Lynnfield Football Gridblog

Top Plays of 2011

2012-01-05T18:10:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year and welcome to my first post of 2012. 'Tis the season to review the past year, so this is an appropriate time for my Third Annual Top Plays of the Year post.

2011 was an interesting year for the Pioneers. As head coach Neal Weidman pointed out at the banquet, there were some ups and downs. So fittingly, some of the plays I've chosen were ups and some were downers. My criteria is purely subjective (my blog after all) but what I am looking for are plays that had a significant affect on a game or the season either positively or negatively or just an outstanding individual accomplishment. I rate plays in league games higher than non league games.

So here we go. In reverse order of significance, one man's opinion of The Top Plays of 2011.

#17. The Return of the Captain. Pioneer tri captain Mike Thomas suffered a broken collar bone against St. Mary's in the fourth game of the year and was thought to be lost for the rest of the season. But after only five weeks, Thomas consulted with his doctor and was cleared to play. On the first play of the second half against Georgetown, the captain made a dramatic return. With the Pioneers leading 28-7, Weidman just wanted to get Thomas a series to get some hits and get used to carrying the ball again. But Thomas didn't see much contact. He took the handoff from Karavetsos and with his lily white uniform, burst through an enormous hole in the center of the Georgetown line and sprinted 76 yards for the eighth and final touchdown of his high school career. Thomas would reinjure his collarbone against Manchester Essex and did not score again.

#16. The Freshman Fling. With quarterback Mike Karavetsos knocked out of the Thanksgiving Day game with a head injury and backup signal caller Alex Roper down with mono, it fell to 5'6", 135 lb freshman Danny Sullivan to rally the Pioneers from a 16-12 halftime deficit against North Reading. It was a nearly impossible task for the ninth grader, but the youngster made his mark on the first drive of the second half. After the Pioneers forced the Hornets to punt, Lynnfield took over on their own 20 yard line. On the Pioneers' first offensive play of the half, Sullivan reared back and threw a perfect spiral to Alex Pascucci who got behind the Hornet defense and sprinted 80 yards for the Lynnfield TD. The Pioneers would go on to lose to a tough North Reading team 37-18, but that Sullivan TD pass gave Lynnfield an 18-16 lead that would hold up until early in the fourth quarter. Quite a start in his varsity debut.

#15. The Fortunate Bounce. In the third game of the season, the Pioneers moved quickly through the young Bishop Fenwick defense on their opening drive. On a first and ten from the Fenwick 14, Thomas took a handoff from Karavetsos and headed through a gaping hole toward the endzone. At the three yard line, Thomas took a vicious hit that knocked the ball loose. Fortunately for the Pioneers, the ball bounced on the four yard line and straight back up into the arms of Alex Pascucci who carried it the rest of the way into the endzone for the score. The play happened so fast, that most people didn't realize that Pascucci had scored and thought that Thomas and run it in. That would be the kind of day it would be for Bishop Fenwick who fell to the Pioneers 35-8.

#14. Goal Line Stand Part One. The Pioneers trailed 14-0 to Pentucket at halftime but early in the third period Karavetsos scored on a 30 yard run to cut the lead to 14-7. The Sachems answered right back, however, driving to the Pioneer two yard line where they faced a fourth and one for the first down or two for the touchdown. Pentucket quarterback Matt Kuchar handed off to running back Cody Rothwell who headed to what appeared to be a huge hole on the left side of the line. But Mike Soden fought off a block, tripped up Rothwell by the leg with his left hand and reached up and grabbed the back of his jersey with his right hand to pull him down short of the first down marker. That got the ball back to the Pioneers on downs. Lynnfield would then embark on a 98 yard drive capped by a 35 yard run by Karavetsos to tie the game at 14-14.

#13. The Fake Punt. Midway in the fourth period of the Pentucket game, tied 14-14, the Pioneers faced a fourth and five from their own 35 yard line. Lynnfield lined up in punt formation, but the snap from Roberto didn't go to punter A. J. Gallo and instead to the up man Alex Roper, who also happened to be the Pioneer back up quarterback. The Pentucket defense was completely fooled and Alex Pascucci was wide open in the middle of the field. Roper lofted it to Pascucci who took it to the 50 yard line for the first down. On the next play, Karavetsos found a wide open Steve Yobaccio down the left sideline for a 50 yard TD strike that turned out to be the winning score in the 21-14 Pioneer win.

#12 The Blown Whistle. Tied 7-7 with Newburyport in the opening game of the season, the Pioneers were moving the ball on the opening drive of the second half. On second and seven from the Newburyport 36, Karavetsos faked a handoff to tri captain Mike Thomas. The Clippers bit on the fake big time as four Newburyport defenders collapsed on the senior running back. But Karavetsos had kept the ball, broke a tackle after the fake handoff and headed to the right. Tri-Captain John Gaff wiped out the Clipper defensive end and Karavetsos was off to the races with what appeared to be the go ahead touchdown. Unfortunately, Karavetsos' fake was so good that it fooled the officials as well. As the empty handed Thomas went down under a heap of Clippers, the officials blew the play dead. Unfortunately for the Pioneers, Karavetsos was dancing clear in the flat heading for the endzone with the ball. But the whistle blew the play dead and after a huddle, the officials gave the Pioneers a first down at the Clipper 28. The Pioneer drive subsequently stalled at the Clipper 24, Newburyport took over and moved 76 yard drive for a score. Instead of leading the eventual CAL/NEC Tier 3 champs 14-7, the Pioneers trailed by the same score. They would go on to lose 27-14 but the result could have been very different if the Pioneers had taken that one touchdown lead.

#11. Goal Line Stand Part Two. In the second game of the season, Amesbury was hitting on all cylinders on their opening drive as they marched to the Lynnfield one yard line. But on fourth and one, All League Lineman D. J. DeGeorge tunnelled under the Indians' offensive line and corralled Indian running back Delante Castle for no gain. Not only did he keep him out of the endzone, but the stop was also short of the first down marker which was at the half yard line.

#10. The Bomb. After stuffing Amesbury at the one yard line on their opening drive, the Pioneers took over on downs. Runs by Karavetsos and Thomas got the ball to the eight yard line. On third and three, Karavetsos faded back and unloaded a bomb to Jonathan Rogers who caught it at the 27 and outran the Indian defense to the endzone for a 92 yard TD hookup. Instead of trailing by a score, the Pioneers led 7-0.

#9 The Scooped Fumble. Tied with Amesbury 7-7, the Pioneers were yielding yardage to the Indians on their opening drive of the second half. On a third and five from the Lynnfield 27, Amesbury running back Delante Castle headed into the line. D. J. DeGeorge met him there, put his helmet on the ball and popped it loose. A. J. Gallo was right there to scoop up the fumble and out race the Indian defenders to the endzone for a 73 yard touchdown. Quarterback Matt Talbot was the only one with a chance to stop Gallo on the return, but he was obliterated out of the play by tri-captain Jonathan Roberto. After Alex Roper's PAT, the Pioneers led 14-7 and would ultimate hold on for a 14-13 win, their first of the year.

#8. The Winning Blocked PAT. Gallo's fumble return put the Pioneers up by a touchdown, but the game winning play was made on the Indians' next drive. Amesbury rebounded quickly from the stunning Pioneer score and marched 65 yards for a score that cut the lead to 14-13. Mac Short lined up for what would have been the tying PAT, but Tyler Palumbo hopped through the gap between the center and left guard, came in untouched and blocked the kick and preserve the Pioneer victory.

#7. Pick Six. The Pioneers were all out of sorts for their Senior Day game against Manchester Essex. Nothing seemed to go right for the home team, but despite that, it appeared the Pioneers would go in at the half up 6-0. But late in the second quarter, Karavetsos reinjured his ankle and had to leave the game. Backup quarterback Alex Roper came into a difficult spot facing a second and seven from his own 48 yard line. Looking to pick up the first down, Roper fired a pass to the left side but Hornet Joe Burgess slipped under the receiver and picked it off and then returned it 53 yards for the TD. He added the PAT that would ultimately be the winning point as the Pioneers failed to score in the second half for the only time all year.

#6. The Breakout Run. The Pioneers could not get untracked against Ipswich and trailed 6-0 at halftime of their CAL/NEC 4 league opener. Lynnfield managed only 42 yards of offense and a pair of first downs in the first two quarters of play and were in danger of falling to the Tigers. But after forcing a three and out on the Tigers' opening drive of the second half, the Pioneers began to put things together. On a third and nine from the Ipswich 30 yard line Karavetsos broke loose on a quarterback draw and romped through a wide open middle of the field for the score. Roper added the extra point and the Pioneers would not trail again enroute to a fingernail biting 13-6 win.

#5. The Premature Spike. Leading 13-6 with time running out, the Pioneers had to withstand one last assault from a revved up Ipswich Tiger team. In the final five minutes of the game, the Tigers marched from their own 21 to the Lynnfield 24. But the clock was running and Ipswich had no time outs left. On third and five, Ipswich quarterback Louis Galanis, playing QB for the first time all year in place of injured Nick Andreas, scrambled four yards to set up a fourth and one. Unfortunately for Ipswich, Galanis must have lost track of the downs and with the clock ticking to single digits, he raced to the line and spiked the ball on fourth down, turning the ball over on downs and sealing the Pioneer victory.

#4. The Hit. With backup quarterback Alex Roper out with mono, the most important thing for the Pioneers on Thanksgiving Day was to keep Mike Karavetsos on the field. He came into the game nursing an ankle injury which didn't seem to bother him in the opening minutes of the game as the Pioneers roared out to a fast start. On his first carry of the game, Karavetsos darted 32 yards for a touchdown. After a Pioneer fumble recovery on the following kickoff, the Pioneers marched 30 yards for a score with Karavetsos capping it with a five yard strike to Anthony Costa. Before the stunned Hornets had run an offensive play, they were already down 12-0. However, midway in the second period, the unthinkable occurred. On a quarterback keeper, Karavetsos sprinted for a nine yard gain, but was hit by three Hornets in the process. As he lay prone on the artificial turf at Arthur Kenney Field, it appeared his day was done. That was indeed the case as freshman Danny Sullivan and sophomore Matt Kramich took over the controls from there but it was too much to ask for them to match the high powered Hornet offense. North Reading would pull ahead 16-12 and Sullivan's 80 yard TD put the Pioneers back on top temporarily, the Hornets exploded for three fourth period scores to capture the Thanksgiving Day contest. The Pioneer offense simply couldn't keep up without Karavetsos at the controls.

#3. Mine No Mine. Leading undefeated Hamilton Wenham 7-6, the Pioneers opened the second half with an impressive drive. On second and six from the General 10 yard line, Karavetsos tossed to Nico Varano who had inside position on H-W defender Pete Duvall. Duvall reached over and grabbed the ball and the pair wrestled to the ground apparently in joint possession of the football. After about 30 seconds, the official ruled it an interception, though it appeared to be a simulaneous catch which would go to the offense according to the rule. Instead of a possible 14-6 lead, the Pioneers suffered a turnover.

#2. The Pilfer. Three plays after the interception ruling, the Generals faced a second and five from the Lynnfield 35 yard line. Quarterback Trevor Lyons handed off to bruising running back Eliot Burr, 6'0" 200 lbs. As Burr hit the line, Pioneer linebacker Tyler Palumbo, 5'8" 160 lbs, reached in and ripped the ball out of his hands and took off 37 yards the other way to the endzone. Roper added the PAT and the Pioneers led the stunned Generals 14-6.

And now, the most significant play of the 2011 season.

#1. The Almost Touchdown. Ironically, the most significant play of the year ended up not being an official play at all. Leading Hamilton-Wenham 14-6, the Pioneers mounted another drive early in the fourth quarter. On third and three from the General 22 yard line, Karavetsos headed out on a sweep around the left side and sprinted all the way down the sideline for the apparent score that would have put the Pioneers up by two touchdowns with nine minutes left in the game. Unfortunately the home town jubilation was short-lived as the Pioneers were flagged for holding which nullified the score. The Pioneers eventually turned the ball over on downs. The Generals ultimately scored the tying touchdown and two point conversion with 37 seconds left and the winning score and conversion in overtime. Those sixteen points in the closing minutes of the game propelled the Generals to an undefeated regular season, a victory over Newburyport in the Division 3A playoffs and a trip to the Super Bowl. Only an injury to the league's Player of the Year Trevor Lyons prevented them from posting a Super Bowl win and undefeated season. Without Lyons, the Generals fell to Bourne 16-14 after leading 14-8 at the half. It's tough to project what might have been but it's safe to say that if this touchdown had counted, the Generals would not have been able to come back from a 21-6 deficit. It took them the rest of the fourth period and overtime to overcome the 14-6 hole they were in. One more score could have driven the nail into the coffin. An upset Pioneer victory here would have put them in the drivers' seat for the league title and who knows what might have happened from there. Ultimately, injuries played a huge part in the Pioneers' two game losing streak to end the year, but it's interesting to ponder what might have been.

So there you have it. My choices of the Top 17 plays of the season culled from the nearly 1200 that the Pioneers' participated in this past fall. Feel free to chime in with any choices you may have.

That's it for now. Check back on February 3 for my next offseason post.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T19:03:00.000-05:00

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thanks for reading and for all your kind words of support.

Now that the season is over, I will be reverting to my off season schedule which will be the first Friday of every month. My first post will be on January 6th when I'll take a look at the Top Plays of the 2011 season.

Check back then and again Happy Holidays!

-Tom

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Valiant Ending

2011-12-07T22:17:00.012-05:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

December 6, 1986

If you had happened to wander by the Lynnfield High weight room the week before the Pioneers' first ever Super Bowl appearance, you would have heard a familiar tune blasting away from inside.

Preparing for the big game, the squad did their final prep work to the blaring sound of "Eye of the Tiger" by the group Survivor. The song was the theme for Rocky III in which everyone's favorite underdog took on the invincible Clubber Lang in a fight no one thought Rocky Balboa could win.

It was appropriate that the Pioneers were pumping iron to that song since they went into the Division III Super Bowl as nearly as decided an underdog as Rocky. Playing the role of Clubber Lang was the Lincoln Sudbury Warriors, who came into the game undefeated, winners of 24 straight including a 35-21 win over New Bedford in the 1985 Super Bowl.

"I remember Chris Miele blaring "Eye of the Tiger" in the weight room every day that week leading up to the game," Jason Mochi recalled recently. "He pulled a few of us aside and told us that it was our destiny to make it this far. It was pretty inspirational."

The Pioneers certainly needed that inspiration facing such a dominating team.

Head Coach Bill Adams recently told me about a dinner he attended several nights before the game.

"I was talking to someone from Lincoln Sudbury and they asked how many students we had at Lynnfield High," Adams recalled. "When I told him it was about 600 he told me 'We have about 1900. What are we doing playing you?"

The Warriors were indeed stacked. They featured two players who would go on to play pro ball and featured one of the best backs ever to go to the school in Brendan Mahoney. Mahoney led Division Three in scoring coming into the game with 106 points (17 touchdowns and a pair of two point conversions.) Quarterback Craig Berkel tossed 13 TD's in the regular season.

