finals against Melrose at Lynn's Manning Field with a trip to Gillette Stadium on the line.

And they barely squeaked by the Pioneers.

Correction Corner
In my Watertown Leftovers post I mentioned that Bronshvayg had hit his 100th PAT. Because of a brain cramp or technical glitch (take your pick), I didn't account for his seven PAT's against Georgetown. So he actually notched PAT 100 a week earlier against Hamilton Wenham. He now has 111 extra points with a week to go.

That's it for now. Check back Tuesday night for my preview post of the big Thanksgiving Day clash.