"It was the perfect mismatch," Adams told me in 1996 when I did a story on the '86 team. "We were the smallest school in the smallest league in the division playing one of the largest schools in the largest league."

No one thought the Pioneers could win.

In the movie, Rocky takes Lang's best punches and eventually knocks out Clubber in a rematch to regain the Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately for the Pioneers, their Super Bowl was played at Boston University Field and not on a Hollywood backlot. The result was a 19-0 defeat, but the game was much closer than that and if not for a couple of bad breaks, the Pioneers too might have sprung the upset.

Things started badly for the underdog Pioneers even before the opening kickoff.

"(Co-captain Todd) Coviello, (co-captain Darrell) Carty and (Chris) Loomos all were suffering from the flu that day," Adams recalled.

In spite of all the odds being against them, the gutsy Pioneers gave the Warriors all they could handle.

L/S opened the game with a seven play, 64 yard drive capped by Rodney Chance's 11 yard run to give the Warriors a quick 7-0 lead. According to the game account by Villager reporters David Angelini and Rob Irion, it would be the only sustained drive the heavily favored Warriors would mount the entire game.

"The kids were nervous and a little bit tight," Adams told the Villager. "But we found out that we could play against them and we improved after that."

The Lynnfield offense went out quickly after four plays, but the Pioneer defense made the first big play of the game when Mike Pascucci leveled Berkel forcing a fumble. Coviello recovered on the Warrior 38 giving the Pioneers a golden opportunity.

Lynnfield could not convert, however, as Dave Frontero was intercepted at the 10 yard line on third down.

The Pioneer defense held again giving Lynnfield the ball back at midfield. They then mounted an impressive 10 play drive, all on the ground, to get to the L/S three yard line after a two yard gain on fourth and two by Coviello.

The next play would be the first key turning point of the game.

Coviello took the handoff and plowed toward the goal line looking for the tying touchdown. As he reached the endzone, he fumbled the ball forward and the Warriors recovered to end the threat.

Whether it truly was a fumble or not still remains controversial to this day.

Glenn Listernick (LHS '74) who was an assistant coach for Amesbury at the time was at the game and saw the play very differently.

"I was standing with many Amesbury coaches and players at that end of the field," Listernick remembers. "Coviello did score the touchdown but fumbled AFTER crossing the goal line. We all cheered when we thought he had scored, but the refs ruled it a fumble."

"I was pretty close to scoring," Coviello told the Villager after the game. "I saw the line and I tried real hard to lean in. The ball just popped out."

"I think Todd was showing good sportsmanship by saying he almost scored," Listernick insisted when I told him about Coviello's quote. "He really did cross the goal line!"

Mochi, Coviello's running mate, agreed with Listernick's assessment.

"I was on the sideline since Todd and I rotated at tailback," Mochi recalled recently, "but yes I think he did cross the plane. I think he was partially tackled and then reached over with the ball."

The call against the Pioneers was obviously huge and preserved the Warriors' slim lead.

Another key play later in the half was almost as big.

The Pioneer defense continued to bottle up the Warriors forcing them to punt again. Lynnfield got the ball back on their own 39 and on third down, Coviello took the handoff on an apparent run play.

"He paused and lofted an option pass to a wide open Ron Grasso downfield for what looked like a sure touchdown," according to the Villager report. "But fate had something else in mind. In an unbelievable play, the ball glanced off Grasso's hands and shoulder pads, popped into the air a little bit, and settled into the hands of - who else - Brendan Mahoney. The ubiquitous senior raced the ball 39 yards back to the Pioneer 31."

The Warriors got as close as the Lynnfield 12 but stalled and missed a field goal attempt. The Pioneers went in at the half down 7-0 but they could just as easily have been up 14-7.

Unfortunately, the Pioneers would get no more chances. Lynnfield took the second half kickoff and moved to midfield, but on third and 11, Frontero was picked off by Mahoney and this time the L/S rocket returned it 66 yards for the score. The PAT was no good but the Warriors led 13-0.

L/S drove the final nail into the Pioneers' coffin late in the third when Mahoney got around the Lynnfield defense on a sweep for a 55 yard TD run to make it 19-0. The Pioneers could never recover.

"We made the big mistakes," Adams told the Villager after the game.

"We said before the game that we had to prevent the big play," Adams told me ten years later. "But they scored all three touchdowns on big plays."

"We played well but couldn't score," Kevin Murphy, the team's center told me in 1996. "It was almost a case of things coming due. All year long we got the breaks, but we got only the bad breaks in that game."

"It was a great season and memorable time for everyone involved," Mochi said recently. "Some of us still hang on to the glory days. Scott Yerardi can still be seen wearing his Super Bowl jacket!"

"From a coaching standpoint it was a dissapointment," Adams said of the loss. "But it shouldn't be that way for the kids who got there. They worked hard, gave a great showing and made the game interesting."

Following the season, the honors rolled in for the Super Pioneers. The Boston Globe named Adams Division 3 Coach of the Year and Coviello to the All Scholastic defensive team. Carty, Loomos, Frontero and Mark Sutera each earned All CAL honors.

The 1986 team remains the high water mark for Lynnfield High School football. For the next 22 years, only four Pioneer teams would post winning records and none would win a league championship. Adams' 1991 team came closest with a 9-1-1 mark, but came in second to Ipswich.

The league championship and post season drought ended in 2009 when Neal Weidman's squad became the first Lynnfield team to win 10 games and the first since the '86 team to make the postseason. However the '09ers fell to Austin Prep in the playoffs leaving the 1986 Pioneers as the only Lynnfield team to make it to the Super Bowl.

The members of the 1986 Lynnfield Pioneers were Co-captains Darrell Carty and Todd Coviello, Maurice Twomey, Chris Loomos, Stan Zaremba, Bill Aldenberg, Jay Kelleher, Brian Corbett, Pete Blasidell, Charlie Moore, Andrew Sanborn, David Cox, Dan Madden, Paul Booras, Scott Yerardi, Jason Mochi, Ron Grasso, Mark Sutera, David Callahan, Doug McLaughlin, Mike Pascucci, Steve Bucci, Steve Vaccaro, Mike Connor, John Wilson, Tom McDonald, Charles Loomos, David Donohoe, John Funches, Steve Walsh, David Frontero, John Dean, Scott Shafner, Dan Kelleher, Dan Fanikos, Mark Guido, Michael Gwynne, Rob McGee, Steve Saggese, Eric Malerba, Pete Raftopoulos, Eric Keller, Mark Spychalski, Kevin Murphy, Bill Dalton, Chris Miele and Kevin Dunham.

Adams summed up that team best in an interview with the Villager's Rob Irion a week after the season ended.

"I hope the kids feel really good about the whole year and don't lose sight of the great season because of (the loss in the Super Bowl)," he told Irion. "We answered a lot of challenges, got there and did OK. They should be proud."

As should all Lynnfield Pioneer football fans. Congrats to the Super Pioneers of 1986. Happy 25th Anniversary.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Super Thanksgiving!

2011-11-30T18:00:00.002-05:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

November 27, 1986

After two tough wins against the iron of the league, the Pioneers only had to avoid stubbing their toe against North Reading to clinch the Cape Ann League title. They came into the game in second place in the Division Three rankings but simply a win over the Hornets would not guarantee them one of only two spots that were available for the Super Bowl.

The Pioneers led Foxboro by only a half point in the complex ratings in use in those days. The ratings system valued wins against teams in higher or lower divisions and also took into account wins by teams that you had beaten. Lynnfield would need some other right things to happen to finish in the top two.

But they couldn't control any of those variables. What they could control was making sure they focused on beating their traditional rivals.

The Pioneers rolled into the holiday game 8-1 after solid wins against Ipswich and Hamilton Wenham. The Hornets struggled and limped into the game with a 2-7 mark. On paper it looked like a mismatch. In true Belichickean style, Lynnfield head coach Bill Adams did his best to pump up the Hornets' tires.

"North Reading has nothing to lose and everything to gain," Adams told Villager reporter Rob Irion before the game. "It's an opportunity for them to go out and make their season a success. They have a lot of incentive - they're not going to roll over and die."

"It's a different season," Adams continued to lather it on. "I have to feel that North Reading will come out very intense and play their best game of the season."

Nice try by the coach, but the game played out the way it appeared that it would.

The Pioneers rattled the Hornets early as the visitors coughed up the ball twice early in the contest. The Pioneers took advantage and jumped out to a two touchdown lead in the first quarter on a one yard dive by Todd Coviello and a 30 yard TD pass from Dave Frontero to Bill Aldenberg. A teeth rattling tackle by Darrell Carty and Mike Pascucci forced the fumble to set up the first score and a diving interception by Mark Sutera set up the second.

Coviello barrelled in from the three in the second quarter to give the Pioneers a 21-0 lead at the half.

Carty had 8 tackles in the first half to lead a smothering Pioneer defense.

Jason Mochi broke through for a three yard run in the fourth to make it an official blowout at 27-0. The Hornets scored late to finally get on the board but this one was never in doubt.

The Pioneers wrapped up their second straight CAL Championship and this time did not have to share it with anyone. But they needed help to nail down their first Super Bowl berth.

Lynnfield was in a neck and neck battle with Foxboro for the second spot and needed two out of six other results to go their way to earn enough points to edge them out. And it nearly didn't happen.

According to the explanation in the Villager, Sharon (8-1) was upset by Oliver Ames (5-4) and Westwood (8-1) surprised Holliston (9-0). The Sharon and Westwood wins gave Foxboro two more ratings points since they had beaten both teams.

More bad news came from up north when Amesbury, the only team that beat the Pioneers, defeated Newburyport, depriving them of any points there. However the Pioneers, who were ahead of Foxboro by five ratings points heading into Thanksgiving, picked up points from Wayland (who beat Weston) and finished two points ahead of Foxboro.

That set the stage for the Pioneers to travel to Boston University's Nickerson Field to take on undefeated powerhouse Lincoln Sudbury in the Division Three Super Bowl the following week. L/S would roll into the championship game riding a 24 game winning streak and looked to be a formidable foe for the Pioneers.

"No matter what happens, win or lose, there's going to be a letdown when we play our last game," Adams told Villager reporter David Angelini after the game. "This team means more to me than the Super Bowl."

Next: Facing a Super Test at BU.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 11 & a 2012 Sneak Peak

2011-11-28T16:11:00.001-05:00

Well the season has come to a close and the CAL/NEC 4 has officially crowned Hamilton Wenham as its champ and standard bearer heading into the Division 3A playoffs Tuesday night against Newburyport. Today we'll take a look at the Thanksgiving Day rivalry games and then we'll take a first glimpse at what the 2012 season might have in store.

First, a look at the final standings.

No real surprises on the holiday. The Lynnfield-North Reading game figured to be the only contest and that's they way it turned out for three quarters at least. The other two games didn't look to be too competitive and that also turned out to be the case.

Hamilton-Wenham put an exclamation point on a undefeated regular season with a convincing 33-8 beatdown of rival Ipswich as they tune up for a rematch with Newburyport.

The General defense, which has been solid all year, led the way in this one returning two interceptions for scores in the second period to help build a 26-0 halftime lead. Ipswich finally got on the board in the third with a pick six of their own to cut the lead to 26-8. But H-W quarterback Trevor Lyons tossed his second TD pass of the game to account for the final 33-8 score.

Meanwhile, up in Georgetown, Manchester Essex won their second game in a row with an impressive 28-7 win over the Royals.

Georgetown actually jumped out in front with a 1 yard run by Tyler Wade, but the Hornets stung back.

Quarterback Corey Burnham connected with Joe Burgess to cut the lead to 7-6 at the half then ran for touchdowns in the third and early in the fourth to take a 20-7 lead. Chris Dumont capped the scoring with a one yard run.

So North Reading sewed up second place with a 4-1 mark. Lynnfield, M/E and Ipswich all tied with 2-3 league records but M/E beat Lynnfield to take third place and the Pioneers beat Ipswich to take fourth. Ipswich ended up in fifth and struggling Georgetown, winless in league play, brought up the rear.

Overall no real surprises in the final standings. H-W figured to be the toughest team in the league with Lynnfield and North Reading battling for second place. M/E's win over the Pioneers lifted them higher than expected. Ipswich lost a lot of seniors, started slow and then rebounded in the league season.The young Georgetown team with a new coach looked to struggle in rebuilding mode.

So what does next year look like?

The most striking difference will be at quarterback.

This year, five out of the six teams started the season with a new signal caller. Lyons for the Generals was the starting tailback last year but was playing QB for the first time this season. Karavetsos, Burnham at M/E, freshman Nick Andreas in Ipswich and Jackson Kellog in North Reading were all first year QB's. Ironically, the only team with a returning quarterback was Georgetown with Tyler Wade.

The situation will be completely reversed next year with Karavetsos, Burnham, Andreas, Kellogg and Lyons all returning. The Royals will be the only team breaking in a new signal caller.

So let's take a quick sneak preview of the 2012 season in order of this year's finish.

Hamilton-Wenham: The dynamic and dangerous Lyons will return for the defending champs, but he will not have the powerhouse supporting cast around him. The Generals used about 14 players all year, and they will be graduating nine of them including four of their five gargantuan linemen. They will still be formidable just by reason of having Lyons and having two years of confidence building success. The defense will revolve around Lyons, Steve Turpin, Christian Ecker and Pete Duval, but those are all linebackers or DB's. Coach Andrew Morency will have to come up with a line to build around returnee Matt Vogus. The Generals will still be a factor, but will probably not be as dominating as they were the past two years.

North Reading: The team that will likely take the top spot as most dominating in the league is the Hornets. They will be scary good. Their entire backfield, including Division 3A leading scorer Carl Lipani will be back and the Hornets will have another year of working with the single wing. They really started to get into a rhythm as the year wore on and another season will only make them more dangerous.

"Yeah and we have another kid on the sidelines (Ryan Sanborn) who's a sophomore who is one of the fastest kids on the team," North Reading coach Jeff Wall told me. "He's a big strong kid. He hurt his knee (against H-W) and he's coming back also. We have our whole backfield coming back. We just have to replace a few guys on the offensive line."

When I told him I would be installing the Hornets as preseason favorites for 2012, Wall was aghast.

"No, pick us last," he said in mock horror. "Don't put us first. It gives us something to fight for."

Nope. The Hornets are for real and will be the team to beat next year.

Manchester-Essex: The Hornets graduate 10 seniors but they return a good looking quarterback in Burnham, two running backs in Chris Dumont and Jake Fitzgerald and a receiver in John Beardsley. Most of a good sized line returns as well, so look for M/E to be improved.

Lynnfield: The Pioneers return skill position players Karavetsos, running back Kyle McGah, receiver Alex Pascucci but the home team's strength should be on defense where the Pioneers return most of their defense including standout linemen Andrew Kibarian and D. J. DeGeorge and quietly effective Mike Soden. Linebackers Tyler Palumbo, McGah, A. J. Gallo and Alex Roper all return as well. The Pioneers will be in the hunt.

Ipswich: The Tigers played this year with a freshman quarterback which tells you what they think of him. They already started to modify their Delaware Wing T to accommodate their new weapon so expect the Tigers to be more of a throwing team next year. Bullish running back Derek Chamberlain returns as does tight end Chris McCormack so look for Ipswich to be able to score on offense. Hard hitting John Elnagger returns to lead the defense. The Tigers too look to be improved.

Georgetown: The Royals were the youngest team in the league with only two seniors on their roster. They were also starting over with a new head coach in Paul Sobolewski. The good news for them is that they return virtually everyone so the lumps the young team took this year should start to pay off. The bad news is that they lose Wade, the lynchpin of their offense. You would think the Royals should improve but losing Wade and with the rest of the league improving, they could face another tough season.

So in summary what can we look forward to next year?

H-W should take a step back. North Reading will take two steps forwards. Lynnfield, Ipswich, M/E should all take a step forward and Georgetown will likely take a step back, mostly because of the improvement in the rest of the league. Bottom line is that it promises to be a very tight race and the eventual champ may not be able to run the table as the Generals have the past few years.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday for my next post on the 1986 Super Pioneers.

North Reading Leftovers

2011-11-27T15:47:00.006-05:00

At the end of the tough 37-18 loss on Thursday, we group of scribblers approached Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman following the game the way we always do.

When our little "news conference" follows a loss, it is usually a tense time and there can be a few moments of awkward silence before the questioning begins. That was the case after the North Reading game.

Kevin Doyle of the Daily Item finally spoke first to Weidman.

"You faced a lot of adversity today," he said quietly.

Weidman simply started laughing.

That about summed it up.

Saying the Pioneers faced "some adversity" on Thanksgiving Day was like saying the Big Dig was simply a little construction job.

Battling injuries all season, the Pioneers reached the tipping point against North Reading.

At the beginning of the season, I sat with the coach to go over the lineups on both sides of the ball for my season preview article. At that time, he will usually mention the starters and key backups at each position. During this year's interview in September, Weidman mentioned the names of 22 players that he expected to either start or see significant action either offensively or defensively.

By the end of the North Reading game, seven of them were not on the field. That's 31% of those 22. So yes I would say the Pioneers faced a lot of adversity in their final game of the year.

"We came in with a bit of a MASH unit and it got worse as the game wore on," Weidman said after the game.

Going in missing tri-captain Mike Thomas who reinjured his collarbone was bad enough. Not having starting outside linebacker, placekicker and backup quarterback Alex Roper added to the problem. Then the unthinkable happened early in the second quarter when signal caller Mike Karavetsos, the key to the Pioneer offense already nursing a bad ankle, took a big hit to the head on a nine yard run. As co-athletic director and head trainer Sean Roach helped the wobbly junior off the field, he looked at Weidman and shook his head slowly. At that point it was clear that Karavetsos was done for the day.

Enter 5'6", 135 lb freshman Dan Sullivan to take over the controls of the Pioneer spread. Ultimately, sophomore Matt Kramich would also see action at quarterback.

"It's one thing to have your back up quarterback out but we had to ask a freshman and sophomore who have never played before to shuttle in and out," said Weidman. "But you know what, they didn't do a bad job. We thrust them into really a no win situation for them and they really took advantage of it. Matt made a couple of nice runs and Danny threw the touchdown pass."

It was quite a debut for Sullivan, who tossed his first varsity TD -an 80 yarder to Alex Pascucci- on his first varsity pass. He would later throw an interception that was returned for a score, but considering the circumstances he did well for a ninth grader in a stressful spot.

"Field position got flipped on us there and that didn't help," Weidman said of the pick six that came when Sullivan was forced to throw out of his own end zone. "We threw Danny into a tough situation and they picked off the one pass and ran it in for the touchdown. We just didn't have a lot to go to from the one yard line. It was tough. But (Danny's) going to be a good player some day."

But as usual, Weidman hoped to get some positive out of the difficult circumstance. When I asked him what the young guys would get out of being thrown into the fire he responded, "They mainly need to realize you need to commit to be good. It just doesn't happen."

The loss means the Pioneers ended the season with a two game losing streak, the second time that has happened this year. They also lost consecutive games to St. Mary's and Danvers. The loss leaves the Pioneers at 5-6 snapping a two year winning season streak.

"It was an up and down season," he summed up. "We had some good moments. Obviously we weren't playing our best football at the end for a lot of reasons. That's one of the things that happens when you coach at a small school. It only takes one or two players to make a huge difference."

Fast Start
For the first time in weeks, the Pioneers got off to a fast start, stunning the Hornets with two quick touchdowns in the first four minutes of play. The Pioneer had 2 first downs, a fumble recovery, 72 yards of offense, a 58 yard kickoff return and a pair of scores before the Hornets ran off their first offensive play. Unfortunately it went downhill from there.

After the injury to Karavetsos, the Pioneers managed only 29 yard rushing and 79 net yards passing on two completions, one of them the Sullivan to Pascucci 80 yard touchdown.

Meanwhile, the Hornets regrouped in impressive fashion and rode the running of Division 3A leading scorer Carl Lipani for the comeback win.

"The kids played well," said North Reading head coach Jeff Wall. "It's tough when you go down 12-0. It showed a tremendous amount of character to come back. Some teams would have packed it in. We preached to them right before the game. We told them today you play with heart, you play with pride and you play with courage. I think they've taken that to heart. They know they have a will to win and they just wouldn't be denied."

Despite the loss, the Pioneers still hold a 32-22 edge in the rivalry. They have outscored the Hornets 868-717. The Pioneers fall to 15-12 in games in North Reading. They hold a 17-10 edge in games at the Middle School Field.

Uneven Playing Field?
There were eight touchdowns and one safety scored in the game on Thursday. All eight scores came in the east endzone where rabid fans from both towns took turns taunting the opposition. The Pioneers scored their TD's in the first and third period, while the Hornets did all their scoring in the second and fourth quarters. The Fieldturf at the west end of Arthur Kenney was barely used. The Hornets made it to the 20 as the first period ended and to the 18 as the third ended. The Pioneers never got any deeper than the 42.

Stellar Year for Karavetsos
Losing Karavetsos for most of the North Reading game was obviously a death blow for the Pioneers and it highlights just how important the junior was to the Lynnfield offense this season. When you review his season totals, it becomes clear what an outstanding year he had.

He finished the year 74/146 passing for a completion percentage of 50.7%. That ranks third in the past 23 years (since I have been keeping these stats) behind Gino Cohee's 54.1% in 2009 and Cohee's 52.8% in 2008.

He threw for 1249 yards, which ranks him third behind Chris Grassi's 1493 in 2007 and Cohee's 1347 in 2010.

He tossed 13 TD passes which ties him for second on the single season TD pass list with Steve Olsen in 1973. It also puts him in 6th place all time for career TD passes with another season to go. Cohee leads that category with 30.

The 13 TD's was good enough for third place place in Division 3A behind Newburyport's Connor Wile who threw 20 and Pat Sheehan's qb Blaise Whitman at Triton who had 14.

He threw only six interceptions giving him a TD/Interception ratio of 2.2 to 1 third best behind 2008 Cohee's 3 to 1 and 2010 Cohee's 2.8 to 1.

According to the NFL passer rating formula, Karavetsos finished the season with a 92.52 rating. That is the second best in the past 23 years behind only Cohee's 99.1 last season. Cohee's 84.5 in 2009 is third best.

The junior also rushed for eight touchdowns and 765 yards, seventh best single season since 1989. Dan Veinot heads that list with 1363 yards in 2000.

It'll be exciting to see what Karavetsos might be able to do his senior year with such a solid season under his belt.

Season Stats
The Pioneers finished the year with 221 points scored and 223 points allowed, which pretty much illustrates the type of year it was. It was only the 11th year in Pioneer history that they have scored over 200 points in a season and marks the third year in a row they have done it.

The 221 points was ninth best all time. The 223 points against was an average of 20.3 per game and ranked 38th all time.

For the three year period of 2009 to 2011, the Pioneers scored 836 points. That is the third best three year performance in the history of the school. The best was 1959-61 when they scored 852 and second best was 1960-62 when they tallied 843.

This season, they gained 2,939 yards to 3,180 yards allowed. They lost the first down battle 103 to 158. They were exactly even in the turnover category, fumbling 9 times and throwing 8 interceptions for 17 turnovers and recovering 11 fumbles and picking off 6 interceptions for 17 takeaways.

The Pioneers now have a record of 266-259-11 in their 54 year history and have a point differential of minus 2 (8,389-8,391).

The Pioneers' three year win total of 24 is tied for second best with the teams from 1960-62. The leader are the teams of 1985-87 which won 25 games in three years.

Season Leaders
Junior Alex Pascucci led the Pioneers in receptions with 24 for 417 yards, both eighth best single season since 1989. Jeff Milinazzo leads both categories with 55 catches for 789 yards in 2007.

Steve Yobaccio had 15 catches for 296 yards and 5 TD's, which ties him for 4th all time for single season TD receptions.

Yobaccio and Dan Ashwell tied for the team lead in interceptions with two each.

Tyler Palumbo led the team with 4 fumble recoveries

Andrew Kibarian was the team sack leader with 5 1/2. No one else had more than one.

Karavetsos led the team in scoring with 52 points followed by sophomore Kyle McGah and Yobaccio with 30 each.

Hitting the (Record) Books
Although no one reached the top of any of the school records, several did make the list.

In addition to Karavetsos and Yobaccio mentioned above, Ashwell joined 21 others who are tied for second place in single game TD catches with 2. He did it against Bishop Fenwick. Charlie Shove heads that list with three TD receptions against H-W in 1998.

Roper broke into the record books for his placekicking. His 21 PAT's was fourth best for a single season. Steve Ullian holds the top two spots in that category with 34 in 2010 and 30 in 2009.

Roper's 21 puts him in seventh place for career PAT's with another season to play. Ullian is light years ahead of everyone on that list with 75 career PAT's, more than double Dave Frontero's 36 in second place.

Roper's 5 PAT's against Georgetown tied him for 3rd place with four others for most single game PAT's. Scott Milne is the leader there with 7 against Masco in 1985.

Four Year Weidman Tally
Weidman's four year record is now 27-18, a .600 winning percentage. That is third best all time for Pioneer head coaches behind Bill Rodan 1969-84 (101-52-2, . 652) and Steve Sobieck 1958-66 (49-23, .620).

The Pioneers have scored 1001 points the past four years for a 22.2 per game average. Rodan's teams averaged 16.6 and Sobieck's squads were at 18.8. Weidman's teams have allowed 15.4 points per game vs. 11.5 for Rodan and 8.5 for Sobieck.

Senior Sendoff
Following the game, Weidman exchanged a hug and a few words with each senior on the team. This is a special group for Weidman since they were his first freshman class as a head coach and he has had them for all four years. He got a bit emotional when he was asked about saying farewell to his seniors.

"You always miss the seniors," he said with a slight catch in his voice. "It's probably the hardest thing about coaching - the last game of the year for the seniors."

That's it for now. Check back Monday night when I take a look at the CAL/NEC Tier 4 rivalry games and also a sneak peak on what next season might hold for the league.

Black Thursday

2011-11-24T14:03:00.000-05:00

The valiant but battered Pioneers gave it their best shot but in the end, they were simply a victim of too many injuries.

Even missing their entire starting backfield, placekicker and starting outside linebacker, the Pioneers held an 18-16 lead through three quarters.

In the end, it was too much Carl Lipani who burned the Pioneers for four TD's enroute to a 37-18 Hornet win that snaps a three game Lynnfield winning streak on Thanksgiving Day.

The loss drops the Pioneers to 5-6 on the season. They main thing to take away is that despite the adversity, the Pioneers never gave up and played hard to the end.

More in my Leftover post sometime this weekend.

So just forget the game for now and enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Thanksgiving Day Game Preview: Avoiding the Sting of the Hornets' Wing

2011-11-21T15:44:00.012-05:00

In six out of ten games this year, Lynnfield has faced an opponent who has run some variation of the Wing T offense. It's somehow fitting, therefore, that on Thursday morning, the Pioneers will take on the granddaddy of them all, the Single Wing.

The Wing T, Double Wing, Delaware Wing T all have their origins in the venerable Single Wing. On Thanksgiving Day you will get to see the North Reading version of the vintage, and still effective, offense.

It is an offense with modest goals: three or four yards on every play. Over and over again. Pounding the defense for small gains until the opponent cracks and gives up the big gainer that goes the distance. Three yards and a cloud of dust. Or in the case of the FieldTurf at North Reading High, three yards and a puff of crushed tire dust.

Despite playing on modern artificial turf, the Hornet offense which was installed this year by new North Reading offensive coordinator Ed Melanson, is very much of a throwback. The Single Wing was invented by Glen "Pop"Warner in the 1900's and features four backs behind an unbalanced line.

Single Wing Formation

In the classic Single Wing, the Wingback is set on one end of the line facing into the center. The Quarterback (or blocking back in the Single Wing) is crouched right behind the guard next to the Wingback. The Fullback is set behind and next to the quarterback. The Tailback is set behind and next to the fullback. The line is unbalanced with two tackles on the side of the wing. (see diagram above). The snap from center can go to either the tailback, fullback or quarterback. The Wingback counters on nearly every play and acts as the counterbalance to overplaying the "wing" side of the line. If a team overplays to that side, the ball is given to the wingback on a counter and he will usually have clear sailing going opposite the flow.

In the 1930's and 1940's, 80% of college and pro teams ran the Single Wing, according to Dave Cisar, a coach who has been using the Single Wing for over 20 years. If you want to see what the Wing looked like back in the day then click on this link.

It may look old fashioned with leather helmets and no facemasks, but it is pretty much what you will see when the Hornets come on the field with their offense for their first possession. If anything, the North Reading splits are even tighter than what you see in that clip. The other difference is that in this clip, the tailback goes in motion in front of the fullback on every play. The Hornet's don't run it that way. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Core Principles of the Single Wing
According to Cisar, the core principles of the Single Wing are overwhelming power at the point of attack, using angles and leverage, deception and great ball fakes. It is primarily a running offense, and North Reading proves that to be the case.

The Hornets have run 399 plays so far this year and 380 (95%) have been runs. They have thrown only 19 times all season and completed only four passes. Of the 2,333 yards they've gained, 2,221 have been on the ground. That's also about 95%.

Supposedly Warner invented the offense at Carlisle to take advantage of the talents of Jim Thorpe.

Hornet head coach Jeff Wall doesn't have Thorpe, but he does have a junior dynamo in 5' 10", 180 lb Carl Lipani (#44) who certainly knows how to take advantage of the offense. As a tailback, Lipani is the North Reading workhorse. He has carries 244 times, or 64% of the Hornet rushes. He averages 27 carries per game and has amassed over 1500 yards, 19 touchdowns and 119 points. He is the leading scorer in Division 3A.

"He is a fantastic kid," Wall said. "He leads like that in practice. He runs hard every day, every play. He's a nightmare for the scout team. More importantly, he's a great kid. Ke's a leader in the classroom as well as on the field. We told him you may carry the ball 50 times. We just try to pound it out. If people stop Carl, hopefully we can get (wingback) CJ (McCarthy #30) coming back on the counter.

Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman is also impressed by Lipani.

"He's quick and he breaks tackles," Weidman said of the standout running back.

Although they run on nearly every play, they do pose other problems.

"They don't do it much but when the they throw the ball, it's for big plays," said Weidman. "(Lipani) throws it or (McCarthy) throws it. It's tough because you have to commit a lot to the run but at the same time when they throw it four times, they're looking for four touchdowns."

Of the Hornets' four completions, two were for touchdowns and when they throw they almost always go long.

Stopping the Single Wing
So how do you stop the Single Wing?

Most coaches who run it say you can't as long as the execution is there. On the website coachHuey.com, a number of coaches offered up their opinions.

One offered that the best defense to play is the 46, where you have four down lineman and then six defenders on the second level and a safety back alone on the third level.

"The key is to have enough linemen," one coach opined. "They want to block with 10 and run one. If you don't meet force with force they will push you around. We had our middle linebacker key the blocking back - the one who looks like the quarterback lined up behind the guard. He takes you to the play nearly every time."

In the Hornet scheme, that would be Peter Bishop #19 and it is true. On nearly every play, regardless of the fakes and deception, #19 leads the blocking on every play. Follow him and the ballcarrier, be it Lipani, McCarthy or Jackson Kellogg (#4) will almost certainly follow.

Best Defense is Good Offense
Cisar says on his web site that no defense can truly stop the single wing, but the teams that gave him the most trouble were those "with an offense that gets a few first downs every possession and keeps the single wing off the field."

The Pioneers have shown that type of offense at times this year.

And Wall certainly agrees.

"Oh boy," Wall said when asked for his impression of the Pioneers' spread offense. "We're hoping to grind out the clock on them a little bit, shorten the game up. That's the thing with our offense. We just have to be patient and be willing to get three and four yards as a shot. Hopefully we give them a heavy dose of Carl but they're big up front. They're talented."

But despite the reputation of the spread as a passing offense, Wall has a different concern.

"I know they can pass," Wall told me. "But they can really run. Not taking anything away from their receivers - they're good as well. But they're big up front."

The numbers over the years back up Wall's concern. Over the past five seasons running the spread, the Pioneers have become more of a running team than a passing team, despite the spread's reputation as a wide open throwing offense.

In 2007, the Pioneers ran the ball 319 times and passed it 260, a ratio of 1.2 to 1 in favor of the run - nearly equal. Every year since then, Lynnfield has increased the ratio in favor of the run. In 2008 it was 1.6 to 1. In 2009, the Pioneers' championship year, it increased to 1.8 to 1. In 2010 it was 1.9 to 1. This year, the Pioneers have run the ball twice as much as they have passed it with a ratio of 2.0 to 1.

"That has something to do with our ability to run the ball," Weidman told me. "When we started we had a difficult time running the ball so we got stuck into passing it more than we wanted to."

With Wall gearing the Hornet defense to stop the run, Karavetsos may have to go to the air to generate some offense. He is very capable of doing that having completed 50% of his passes for 1,227 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has plenty of targets with five receivers having more than 100 yards receiving and six receivers with at least one toucdown.

Alex Pascucci (22 catches/325 yards/1 TD) leads the receiving corps in catches and yards but senior Steve Yobaccio (5/296/5) is coming on strong. Dan Ashwell (10/191/2), Nico Varano (9/131/2) can also make plays.

The Hornets have suffered some injuries with the most critical being lineman John Fortes, the Hornets' biggest lineman at 6'2" 270. He is not expected back but it's Thanksgiving so you never know.

Both teams realize that the best way to stop the opposing offenses is to keep them off the field so look for both teams to try and put together long, clock eating drives.

I have a full preview of the game in the Villager coming out on Tuesday, then check back here Thursday after the game for my post game comments.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and I'll see you in North Reading on Thursday.

Top Five: The Most Exciting Thanksgiving Day Games of the Past 35 Years

2011-11-19T22:55:00.000-05:00

I have been covering either Lynnfield or North Reading football since 1976. That means this Thanksgiving, I will be attending my 36th battle between the two rivals.

To get in the spirit of the 54th meeting between the schools, I thought I'd take a look back and pick out my personal selections as the most exciting North Reading-Lynnfield games that I have seen.

I know there were several exciting Turkey Day games prior to 1976, but for today, I decided we'd consider only the ones I have seen personally.

There were some classic battles between the two teams over the last 35 years. Some were for championships and some were simply for Chestnut Street bragging rights. Either way, they rewarded the traditionally large crowds that annually come out for the big game.

So time to fire up the LHS Football Wayback Machine. Here in reverse order is my personal Top Five Most Exciting North Reading-Lynnfield games.

Number 5: 1990 - Holding On 14-13

Both Lynnfield and North Reading came into the 1990 game with losing records. The Pioneers were 2-7 and the Hornets were 3-6. Steve Migliero put the Pioneers up 6-0 in the first period on a two yard run. The Hornets answered back in the second when quarterback Chris Hansen scampered in from the four yard line. Aldo Vittozzi added the point to give North Reading a 7-6 lead.

That's the way it stayed until early in the fourth period when Todd Guido plunged in from the three to give Lynnfield a 12-7 lead. Chris Sutera hit Mike Accomando with the two point conversion to make it 14-7.

With just over a minute to play, Hansen hit Stephen Burt with a 42 yard bomb to get the Hornets to within one at 14-13. North Reading went for the win but a blitzing Chris Sheehan hurried Hansen and Sutera knocked down the pass to preserve the win.

Number 4: 2002 - Stung at the Buzzer 13-12

The excitement for the 2002 game started when Mother Nature dumped an early season snow storm just before Thanksgiving. The DPW along with the football team and other volunteers worked all day Wednesday to clear the field for the holiday morning game.

Their efforts were not in vain as the large crowd that turned out at the Middle School field were treated to a real nailbiter.

The Hornets were running a double wing in 2002 and they took the opening kick and drove 78 yards over the snow covered field to take a 6-0 lead. Jamie Solomon and Chris Bryant helped the Pioneers get in gear late in the first half. Quarterback Mike Parizale connected with Andy Poor and Jared Polansky to get the Pioneers to the NR three yard line. But the Hornets stuffed Polansky at the one to preserve their 6-0 lead.

The Pioneers broke through on the opening drive of the second half when Chris Stivers took a reverse handoff and sprinted 53 yards for the score. The PAT try was wide but the score was now tied at 6-6.

Lynnfield took the lead in the fourth quarter on a clock eating drive capped by a six yard Bryant run to give the Pioneers a 12-6 lead with three minutes to play.

The Hornets began their final drive at their own 39 and methodically moved down the field. They got to the Lynnfield two yard line with 20 seconds left. Quarterback Steve Labo took the snap, tried to find a receiver, could not, tucked it under his arm and plowed into the endzone for what appeared to be the tying touchdown. However, the Hornets were flagged for illegal motion which nullified the score and pushed them back to the seven yard line with seven seconds left in the game.

The final play of the game was one of the most bizarre in North Reading-Lynnfield history. Labo took the snap and handed off to John Murphy who was immediately grabbed by Matt Talis for what appeared to be the game winning tackle.

In desperation, Murphy shoveled the ball to Labo who was just standing at the three yard line watching Murphy getting stopped. Finding the ball in his hands, he turned and stumbled into the endzone with no time remaining to tie the score. Labo then drilled the extra point for the 13-12 win over the stunned Pioneers.

Number 3: 1981 - Another Stunning Comeback Defeat 20-15

The Pioneers were heavily favored in this one, coming into the game 6-3 to North Reading's 3-6. The game was billed as a defensive struggle, but the Hornets came out fired up and scored first. Mark Tremblay bulled in from the two and Brian Jones added the PAT and NR led 7-0.

The Hornets made it 14-0 midway in the second when Les Montford hit Jeff Hull with a ten yard scoring strike. The Pioneers got on the board late in the half when Andy Nekoroski plowed in from the two yard line. Nekoroski added the two point conversion and Lynnfield trailed 14-8 at the half.

The Pioneers appeared to right the ship with under three minutes to play when quarterback Scott Sanborn tossed a screen pass to Nekoroski who zigged and zagged his way to a 62 yard touchdown. Joe Krieger added the PAT to take a 15-14 lead with only 2:57 left in the game.

But the Hornets were not done. Billy Germano returned the kick to the 38 and a late hit call on the Pioneers gave NR the ball at midfield. On the next play, Montford found David Lee down the right sideline for a 51 yard strike to get the Hornets to the Lynnfield two yard line. Two plays later, Montford slashed into the endzone for the score. Jones missed the PAT but the Hornets led 20-15 with less than a minute to play.

The Pioneers did not quit. Sanborn hit Jeff Perkins for 28 yards and a head slap penalty on the Hornets moved the ball to the NR 29 yard line with less than 30 seconds to play. But the Pioneers could get no further and Sanborn was sacked on the final play of the game to seal the Hornet victory.

Number 2: 2000 - Veinot leads the way 29-23

This was one of the highest scoring Lynnfield-North Reading games and get my vote as the second mod exciting in the past 35 years.

Tailback Danny Veinot was the story in this one as the outstanding runner finished with 277 yards and scored all four Lynnfield touchdowns and 27 of the Pioneers' 29 points.

Veinot got the Pioneers on the board on their first drive with a four yard run. He booted the PAT and Lynnfield led 7-0. The Hornets answered when quarterback Tom Tone hit A. J. Richardson for a 43 yard TD to tie the score at 7-7.

On the first play following the NR touchdown, Veinot responded with a 63 yard run and PAT to give the Pioneers the lead at 14-7.

The Pioneers appeared to be taking control but quarterback Jimmy Motzkin turned an ankle and had to leave the game. But Veinot was hitting on all cylinders and scooted 38 yards for another TD. Backup QB Mike Parziale hit Brian McBride with the two point conversion and the Pioneers appeared to be in control 22-7.

The Pioneers cut into the lead when Tone his Matt Cecchini for a 22 yard TD pass to make it 22-13 at the half. The Hornets then began to stop the Pioneer offense and crept closer in the third when Drew Canan scored from the three to make it 22-20.

The Hornets were driving again, but Veinot went to work on the other side of the ball and picked off a Tone pass to end the threat. At this point, Motzkin reentered the game and seemed to energize the Pioneers.

Motzkin hit Drew Barraford and McBride on consecutive passes to get the Pioneers to the NR 14 yard line. Veinot took it in from there to give the Pioneers some breathing room at 29-20.

The Hornets nailed a field goal on their next possession to make it 29-23. But the Hornets would not go away quietly. They got the ball back with 1:57 left in the game and marched to the Pioneer 21 yard line. On fourth down, with 23 second left, Tone attempted one last pass into the endzone. It was picked off by...guess who...Dan Veinot to preserve the win.

Number 1: 1980 - For All the Marbles 7-6

This was the most exciting Pioneer-Hornet game I have witnessed not only because of the play on the field, but also because of the stakes involved.

The Hornets came into the game as the two time defending CAL Champs with a 7-1 league record (8-1 overall). The Pioneers were 6-1-1 in the CAL and 6-2-1 overall. If they beat the Hornets and Amesbury could knock off Newburyport, the Pioneers would take the crown.

So this was in affect a CAL championship game.

The two teams battled through a scoreless tie as the day started cold then warmed up turning the Middle School field into a quagmire. With 1:14 left in the game, Andy Nekoroski plowed in from the three to give the Pioneers a 6-0 lead.

Playing like the champs they were, the Hornets came back. Warren McNeill hit Jeff Hull on two post patterns to get the ball to the Lynnfield three yard line. With only 23 seconds to play in the game, Billy Welch bulled in from the one to tie the score. Marco Vittozzi nailed the PAT to seal the win and sew up a third straight CAL Championship for the Hornets.

If it makes anyone feel better, the Clippers beat Amesbury 26-6 so even if the Pioneers had held on, they would not have earned a piece of the title.

So there it is. My top five.

Who knows. Maybe 2011 can crack the list on Thursday.

That's it for now. Check back Monday night for my North Reading game preview.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Tiger Tamers Clinch a Tie

2011-11-16T22:40:00.003-05:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

November 15, 1986

After the stunning comeback against Hamilton-Wenham the previous week, there was little doubt that the Pioneers had shaken off their late season slump and were ready to claim their crown.

But there was another huge battle to be fought, this time against the Ipswich Tigers, who came into town with the same 6-1 league record as the Pioneers. The game was to be the defacto CAL Title game.

Both teams had explosive offenses, but it was the Pioneer defense that controlled this one. They held the high-powered Tigers to only a single touchdown, their lowest output of the year. After what the Pioneers had done the week before, there would be no denying the revived Lynnfield squad.

"That game was the test," Pioneer head coach Bill Adams said of the H-W game in a 1996 interview on the 10th anniversary of the 1986 season. "That was definitely the turnaround game for the season."

Against the Tigers, Adams and his coaching staff pulled out all the stops according to the game account in the Villager by David Angelini. After a scoreless first period, the Pioneers jumped out to a lead early in the second after a "diving fumble recovery" by lineman Chris Loomos. Jay Kelleher than took a reverse handoff after a fake pitch at the Ipswich 24 and cruised easily into the endzone. Dave Frontero added the extra point and Lynnfield led 7-0.

Ipswich cut the lead to 7-6 on a 93 yard bomb shortly thereafter. They missed the PAT but had clawed to within a point. That would be as close as they would get.

The Pioneers then embarked on a 76 yard touchdown march consisting of 10 straight running plays, most by co-captain Todd Coviello. Then on the 11th play of the drive, with the Ipswich defense sucked in to stop Coviello one more time, the senior stopped and tossed a pass to a wide open quarterback Frontero at the 12 yard line. Frontero followed that with a TD pass to David Callahan. The point after was blocked, but the Pioneers took a 13-6 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Pioneers exploded into the second half when Jason Mochi took the opening kick and motored 74 yards for a quick six for the home team. Frontero then hit Callahan for the two point conversion and the Pioneers led 21-6.

Loomos, co-captain Darrell Carty and John Dean led a swarming Lynnfield defense that continued to smother the Tigers.

From there Coviello took over. His first carry of the quarter went for 68 yards and then two plays later he punched it in for this 11th touchdown of the year. That made it 27-6 and the declawing of the Tigers was complete.

Carty recoverd a fumble at midfield early in the fourth quarter to end an Ipswich threat, and then the Pioneer ground and pound offense ate up seven minutes of clock to seal the deal.

"We dominated the line both ways," Adams told Angelini after the game. "The team played a complete game. We went all four quarters."

The win lifted the Pioneers to 8-1 overall and clinched a tie for the CAL title at 7-1. The only team with a better record in Division Three was Lincoln Sudbury, a team Lynnfield would learn more about later in the season.

The only thing standing in the way of capturing the crown was the 2-7 North Reading Hornets, who would be coming to town on Thanksgiving morning. Also on the line, if things broke right could be a Super Bowl bid.

Adams was not taking the struggling Hornets lightly.

"We have no reason to be overconfident going into the game," the coach said. "North Reading has won a couple of games in the past few weeks and they've put a lot of points on the board."

Next: Going for it all against the Hornets.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 10

2011-11-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

As expected, the Hamilton-Wenham Generals remained undefeated and captured the CAL/NEC 4 crown on Saturday. We'll take a look at their title winning performance and the other league game. But first, let's check out the updated standings.

No surprise up in South Hamilton as the Generals scored three 40+ yard touchdowns in the first quarter enroute to a 41-14 drubbing of the struggling Georgetown Royals. The win keeps the Generals undefeated at 9-0 but more importantly lifts them to 4-0 in the league and sews up their second consecutive league title.

They will now move on to the playoffs for a rematch with Newburyport who won the CAL/NEC 3 with a 12-7 win over Winthrop on Friday.

The Generals scored twice more in the second and the Royals scored once but H-W went in at the half up 33-6 with the coronation well underway.

H-W will travel to Ipswich on Thanksgiving Day as the Tigers will try to knock the Generals from the ranks of the undefeated.

Georgetown gets ready to host Manchester-Essex on the holiday.

I made the trip to frigid Ipswich on Friday night to see North Reading take on the Tigers and I certainly came away impressed.

The Tigers forced a Hornet fumble on their four yard line to halt an early scoring bid. They then came back to take a 6-0 lead on a pretty 55 yard bomb from freshman quarterback Nick Andreas to Louis Galanis.

It looked like that lead might hold up at the half, but the Hornets single wing offense got into gear and marched 75 yards in 14 plays with Carl Lipani going in from the four. Eric Valenti kicked the extra point and the Hornets took a lead they would never relinquish.

The second half was the Carl Lipani show for the Hornets. The smart, tough, quick, fast running back carried 16 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters. He finished the night with 227 yards as the Hornets rolled 32-14. He leads Division 3A with 20 touchdowns and 125 points.

The win lifts North Reading to 6-3 and guarantees them their first winning season since 2007 when they beat the Pioneers 30-12 to nail down a 6-5 year.

The Pioneer-Hornet game figures to be an exciting, evenly matched dogfight. I'll have much more on that as we get closer to Thanksgiving Day.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday for my next installment of the 1986 Super Pioneers series.

Manchester-Essex Leftovers

2011-11-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman never saw this coming.

"Practices were better this week then they were last week," Weidman said after the game. "Just today wasn't. We saw it a little bit before the game."

Once into the game, there wasn't much the coaching staff could do to turn it around.

"You see the guys like that and there's not a lot you can do," Weidman explained. "You can't force it."

Meanwhile, Hornet head coach Mike Athanas had his team sky high for this one. M/E came into the game off of three straight league losses and they played this one like it was their Super Bowl.

To quote old friend Pete Carroll, they were "pumped and jacked" from the beginning and never let down. Weidman mentioned that they wanted it more than his team and it showed.

You can get all the details and photos in my game story in this week's Villager.

For whatever reason, the Pioneers came out flat. They had their usual slow start, but it looked like they had stemmed the tide after stopping two Hornet drives deep in their own end. But the offense couldn't move the ball.

They went three and out on their first two possessions which was made more frustrating due to some dropped passes. The Pioneers had three of them in the first half.

"The drops in the beginning were horrible," acknowledged Weidman. And that was only the beginning of the Pioneers' problems in this one.

"We never got any running game going," Weidman continued. "We never got any big runs. We were forced into throwing the ball too much. Then at the end the circumstances of the game forced us into it."

To back that up, the Pioneers threw 20 times and ran it 18. That is the first time since the Amesbury game that Lynnfield has passed more than run.

Once the Hornets realized the Pioneers were in passing mode, they unleashed the hounds, harassing Mike Karavetsos all game. He was under constant pressure and was sacked for only the second time this year.

"They blitz a lot," Weidman said. "They try to get pressure on you."

Despite all that, the Pioneers were still alive deep into the fourth quarter and were able to mount one last drive.

"We were driving there to at least get a chance at a field goal it looked like," Weidman said of the fourth quarter bid. "When we fumbled that obviously hurt. But that was only one drive. We just never got anything going."

Weidman and his staff now have ten days before the season finale against North Reading. A win would give them three straight winning seasons which should be more incentive if the rivalry isn't enough.

Power Outage
The six points the Pioneers put up were the fewest in their last 37 games. The last time they scored fewer was in October of 2008 when they were shut out by Triton 22-0. It was only the third time the Pioneers have scored single digits in the 33 games since the beginning of 2009. The other two were the 24-7 loss to Newburyport last year and the 28-7 defeat to Wilmington in 2009.

The 138 yards of offense (74 rushing, 64 net passing) was also the lowest of the year. The next lowest was the 185 yards gained against Newburyport in the season opener.

Downs in the Dumps
One of the things to point to in Saturday's loss was the Pioneers' performance on third down on both sides of the ball. Defensively, they allowed the Hornets to convert on 8 of 14 third down chances. What kept M/E from putting up more points was the Pioneers' perfect showing on fourth down where the Hornets were 0 for 4. The Pioneers held them at the 19, 14, 10 and one yard lines.

Offensively, the Pioneers were 1 for 6 on third down and 0 for 1 on fourth down. They managed nine first downs in the game, but five of those came on M/E penalties.

Hobbled
Karavetsos has been hampered by a bad ankle which was aggravated in Saturday's game. As a result and also because of the Hornets' stellar run defense, Karavetsos carried only 4 times for 14 yards. It was his second fewest carries of the year and lowest yardage total. He had three rushes against Georgetown, but had 38 yards and a touchdown.

As a team, Lynnfield managed only 74 rushing yards against M/E, 54 from returning tri-captain Mike Thomas.

Bad Trend
This was the second straight home loss for the Pioneers who finish the year at 3-3 at Pioneer Field at the Middle School. Coming into this season, the Pioneers had won 12 straight home games. With the Turkey Day game in North Reading, they won't have a chance to start a new streak until the 2012 season.

Catching On
Senior Steve Yobaccio had four receptions for 33 yards and no touchdowns in the first three games of the year. Since the St. Mary's game, he has been on fire, hauling in 11 passes for 263 yards and five TD's. On Saturday, he was the Pioneers' leading receiver with three catches for 63 yards and a score.

His five TD's this year ties him for fourth place all time in single season TD receptions. He has plenty of company. Others who have caught 5 in one year are Charlie Meeker (1960), Charlie Shove (1998), Brian McBride (2001), Jeff Milinazzo (2007), Ty Surette (2009) and A. J. Roberto (2010).

With a TD catch on Thanksgiving Day, Yobaccio can move into a tie for third place with Justin Haskell who caught 6 in 1996.

The single season Lynnfield high record for TD receptions is held by Lindsey Ross who caught nine in 1973.

Boomer
One of the highlights of Saturday's game was a booming punt by A. J. Gallo in the third period. The line of scrimmage was the 35. Gallo took the snap and kicked from the Lynnfield 25 and it landed at the Manchester 25 - 55 yards in the air. It took a Pioneer bounce and came to rest on the Hornet 11 yard line 64 yards away from where he kicked it.

Flags Flying
The Hornets were penalized 12 times for 120 yards in the game including 8 "major" calls for among other things unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing the passer and a late hit. The Pioneers were flagged 5 times for 45 yards including one unsportsmanlike call.

Weidman disagreed that the game got "chippy" at the end.

"It wasn't too bad," the coach said. "It was more aggressive than chippy I think."

Notable
- Manchester-Essex is now 3-1 all time against the Pioneers. The Hornets are 2-0 in Lynnfield.
- In the useless statistic category, the Pioneers have now lost their last game before Thanksgiving seven of the last eight years.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night when I take a look at the weekend's CAL/NEC 4 games.

Discombobulated

2011-11-12T15:20:00.001-05:00

If you google "just one of those days," chances are you'll come up with a Youtube link to today's Pioneer game.

Nothing seemed right. Nothing felt right. Nothing went right.

No dulcet tones of PA announcer Tom Waisnor since the public address system was on the fritz. No band. Smallish home crowd no doubt due to conflicting Pioneer athletic events with the girls Volleyball team playing at noon and the boys soccer team scheduled for 3 pm.

Just everything out of kilter.

Including the Pioneers on the field.

The result was a frustrating 7-6 loss to Manchester-Essex and a disappointing sendoff to the seniors in their last home game.

The defense pitched a shutout, but couldn't get off the field enough.

The offense never could get untracked, committed three turnovers and provided the Hornets with their only touchdown on a pick six near the end of the first half.

The difference in the game turned out to be a blocked PAT following a TD pass from Mike Karavetsos to Steve Yobaccio. That seemed ironically appropriate in a game that just never seemed to come together for the Pioneers.

To be fair, some if not most of this was due to a fired up M/E team that was revved up from the start and never let down.

You can get all the details and game photos in my Villager game story on Wednesday and I'll have much more tomorrow night in my Leftovers post.

Bad News From Ipswich

2011-11-12T00:44:00.000-05:00

It looked good with a minute to go in the first half with Ipswich holding a 6-0 lead. But North Reading scored with 50 second left, kicked the extra point to take a 7-6 and never looked back.

Carl Lipani, who is going to be a handful and a half on Thanksgiving Day for the Pioneers, ran for 227 yards and three TD's to lead the Hornets to a 32-14 beating of the Tigers.

The win gives Ipswich two losses, while North Reading and the Pioneers have one each. With an almost certain win for Hamilton Wenham tomorrow at Georgetown, the Generals will clinch the league title and a playoff berth.

So the Pioneers need to take care of business against Manchester-Essex on Saturday, and set up a battle for second place in the CAL/NEC 4 on Thanksgiving Day.

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

Manchester-Essex Game Preview: Saluting the Seniors

2011-11-10T20:39:00.008-05:00

We'll get to the preview of the game shortly, but before that, I wanted to note the other significance of Saturday's game.

This is the final game of the year that will be played at the Middle School Field, so as is the custom, serves as the centerpiece for Senior Day. The 13 graduating seniors and their parents will be honored before the game against Manchester Essex in a ceremony that marks a milestone in all their lives.

2000 Co-captain
Kevin "Speedy" Condardo
and your Faithful Chronicler
(Hey it's my blog!)

As a parent of a former Pioneer senior captain, I know well the emotions the senior parents will be going through as they march with their sons onto the field. The first is denial: "Wasn't it just yesterday those 10 year olds were strapping on oversized helmets and shoulder pads and heading to after supper practice for the "C" team?"

Yep, it goes that fast. And from personal experience, I can tell you that it doesn't slow down from here. It's hard to believe, but it's been 11 seasons since my son played his last home game for the Pioneers. The time does fly.

The second emotion is pride. The pride that results from knowing the sacrifices each of their sons has made to get to this point in their high school football careers.

On Saturday, tri-captains John Gaff, Mike Thomas and Jonathan Roberto will lead senior teammates Nico Varano, Jared Owen, Dan Ashwell, Tyler Shaffer, Joe Mehr, Cameron Weeks and Steven Yobaccio on to their home field for the last time. Injured seniors Michael Doherty, Frank Coburn and Jonathan Rogers won't be playing but they will be there to take their rightful place as members of this senior class which has enjoyed one of the winningest three year stretches in LHS history.

With one more win this season, this group of seniors will have won 25 games, a three year mark matched only by the seniors on the 1987 team. Two wins would make them the winningest seniors in school history over a three year period.

Former Pioner assistant and head coach Scott Brennan said something to me once which still resonates. And this is not to denigrate any of the other important high school sports but only to show what kind of commitment and dedication is required to be part of a high school football program.

"You PLAY baseball, soccer or basketball," Brennan said. "But you ARE a football player."

That description aptly fits all former Pioneers who have made it through the football program. And it appropriately describes the 2011 seniors that will be honored on Saturday in their final home game. They ARE football players.

Congratulations to you all.

Now on to the game.

Once all the photos have been taken, flowers given out and hugs shared, the Pioneers will have to step onto the field with the hopes of sending the seniors off with a final home win. To do that, they will have to get past a hungry Manchester Essex team that is itching for its first win as a member of the CAL/NEC 4. They have 10 seniors on the squad which also will make them a formidable opponent.

The Hornets - yes the Pioneers will be playing their final two games of the season against the Hornets - come into the game with a 3-6 record suffering through a three game losing streak. But to be fair, they have lost to three good teams - Hamilton Wenham 35-6, North Reading 14-0 and Ipswich 39-20.

Clearly they have struggled offensively which is no surprise seeing as HW and NR have a couple of the best defenses in the league. They also fell behind Ipswich 26-0 before scoring two early second half touchdowns to make the game look closer than it really was.

In addition to the Generals and Hornets, M-E lost to Amesbury 28-7, the other opponent common to the Pioneers.

The Hornets run a spread offense much like the Pioneers. Quarterback Corey Burnham has either one or two running backs in the backfield with him. They have a good sized offensive line with six returning starters, but they could get very little going in the running game against H-W or NR. Burnham was able to pick up some yardage against Ipswich in the second half. Besides Burham, the prime M-E backs are Jake Fitzgerald and Chris Dumont.

Burham is not afraid to throw the ball and when he does he looks for John Beardsley and Joe Burgess.

Defensively, the Hornets can be tough. They basically shut down the rugged North Reading running game inside and NR was able to escape with a 14-0 win after getting some running room outside.

Ipswich was shut down in the middle of the line for the most part, but again was able to gain some yardage to the outside and through the passing of Nick Andreas.

Although the line has been one of the key strengths of the Pioneers' this season, they may have to attack the Hornets at the edges and through the air to put some points on the board. Needless to say, the battle in the trenches will be very interesting.

This will be the fourth meeting between the schools. The Hornets won the first two including the heartbreaking 21-14 overtime win in 2007 when they came back from a 14-0 deficit in the final three minutes of play to tie it then win it in overtime. In 2008, they had to battle to beat the Pioneers 35-21 enroute to a Super Bowl.

The Pioneers finally beat them last year in the inaugural game at Hyland Field in Manchester, winning handily 37-6. It probably won't be that easy this year.

You can be sure, though, that the Pioneers will be up for this one. They do not want their seniors to leave their home field for the final time on a sour note.

Game time is 11 am.

Check back Saturday afternoon for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: The Comeback in South Hamilton

2011-11-09T21:27:00.002-05:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

November 8, 1986

Coming off a game in which they blew a 14-0 lead and suffered their first loss of the season 20-14 to Amesbury, the Pioneers were still not right and head coach Bill Adams knew it.

"We came into that game deflated from the Amesbury loss," Adams told me last week. "Our bubble had been burst."

At 6-1, they had to gear it back up to face a tough Hamilton-Wenham team on the road. The Generals had just beaten defending co-champion North Andover 7-6 and were flying. They entered the game with the identical record as the Pioneers.

Almost predictably, the Pioneers stumbled out of the gate on a rainy day in South Hamilton. According to the game story by David Angelini in the Villager, General receiver Raimie Reader took the opening kick and returned it 73 yards to take an early lead.

The Pioneers' looked flummoxed when they got the ball on their first possession and fumbled with the Generals' recovering.

"If I remember there was some miscommunication in the first series," recalled Pioneer standout running back Jason Mochi. "It was a pitch pass to me with (Mark) Sutera leading. We went to one side and the ball went to the other. I think that was a turnover that led to their second score."

General fullback Dan Pereira took advantage and pounded into the endzone to give H-W a two touchdown lead. The fired up home team continued to pound the listless Pioneers in the first quarter and Pereira scored again to give the Generals what looked like an insurmountable 19-0 lead after just one quarter of play.

Counting the second half of the Amesbury game, the lackluster Pioneers had given up 39 straight unanswered points. As the rain began to fall harder, things looked bleak for Lynnfield.

Then came "The Speech."

Anyone connected with the '86 team remembers "The Speech."

In speaking to Adams just this past weekend and mentioning this game, the first thing he recalled was "The Speech."

"The first quarter ended and it began to rain harder," Adams remembers. He gathered his team around him and in the pouring rain, he unloaded on them.

"I gave the most emotional speech of my life," Adams said. "I got very, very emotional. I really got a little vicious. It was one of the few times I used fear. It is a motivator and it needed to be done at that time. After that game, I didn't want to use it again, but it had to be done there."

"His speech was pretty awesome," Mochi recalls, 25 years later. "We still make reference to it! I'm not sure it's fit to print, but it was an amazing and very motivating speech. It got everyone fired up."

Whatever Adams said that day, it certainly had the desired affect. It was a different Pioneer team that started the second quarter. They regrouped, stemmed the General momentum and mounted a scoring drive of their own behind quarterback Dave Frontero.

With a minute to play in the half, Frontero rolled out and slid into the endzone for a 12 yard touchdown. He added the extra point and the Pioneers were on the board and went in at halftime trailing 19-7.

"That was an important touchdown for us," Adams told Angelini after the game. "It gave us momentum we needed going into the locker room."

The Pioneers picked up where they left off to start the third quarter. A nifty move on a fake pitch rollout by Frontero got Lynnfield to the General four yard line. Co-captain Todd Coviello then drove into the endzone for the score. Frontero nailed the PAT and the Pioneers had cut the lead to 19-14 with a quarter and a half to go.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer defense woke up as well. Led by co-captain Darrell Carty and Chris Loomos, Lynnfield stopped the General offense cold. H-W never got past the 50 yard line in the second half.

The Pioneers got the break they needed with time running out in the third quarter.

General quarterback Chris Schrock fumbled at his own 15 and the Pioneers recovered. Coviello only needed two carries to get into the endzone and give the Pioneers a 20-19 lead.

The two teams plodded through the mud through most of the final quarter, but with a minute to go, Mochi picked off a Schrock pass at midfield and splashed 47 yards for the touchdown to seal the amazing comeback. According to Angelini, Mochi "shook off five General tacklers on the play" which made it 27-19 Lynnfield.

"I remember covering the flat and being at the right place at the right time," Mochi told me. "I caught the ball right next to our sideline and our assistant coach (Paul) Harrington was yelling at me to run it in, so I did."

Coviello was immense in the game carrying 18 times for 118 yards, scoring two touchdowns, making nine tackles on defense, recovering a fumble and getting a half sack.

Once the game was over the party was just beginning for the jubiliant Pioneers. Angelini reported that the "entire team (including the coach) swan dived into a nearby mud bath and slopped around for 15 minutes of triumph."

"After the game we were all pretty pumped up," Mochi confirmed. "We loaded on the bus and I think someone yelled out 'mudslides' and we all piled out of the bus and dove through this massive puddle. Then we got on the bus again. It was a pretty awesome day."

However, the season was far from over for the Pioneers. They would have to return home the following week to face the once beaten Ipswich Tigers in a de facto CAL championship game.

Next: Taking on the Tigers in a battle for first place.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 9

2011-11-07T19:35:00.001-05:00

Time is running out for the Pioneers with only two games left in the league season. Let's take a look at the other two league games. First the updated standings.

The Pioneers' postseason hopes took a serious hit on Saturday when Hamilton-Wenham and quarterback Trevor Lyons sped past North Reading 28-12. The General juggernaut continues to roll on at 8-0 one of only 16 undefeated teams in Eastern Mass.

More importantly, they are 3-0 in the league having already beaten the Pioneers and the Hornets, two of their three closest rivals. They can clinch the title this week with a North Reading win over Ipswich on Friday and a victory over Georgetown on Saturday.

The Pioneers needed the Hornets to halt the Generals, but it was not to be.

Things started out well for the Hornets who forced the Generals into a three and out on their first possession then took a 6-0 lead on Ryan Sanborn's 41 yard romp. As an aside, if the name Sanborn sounds familiar to long time followers of Lynnfield football it should. He is the son of Mark Sanborn, who scored 10 touchdowns for the Pioneers over the 1981 and 1982 seasons.

The Generals answered with a long drive that ended with an 11 yard Lyons TD run. The PAT by Paul Kim gave H-W a 7-6 lead and they would never trail again.

Another long General drive in the second quarter capped by a one yard touchdown by Lyons made it 14-6 at the half. The Hornets got the ball to open the second half with a chance to tie the score but they couldn't move against the solid H-W defense and went three and out.

The Generals then broke it open with Lyons again doing the honors, this time with a 76 yard sweep to make it 21-6. The Hornets cut it to 21-12 on a halfback option pass from Carl Lipani to C. J. McCarthy.

But Lyons struck for his fourth TD of the day on another sweep, this one from 61 yards to nail down the important win 28-12.

The Hornets travel to Ipswich this week while the Generals will host Georgetown.

So the Pioneers' slim chance of a title and postseason playoff berth rests with Ipswich.

The Tigers have come alive since the league season started. After going 1-4 in non league play, Ipswich gave the Pioneers all it could handle in a 13-6 loss. The Tigers followed that with a 26-6 win over Georgetown and last week, romped over Manchester Essex 39-20.

Ipswich coach Ted Flaherty told Matt Burke of the Gloucester Times that his team really loved playing on the Fieldturf at M-E's new Hyland Field. That makes sense since the tricky Delaware Wing T relies on quick cuts, inside handoffs and shifty ball handling.

The Tigers took advantage of the solid footing to build a 26-0 halftime lead over the Hornets with running backs Derek Chamberlain and Peter Moutevelais each scoring a pair of TD's in the first two quarters.

The Hornets tried to answer back, cutting the Tiger lead to 26-13 in the third quarter thanks to a pair of scoring drives engineered by quarterback Cory Burnham. The QB, who ran for 101 yards on the day, capped the first one and Chris Dumont went in on the second, both on one yard runs.

Ipswich pulled away again in the fourth on Chamberlain's third TD. Dumont answered with a three yard run to pull to 33-20 but the Tigers ended the suspense with Moutevelis' third touchdown of the night to account for the final score.

The Tigers are now 2-1, tied with the Pioneers and Hornets. If they can beat North Reading this Friday, they could be playing for the title on Thanksgiving Day. M-E comes calling to the Middle School Field on Saturday looking for their first league win.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for one of the most historic games in Lynnfield High history when I continue with my series on the Super Pioneers of 1986.

Georgetown Leftovers

2011-11-06T19:13:00.002-05:00

I had a chance to talk to former Pioneer head coach and Athletic Director and now AD at Georgetown Bill Adams before the game. As we watched the young Royals warm up, Adams noted that the team reminded him of some of the Lynnfield teams he coached in the 1990's and 2000's that suffered from similar lack of numbers and experience.

The Pioneers under Adams and Scott Brennan regular ran out squads with less than 30 players and a handful of seniors. The results were fairly predictable considering the Pioneers played a tough, full CAL schedule for nearly that entire stretch. For the 16 seasons from 1992 to 2007, the Pioneers were 44-123 and were outscored almost 2-1 (3,981 to 2,048).

Georgetown is going through that type of period now and Adams recognized it all too well.

The Royals' new head coach Paul Sobolewski has a roster of 33 with only three seniors and nine freshmen and even two eighth graders. That squad got even thinner against the Pioneers. In the game story at RallyNorth.net, Sobolewski said that there were some "in house issues" that resulted in a half dozen upper classmen leaving the team. That left the Royals with "two seniors, no juniors, 17 sophomores and the rest freshmen" according to the article.

"They have a young team," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman told me after the game. "They're going to have a nice group of kids coming up. They have a lot of sophomores on that team so they're taking their lumps a little bit right now.

Georgetown won their first game this season against West Bridgewater, but have now lost seven straight. With Hamilton-Wenham and Manchester-Essex left on their schedule, the Royals will have a hard tinme getting another W.

This isn't the first year the Royals have struggled. They joined the Cape Ann League in 2008 and with outstanding quarterback Joe Esposito at the controls, they lost out on a tiebreaker from winning the league title and going to the post season. Since that inaugural season, the Royals have gone 3-26.

The Pioneers have added to that misery.

Lynnfield added Georgetown to their schedule in 2006 and were beaten three straight times by the Royals. But the Pioneers have rebounded nicely, winning the last three by a combined 102-13 score. They now stand 3-3 overall against the Royals.

However, Sobolewski has hit bottom but with a huge corps of sophomores, expect the Royals to be heard from in the future.

Quagmire
We can only hope that as the team in Georgetown improves, someone does something to improve the field as well. To be kind, the field up there was a muddy mess (see photo at left), especially at the scoreboard end of the field.

I know in these times of tight budgets, no school system is rushing to spend significant money on field improvements, but when the mud is so bad that the players sink nearly to their ankles, safety has to become a concern.

Title Dreams?
The Pioneers' CAL/NEC 4 title hopes may have turned to title dreams on Saturday when Hamilton Wenham took out North Reading 28-12.

That leaves the Generals at 3-0 in league play with the Pioneers, Ipswich and North Reading at 2-1.

The only scenario that works for Lynnfield is for the Pioneers to end up in a three way tie with the Generals and Ipswich at 4-1. For that to happen, Lynnfield has to win its final two games against Manchester-Essex and North Reading.

The Tigers have to beat North Reading Friday night in Ipswich then spring the biggest upset of the year and beat Hamilton-Wenham on Thanksgiving Day.

Should that all happen, it would come down to the tiebreakers. The first is head to head which wouldn't solve anything since the three teams would be 1-1 against each other. It would then come down to points against in the games among the three teams, which is where it gets interesting.

"One thing I'm not sure about is whether overtime counts," Weidman told me. "I would imagine it would. But if someone went into seven overtimes and won 61-60, they have no prayer of winning it so I'll have to find out if it's just regulation. If it's regulation only, then it's 14-14 with us and Hamilton Wenham."

That would mean it would come down to the Ipswich-HW score. The Pioneers allowed only six against Ipswich giving them a total of 20 allowed vs the two teams. Ipswich allowed 13 to the Pioneers and if H-W has 14 against, that means Ipswich would have to win, score more than six points and allow more than seven points to H-W.

Now all this is moot if North Reading wins Friday night. That would allow the Generals to clinch the title on Saturday with a win against Georgetown at home which is about as sure a thing as tax day coming next April 15.

In reality, the only thing the Pioneers can control is their performance in their final two games and see how it all unfolds.

Return of the Captain
When I talked to Weidman before the Danvers game, he gave me the bad news that tri-captain Mike Thomas was lost for the season with a broken collarbone suffered against St. Mary's.

So it was quite a surprise when Thomas lined up next to Mike Karavetsos in the backfield on the first play of the second half against Georgetown. In a storybook return, Thomas took the handoff, burst through a big hole up the middle and romped 76 yards for the touchdown. It was his only carry of the game.

"We got him a little action," Weidman said. "I wanted to get him a whole series and get him tackled a couple of times to get his feet a little bit but I couldn't put him back in the game at that point with the score 35-7."

"I did not," the coach replied when I asked him if he expected Thomas back this season. "And if it was, I was definitely thinking Thanksgiving. He broke his collarbone. He told the doctor he wanted to play and the doctor said it's healed but it's up to him. He said 'I want to play. I only have a few games left and I want to play.'"

That certainly bolsters the Pioneer offense for the final two games of the year and gives them an impressive one-two rushing punch with Thomas joining improving sophomore Kyle McGah.

1200th
Speaking of McGah, the sophomore continues to impress, picking up 77 yards on five carries and a touchdown against the Royals. His second period 24 yard TD run turned out to be the 1200th touchdown in the 54 year history of Lynnfield High football. The Karavetsos to Yobaccio score was 1201 and Thomas' score was 1202.

The complete breakdown: 828 rushing, 281 passing, 30 punt returns, 24 interception returns, 21 kickoff returns, 16 fumble returns, 2 blocked punt returns.

Karavetsos Rates
Quarterback Mike Karavetsos had a particular efficient day completing 4 of 7 passes for 135 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Pulling out the NFL formula, the junior signalcaller had a passer rating of 141.4. A perfect rating is 158.3. Through nine games, Karavetsos has a passer rating of 97.9.

"He's really coming into his own," Weidman said. "The kid's really come a long way since he was a freshman. It's unbelievable."

It's Good!
Junior Alex Roper has been impressive in his first season doing the placekicking for the Pioneers. He has nailed 21 of 24 attempts. His five on Saturday tied him for third place for most PAT's in a single game by a Pioneer.

Scott Milne holds the record for booting seven against Masco in 1985 and Steve Ullian ranks second for his six PAT performance against Bishop Fenwich last year. Ullian is one of the Pioneers Roper tied for third place for his 5 kick games against Georgetown and Ipswich last season. Mark Owens also had five against Masco in 1978 and Kris Borkowski kicked 5 against Hamilton-Wenham in 1998.

Roper's 21 for the season puts him in fourth place for single season PAT's. Ullian holds the top two spots in that category with 34 last year and 30 in 2009. Milne is in third with 25 in 1985.

Teamwork
Everyone knows that it is the job of the "rookies," i.e. freshmen and sophomores, to take the water bottles out to the starters during timeouts.

But with the second half of the Georgetown game turning into a showcase for the youngsters on the squad, some role reversal was in order. During a timeout in the fourth period, Pioneer starters D. J. DeGeorge and Connor Lordan trotted out to the huddle on the field to get the water to their young teammates.

It was a nice display of teamwork by the juniors.

Turnabout
While on the subject of Adams, I am reminded of a post game interview I did with him some years back in a game against North Andover when the Pioneers had taken it on the chin. The Knights emptied their bench and ultimately had 10 players with carries in the game.

Adams quipped that he didn't even have 10 running backs on his squad, let alone getting them all into the game.

Flash forward to last Saturday.

Roles were reversed as the Pioneers had this one sewn up by halftime and were able to empty the sideline for the second half.

The result? 10 players ended up having carries for the Pioneers in the game. McGah, Thomas, Karavetsos, Roper, Palumbo, Anthony Costa, Daniel Sullivan, Kevin Lee, Joe Mehr and Tyler Shaffer all contributed to the 247 yards rushing the Pioneers picked up in the game.

Times certainly have changed.

Notable
- There were only two penalties called in the game - 2 for 20 yards on the Pioneers and none on Georgetown.
- It was the second straight win on the road for the Pioneers following a 4 game road losing streak
- It was the third time the Pioneers have scored 35 points this season. They also did it in a win against Bishop Fenwick and a loss to Danvers
- With the win, the Pioneers are now 14-3 in league games since October of 2008.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night for my look around at the weekend's league action.

Bounceback!

2011-11-05T18:00:00.000-04:00

No sign of a letdown for the Pioneers today in an impressive 35-7 victory over a young, struggling Georgetown team.

Rushing touchdowns by Mike Karavetsos and Kyle McGah and passing TD's from Karavetsos to Alex Pascucci and Steve Yobaccio gave the Pioneers a 28-7 halftime lead. The surprise return of tri-captain Mike Thomas paid dividends on the Pioneers' first play of the second half when he bolted 76 yards for a score to make it 35-7. That one effectively turned this into a JayVee second half, at least for Lynnfield and the backups acquitted themselves well even against the Georgetown starters.

You can read all the details and see my game photos in the Villager on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, bad news from Hamilton as the Generals battered North Reading 28-14 to take one more step toward the CAL/NEC 4 title.

Not much the Pioneers can do except take care of their own business against Manchester Essex next week and North Reading on Thanksgiving day and hope for Ipswich to go on a run. I'll explain all the details in tomorrow's Leftovers post.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow for more on the win over the Royals.

Georgetown Game Preview: Royal Concern

2011-11-03T20:54:00.001-04:00

Letdown (let-doun)
noun
1. A decrease in volume, force, energy, etc.
2. disillusionment or disappointment
3. depression; deflation

After last week's stunning last minute loss to Hamilton-Wenham, it would be natural for the Pioneers to suffer from the above when they travel to Georgetown to take on the 1-6 Royals.

They just can't let it happen.

If the Pioneers are to stay alive in the CAL/NEC 4 race - which they still are at this point - they must shake off the disappointment and take care of business in Georgetown.

On paper, the Pioneers would appear to be decided favorites. They come in with a 4-4 record against some tough opponents after just taking one of the best teams on the North Shore to overtime in a game they could have won.

The Royals, on the other hand, have lost six straight games after an opening week 25-14 win over West Bridgewater. Against common opponents, the Pioneers have clearly performed better. They beat Bishop Fenwick handily and edged both Amesbury and Ipswich. The Royals are 0-3 against those three teams losing by a combined score of 89-25.

Georgetown has struggled with a young team under new coach Paul Sobolweski, who came in after five successful years at Winchester. But as most young teams do, they have struggled with turnovers and the inability to finish drives.

Sobolewski told Tony Moschetto of the Newburyport News that his team has had the ball inside the opponents' 30 yard line 19 times this season and came away with no points. That will happen when you are starting seven sophomores on offense. Against Ipswich they came up empty after driving to the Tiger 11 and four yard line.

On defense, the Royals line up eight sophomores, which has caused them some problems on the other side of the ball.

But despite all that, Georgetown still has a puncher's chance because of their quarterback, senior Tyler Wade. A three year starter, Wade is the focal point of the Royal offense. Georgetown plays out of the spread offense, similar to the Pioneers, but with a few twists.

Sometimes they have one running back next to Wade and at other times he is back there with twins backs. They like to throw swing passes and bubble passes to get the receivers the ball in space.

Against North Reading, they used a bizarre formation that had Wade and a running back in the backfield with only a center over the ball and a guard next to him. The other seven players were lined up wide right. This opened up the field to give Wade some space to show off his running ability.

When he isn't running, he is throwing, and he is not afraid to do that. He has a gun and when he gets time in the pocket, he can do damage. North Reading realized that and employed a defense that had three down lineman, but then they blitzed and came with six or seven rushers on 90% of the snaps. It was effective as the Hornets limited the damage Wade could do.

The Royals are starting to get more production from running back Tim Dillion who rushed for over 50 yards against Ipswich.

The Royals have now played seven games, and are starting to correct some of the early season mistakes. They played their best game of the year against Ipswich, which was much closer than the final 26-6 score. It was 12-6 at the half and Georgetown was in position to tie the game or take the lead early in the third but they stalled inside the Tiger five yard line and turned it over on downs.

The Royals also seem to struggle when punting, in particular the snap from center. Against North Reading, several snaps nearly sailed over the punter's head so that is something else the Pioneers will be looking to take advantage of.

There is good news and bad news when playing a young team like Georgetown. If the Pioneers can get off to a fast start, something they haven't been able to do since the Bishop Fenwick game, they could take the wind out of the Royals' sails. If they let Georgetown hang around, the Royals could get energized and play above their heads looking to spring the big upset.

It will be up to the Pioneers to ensure that doesn't happen.

Game time in Georgetown is 2 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Saturday for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Ambushed by Amesbury

2011-11-02T18:00:00.005-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

November 1, 1986

You couldn't blame Villager reporter David Angelini when he stated in his preview of the Amesbury game that the Indians "shouldn't pose much of a problem for the high flying Pioneers."

After all, the Pioneers were 6-0 overall atop the Division Three Super Bowl standings and alone in first place at 5-0 in the CAL, now the only undefeated team in the league. Amesbury, meanwhile, limped onto the Middle School field with a 1-5 record having scored only 14 points in its last three games.

Mismatch, no?

It certainly started out that way.

Amesbury came out strong on their first drive but the Pioneer defense ultimately stopped them. Leading the way were linebackers Mike Pascucci, Mark Sutera and Todd Coviello, or as Angelini called them "Italy's Finest." The trio racked up 12 first half tackles including Pascucci's second sack of the year.

Lynnfield's offense was also in high gear despite the absence of key running back Jason Mochi, who was out with a sprained hand.

"I was on the sidelines that day," Mochi recalled recently. "I hurt my hand in the (Pentucket) game and wasn't able to hold on to the ball."

Mochi's loss didn't seem to slow down the Pioneer offense as they scored on their first possession on a 17 play, seven minute drive. Coviello, who picked up 101 yards on the day, punched it in from the one for the score. David Frontero added the extra point and the Pioneers led 7-0.

They marched in for another TD the next time they got the ball moving 52 yards for the score. Frontero scampered for 17 of them on a rollout and Sutera went the final 30 for the touchdown. Frontero added another PAT and the Pioneers were in control at the half leading 14-0.

According to lineman Chris Loomos, the Pioneers could have actually been up by three scores at the break.

"I actually had a chance for an interception in the first half with us up by 14," Loomos told me recently. "I dropped it with no one near me and could have been clear sailing but I botched it."

The Pioneers were hit with a couple of penalties in the opening minutes of the second half, couldn't get anything going and were forced to punt.

The Indians took over and put together a five play scoring drive with Amesbury quarterback Robert Kennedy slipping in from the three for the score. The Pioneers stuffed the two point conversion try, but their lead was now only 14-6 with two minutes left in the third quarter.

The score seemed to energize the Amesbury defense, which began to shut down the Pioneer offense.

"We couldn't move the ball," Lynnfield head coach Bill Adams told Angelini after the game. "They took it to us."

Loomos agreed with Adams' assessment.

"I don't know what it was but they came out fired up and they scored one touchdown," Loomos recalled. "I think they gained some confidence and ran rough shod on us and we just could not stop them."

"I don't remember the specifics," recalled end Dave Callahan, "but I do remember the momentum changing in the second half and us not being able to move the ball."

From that point, the Indian offense certainly had no trouble moving the ball. They revived and broke through for a another score with seven minutes left in the contest. Amesbury running back Mark Cox appeared to be stopped at the three but he kept churning and broke through for the score to make it 14-12. Kennedy snuck in for the two point conversion and the game was tied 14-14.

The Pioneers got it back, but again could not move the ball and had to punt.

Amesbury began their next drive on their own 33 yard line with 4:30 left in the game. Cox took control at this point, hauling in a Kennedy pass for 20 yards and then picking up 15 yards rushing. The Indians moved to the Pioneer one yard line and on second and goal, Amesbury set up in the triple stack.

Pioneer alumn Glenn Listernick (LHS '74) was an Amesbury JV coach and was on the opposing sideline that day and related the game winning play to me recently.

"Kennedy faked the hand-off to Cox (who appeared to be stopped) and then ran around the right end untouched for the score. Everyone expected Cox to take the handoff!"

The point after try was no good, but Amebury led 20-14 with only 40 seconds left in the game.

A last gasp pass from Steve Bucci, was intercepted and Amesbury sealed the upset win.

"They did put me in at QB at the end of the game," Bucci told me recently. "I was the backup QB but could throw the ball, and probably more importantly, it allowed us to put Frontero at receiver. So the plan was to get the ball to someone that could run (Frontero, Grasso, Coviello, etc). Obviously it didn't work!!"

"I just remember it being a tough physical game," Bucci recalled.

Amesbury head coach Dave Bailey told Angelini after the game that it was their biggest win ever. "We outplayed them in the second half and controlled scrimmage throughout. We played up to our capabilities and we never let up."

Angeli quoted Adams' comments from the preseason that "in high school football, any team in the league can defeat any other team in the league on any given day. Intensity makes up for any difference in talent."

Little did he know that he would be talking about his own Pioneers unexpectedly losing to lowly Amesbury, who would go on to post a 5-5 mark for the season.

The loss badly hurt the Pioneers who dropped into a three way tie for first in the CAL with Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich who all sported 5-1 CAL records.

As Adams grimly summed up to Angelini, "Now we've opened it up for everybody."

Next: Off to Hamilton for a first place showdown with the Generals.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 8

2011-10-31T14:27:00.011-04:00

A CORRECTION:
Before we get into this weekend's result, I have to make a correction to Sunday's Leftovers post. I stated that Saturday's loss to Hamilton-Wenham was the first regular season overtime game for the Pioneers since 1991.

However a loyal reader pointed out that I had obviously forgotten the 21-14 overtime loss to Manchester Essex in 2007.

Now I believe the reason I blocked that one out was because it was such a traumatic experience. Not that it had the same implications as this week's game, but the devastation was clearly just as brutal.

The 2007 squad was a team just trying to learn how to win. Lynnfield had come off of a winless 2004 and successive one win campaigns in 2005 and 2006. They opened the season with a tough 28-20 loss in 100 degree heat in Georgetown.

Game two was against the Hornets, who were coming off a Division 3A playoff appearance and were heavy favorites behind quarterback Pat Orlando. The Pioneers' Chris Grassi gave Lynnfield a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when he hit Alex Mastrangelo with a four yard TD pass. They built that to 14-0 in the third when tri-captain Nick Tropeano blocked an Orlando punt and recovered it in the endzone.

The inspired Pioneer defense had held the dynamic Orlando to a pedestrian 3/9 for 36 yards to that point. Lynnfield nursed that two touchdown lead until late in the fourth quarter. But with only 2:28 left in the game, the Pioneers were forced to punt into a howling wind at Newell Stadium in Gloucester from their own 34. The result was a two yard kick.

On the first play after the punt, Orlando threw a 36 yard TD pass to Sam Cohen to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 to play. M/E forced another punt on a three and out and got the ball back at their own 34 with 1:42 to play in the game. It took them only five plays to eat up the 64 yards and Orlando hit Cohen again with a 32 yard TD pass to tie the game with 38 seconds left.

The Hornets had erased a 14-0 lead in 64 seconds.

The overtime was a foregone conclusion from that point. M/E scored to make it 21-14 (PAT's were allowed with those overtime rules.) The Pioneers fumbled after a completed pass on their first play of the OT and the Hornets recovered to nail down their improbable comeback overtime win.

And you wonder why I didn't want to remember that one?

Now on to this week's wrap up.

Things are starting to sort themselves out with only three weeks left in the season. First let's take a look at the standings.

Speaking of Manchester-Essex, they gave North Reading all they could handle in the battle of Hornets before falling 14-0. The big M/E line gave the NR wing some trouble, holding outstanding running back Carl Lipani to only one touchdown although he did pick up 179 yards on 33 carries. Lipani now has 15 TD's on the season and sits atop the Division 3A scoring race with 98 points. Joe Epps of Bourne is four points behind.

C. J. McCarthy gave NR a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 10 yard run which was set up by his own 50 yard jaunt. Lipani punched it in from the one in the third quarter to make it 14-0.

M/E has struggled to score in their past three games, all losses, tallying only two touchdowns and 12 points. They will try to get back on the winning track when they host Ipswich this Friday night.

Meanwhile, North Reading heads up Route 128 to Hamilton to take on the Generals Saturday afternoon at 2:30 in a battle for first place in the CAL/NEC 4. Like Red Sox fans who were forced to root for the Yankees against the Rays in the dying days of the September Wild Card chase, Pioneer rooters must hope for a Hornet win against undefeated Hamilton-Wenham. A North Reading win would put the Hornets in first place at 3-0 but more importantly, would give the Generals a loss. Then at least the Pioneers would have a shot at throwing the title race into a tiebreaker situation if they could win their last three games including what could be a huge contest on Thanksgiving Day.

So Lynnfield fans should be wearing some green and gold under their Pioneer gear this Saturday.

Ipswich was finally rewarded for its hard work with a 26-6 win over Georgetown that wasn't quite as convincing as it looks.

For the second time this year, the Tigers started the game with a blitz, sack and fumble recovery for a touchdown when they did the trick against Royal quarterback Tyler Wade. Ipswich opened their loss to Newburyport the same way.

Georgetown answered back with a long drive but fumbled. They then recovered an Ipswich fumble and turned that into a score that made it 6-6 after one quarter. They had a chance to take the lead moving to the Ipswich 10 but couldn't get any further and turned it over on downs.

The Tigers answered with a 90 yard drive aided by two fake punts and scored to go up 12-6 at the half.

The Royals looked like they were going to tie the game on their first drive of the third quarter, moving all the way to the Ipswich 5 yard line. Again they stalled and turned it over on downs.

The Tigers put it away with a long drive to make it 20-6 in the third and sewed it up with another time consuming march that made it 26-6 in the fourth.

Ipswich goes for their second league win at M/E on Friday while the Royals prepare to host the Pioneers.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for my next post on the Super Pioneers of 1986.

Hamilton Wenham Leftovers

2011-10-30T13:59:00.001-04:00

When is a touchdown not a touchdown?

When's it's ruled an interception or when it's called back on a holding call.

The Pioneers' valiant effort fell just short on Saturday, but you have to wonder what might have been if even one of those two scores stayed on the board. Either one would have put the Pioneers up by two scores and could have been the death knell for the Generals. H-W was clearly reeling after dominating much of the first half but going in at the break down 7-6.

Then the Palumbo Pilfer that put the Pioneers up 14-6 clearly rattled the undefeated Generals early in the second half. But the nullified Mike Karavetsos touchdown seemed to energize the visitors, and the Pioneers' golden opportunity slipped away.

"I felt like (Nico Varano) had possession of it too, so that obviously hurt us," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said of the interception call. (Varano) said he caught it and (Pete Duval) grabbed it. We had that called on us earlier this year where we thought we picked it and it was simultaneous. It was unfortunate because obviously it would have been a touchdown and the other touchdown we had taken back was unfortunate too. But that's what happens in football games."

On Thursday, I presented seven keys to beating the Generals. I thought I'd review the game in relation to those keys to see how the Pioneers did. My original points are in red and the results are in black below each one.

1. Fast Start. The Pioneers have struggled out of the gate allowing both Pentucket and Ipswich to score first the past two weeks. They were able to come back and win, but falling behind to a juggernaut like Hamilton-Wenham would be fatal. On the reverse side, if the Pioneers can score first, it would be the first time all year the Generals will have trailed in a game. It's a lot different "grounding and pounding" when you are behind, than when you are ahead.

Negative. The Pioneers string of slow starts continued as they allowed the Generals to take the opening kick and march the field to go up 6-0. The Pioneers had the ball for only 28 seconds in the first quarter and only 5:09 of the 22 minute first half. They didn't get their initial first down until the last three minutes of the half.

"That's what they do," Weidman said of the Generals' clock eating offense. "They have a couple of guys that run the ball well and they did a good job controlling the clock. They can control the clock if they want to but they also have some explosiveness."

As has been the case, the Pioneers rebounded nicely from the slow start to take a lead at the half.

"It was good," Weidman said of the recovery. "We actually played a good first half."

2. Neutralize the H-W Offensive line. The Pioneers were able to comeback and beat Pentucket by dominating the line of scrimmage. Tri-captain Jonathan Roberto, Andrew Kibarian, D.J. DeGeorge and Zack Panzini will have to do that Saturday against the best offensive line they will probably see all year. If the General O line allows Burr to get to the Pioneers' young linebackers or lets Lyons get to the edge, the home team will be in for a long day.

Check. The defensive line of Roberto, Kibarian, DeGeorge, Panzini and Mike Soden did an admirable job against an offensive line that has been dominant this year. The Pioneers held the Generals to "only" 216 yards rushing, which is an improvement over the 275 they had averaged coming into the game. It is also interesting to note the Pioneer improvement as the game went along.

In the first period, the Generals averaged 5.4 yards per carry. That dropped to 4.9 yards per carry in the second quarter, then to 3.6 in the third and finally to 3.3 in the fourth quarter and overtime. That may not sound very impressive, but with running backs like Trevor Lyons and Elliot Burr, that is quite an accomplishment.

"The kids have come a long way," Weidman said of his team's ability to control the running game. "They've improved a lot. They're really doing what we've asked them to do and they've improved because of it."

"The line played well. They played tough. Extremely tough," Weidman said.

3. No mistakes. Frankly, the Pioneers are going to have to virtually play a perfect game. Turnovers and penalties will be deadly. H-W is too good. The Pioneers can't help them.

Not so good on this one. Turnovers and penalties ultimately were deadly. The "interception" and a holding penalty nullified two TD's and the face mask penalty on the Generals' last drive hurt as well. As I said, the Generals are too good to give them any help.

4. Force Lyons to pass. If the Generals are allowed to run roughshod and pick up over 300 yards on the ground as they have the past two weeks, the Pioneers are doomed. Lynnfield has to find a way to contain Burr and Lyons (way easier said than done) and force Lyons to go to the air. He is still learning the position and has a nice target in Matt Putur, but the Pioneers' chances go up exponentially with ball coming out of Lyons' hands rather than it being under his arm.

Check on this one. The Pioneers did enough to stop the run that the Generals had to go to the air much more than they wanted. Lyons threw 15 passes, probably more than he has thrown all year combined.

"That's what we wanted them to do," Weidman confirmed. "We wanted to make them throw the ball a little bit to get them out of what they were comfortable doing. Defensively, we did a good job doing that."

Lyons actually did pretty well, completing eight for 97 yards.

"But that's what we decided," Weidman said. "If they were going to beat us throwing the ball, then they beat us throwing the ball. We wanted to be able to stop the run. We did a good job containing their big plays for the most part. They got a couple but no long touchdown runs or anything like that which they've had success with this year."

The numbers back that up. The Pioneers "held" Lyons to 120 yards rushing after he ran wild for 432 yards in the past two games. In his last two games, he averaged almost 19 yards per carry. the Pioneers trimmed that to 5.2 yards per carry.

5. Move the ball. The Pioneers are going to have to find a way to move the ball and score against a stout General defense. It will be tough to run against them, but quarterback Mike Karavetsos is going to have to be quick and accurate and receivers Alex Pascucci, Steve Yobaccio, Nico Varano, Dan Ashwell and A. J. Gallo are going to have to find space in the General secondary and make some yards after catches.

About as good a check as you can get against as good a defense as the Generals'. The Pioneers ended up with 193 yards of offense, 112 on the ground and 81 passing, but managed only one touchdown. The 7 offensive points was a couple of points better than their 5.2 points per game allowed average coming in. The Pioneers also picked up 7 points thanks to a defensive touchdown.

Karavetsos was 8 for 19 for 70 yards with Alex Pascucci the key target with five catches for 46 yards. Alex Roper was 1 for 1 with an 11 yard hookup with Dan Ashwell. Roper was forced into action for one play just before the Pioneer's touchdown when Karavetsos had to come out of the game because his hand was bleeding.

After a rough quarter and a half, the Pioneers put together some semblance of a running game led by Karavetsos' 58 yards and 54 yards from the hard running, continually improving sophomore Kyle McGah.

"Their defense has been really good all year," Weidman said. "We did move the ball at times and we had the two touchdowns called back. Obviously those would have helped."

6. Convert opportunities. When the Pioneers get into the redzone either by driving or via turnovers, they have to convert. They may not get many of them so they have to cash in when they can.

Unfortunately no check here with an asterisk. The Pioneers scored one offensive touchdown and got the defensive score which were almost enough, but they got inside the General 25 two other times and came away empty. They could have easily come away with two scores which is what they needed to do to win.

7. Want it more than H-W. When you look back at Newburyport's win over the Pioneers last year, one thing was obvious - the Clippers wanted it more. The Pioneers have to bring that same level of enthusiasm and desire, a level that they haven't shown yet this year but will need this week.

Big checkmark on this one. Despite the slow start, the Pioneers were clearly ready to play this one. And once they survived the first General body blow, they recovered nicely and had H-W on the ropes. They just couldn't put them away, but that was not the result of lack of effort or desire. The Pioneers wanted this one and they played like it.

"It was a good game and we played well," Weidman summed up. "We didn't play badly at the end. Obviously getting the touchdown called back and then we get the facemask penalty on the sideline so a couple of things hurt us there at the end."

"We weren't surprised to be up 14-6," Weidman said. "We knew they were a good team but we knew if we played well we could play with them. Some other teams have played with them throughout the year. They beat Triton 6-0 and Amesbury 7-0 so we knew that we'd have to play well but we knew if we did play well it would be a close game."

Deja Vu All Over Again

At first glance, the Generals fourth quarter drive to tie the game seemed similar to last year's winning march in Hamilton, but on further review there were significant differences.

This year's drive started at the H-W 36 with 5:05 left and went 64 yards in 12 plays for the score. Last year the Generals started at the H-W 19 with 3:13 remaining and covered 74 yards in 14 plays and ended with a game winning 25 yard field goal.

But last year, the Generals covered half the drive through the air whereas this year's march used only one five yard pass play.

The unfortunate commonality in both drives is that they resulted in heartbreaking Pioneer losses.

Overtime Blues
Overtime has not been funtime for the Pioneers.

In the past 20 years, Lynnfield has played in four overtime games and is 0-3-1.

The last time the Pioneers played an overtime game was in the playoff against Austin Prep in 2009. The Cougars took that one 26-20. But the last Pioneer regular season overtime game occurred in September of 2007 against Manchester Essex and that one was just as devastating as yesterday's game.

The 2007 squad was a team just trying to learn how to win. Lynnfield had come off of a winless 2004 and successive one win campaigns in 2005 and 2006. They opened the season with a tough 28-20 loss in 100 degree heat in Georgetown.

Game two was against the Hornets, who were coming off a Division 3A playoff appearance and were heavy favorites behind quarterback Pat Orlando. The Pioneers' Chris Grassi gave Lynnfield a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when he hit Alex Mastrangelo with a four yard TD pass. They built that to 14-0 in the third when tri-captain Nick Tropeano blocked an Orlando punt and recovered it in the endzone.

The inspired Pioneer defense had held the dynamic Orlando to a pedestrian 3/9 for 36 yards to that point. Lynnfield nursed that two touchdown lead until late in the fourth quarter. But with only 2:28 left in the game, the Pioneers were forced to punt into a howling wind at Newell Stadium in Gloucester from their own 34. The result was a two yard kick.

On the first play after the punt, Orlando threw a 36 yard TD pass to Sam Cohen to cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:19 to play. M/E forced another punt on a three and out and got the ball back at their own 34 with 1:42 to play in the game. It took them only five plays to eat up the 64 yards and Orlando hit Cohen again with a 32 yard TD pass to tie the game with 38 seconds left.

The Hornets had erased a 14-0 lead in 64 seconds.

The overtime was a foregone conclusion from that point. M/E scored to make it 21-14 (PAT's were allowed with those overtime rules.) The Pioneers fumbled after a completed pass on their first play of the OT and the Hornets recovered to nail down their improbable comeback overtime win.

The last time prior that was almost 20 years ago to the day on October 19, 1991. The opponent? Yep the Hamilton Wenham Generals.

It was a first place battle between two undefeated teams at the midpoint of the season and the game ended 7-7 forcing the overtime.

Quarterback Chris Sutera scored on the first down of the tiebreaker on a 10 yard naked reverse. However, in the rules of the day, a team could go for one or two points. Under today's rules, a team has to go for two points in the first overtime.

Pioneer head coach Bill Adams elected to go for the single point but David Picard's kick hit the upright and bounced away, leaving the Pioneers with a 13-7 lead.

The Generals outstanding fullback and placekicker Mike McGowan tied the game from the one on third down and it was expected that his PAT was a mere formality. Adams called a timeout to ice McGowan and he promptly pushed the kick wide right. The game ended in a tie but as I wrote in my lead of the game story, "The Pioneers won 13-13."

The tie kept both teams alive in the CAL race that would go down to Thanksgiving Day. The Pioneers finished the season 9-1-1 but Ipswich beat H-W on Turkey Day to win the league championship.

The Palumbo Pilfer

The play of the game for the Pioneers had to be the strip and return for touchdown by Tyler Palumbo in the third quarter.

Andrew Kibarian, who played a tremendous game, was in the process of hauling Burr down when Palumbo knifed in and simply ripped the ball out of Burr's hands just before he hit the ground. In one motion, Palumbo grabbed it and headed 37 yards to the endzone for the TD that put the Pioneers up 14-8.

"That was a great play," Weidman said. "He just stripped it. If a guy is held up then the next guys in go after the football and he just took it out of his hands and ran it back to the endzone."

It was the 16th fumble return for a score in the history of LHS football and incredibly, five of then have come since 2009. This was the second one for the Pioneers this season. A. J. Gallo did the trick against Amesbury in the second week of the year.

"I" Trouble?

On the Pioneers' scoring drive, they actually lined up in the I formation for the first time this year other than the Victory kneel down formation at the end of wins. On first and goal from the four, Karavetsos went under center with Palumbo lined up as the up back and McGah as the tailback.

The handoff went to McGah who was dropped for a two yard loss. The Pioneers went right back to the familiar spread and McGah took the next handoff six yards for the touchdown.

The touchdown was particularly impressive. Karavetsos handed McGah the ball at the ten yard line. He broke two tackles at the five, started to go down but dove in from the two before his knee touched the ground to get the score.

The sophomore dynamo continues to run hard and refuses to go down without a serious fight.

Paying the Price

Lyons biggest pass play of the game was a 26 yarder completed to Duval in the third quarter. He just got the ball off before being obliterated by A. J. Gallo. It is amazing that he even got the pass off.

Drained

The intensity of the game was exemplified at the end when following the customary handshake line, General lineman Shane Jenkins fell to one knee and couldn't get up. His teammates were yelling to get him some water. He was totally exhausted from his exertion in the game. I'm thinking most players on both sides felt nearly as spent.

Penalized

Just for the record, the Pioneers were flagged 5 times for 45 yards. The Generals had one ten yard penalty in the entire game.

Crossing The 1000 Mark

With his 70 yards passing, Karavetsos crashed through the 1000 yard mark in the game. He is now 61 of 116 for 1016 yards. In the 23 years I have been keeping records, only four other quarterbacks have surpassed the 1000 mark in a season. They are Gino Cohee (2009 and 2010), Chris Grassi (2008), Jason Caggiano (1996) and Luke Kimball (2001).

Still Hope
So after dealing with the disappointment of the loss, it's time to looks and ahead. Although the defeat dealt a serious blow to the Pioneers' title hopes, it is not necessarily fatal.

There are still a couple of ways the Pioneers could come away with the crown. First, they have to win out and finish 4-1 in league play. Then they need some help.

The simplest way would be for Hamilton Wenham to lose two of their three final games against North Reading, Georgetown and Ipswich. Not very likely although remotely possible seeing as the Hornets are solid this year and anything could happen on Thanksgiving Day against Ipswich.

More realistically, the Pioneers have to hope for a three way tie with two other teams and hope to win in a tiebreaker scenario. The tiebreaker that has come into play recently is total points against in games among the tied teams so the best outcome for the NR-HW game would be for the Hornets to win in a shootout. Considering each team plays serious ball control, that would seem unlikely, but that's what Pioneer fans should be rooting for.

The main thing for the Pioneers, though, is to put the loss behind them and take care of business the next two weeks against Georgetown and Manchester Essex.

"It's not over yet," Weidman said. "Next week's going to come no matter what so we have to bounce back."

That's it for now. Catch my game story and photos in the Villager on Wednesday and check back Monday night for my look around the CAL/NEC 4.

Heartbreak

2011-10-29T15:07:00.000-04:00

So close. Just missed. Almost.

Use whatever term you want, but it all adds up to the same thing.

Disappointment.

The Pioneers nearly pulled off the upset of the year against hyped Hamilton Wenham at the Middle School field today but it was not to be. The Generals overcame a 14-6 deficit with five minutes left in the game to tie it in the final minute and win it 22-14 in overtime.

You never want to blame the officiating, but there is no question that three huge calls that went against the Pioneers greatly aided the Hamilton-Wenham cause.

A ruling of an interception instead of a touchdown pass completion midway in the third period denied one score for the Pioneers and a holding penalty on an apparent 22 yard Mike Karavetsos touchdown early in the fourth period took away another Lynnfield score. And a face mask penalty on the Generals eventual touchdown drive gave H-W a first down at the Lynnfield 30 yard line.

But give the Generals credit. Despite being outplayed for most of the contest, they found a way to take advantage of every opportunity and win a game they probably shouldn't have. That's the mark of a championship team and this General squad certainly has that look.

The Pioneers now fall to 1-1 in league play and will likely need the Generals to lose twice in their final three games or once and hope for some kind of tiebreaker advantage.

However, the Pioneers should be commended for their outstanding play against a dominant opponent. They can build on this to finish their final three games strong and let the chips fall where they may from there.

More on the game in my Villager game story on Wednesday and my Leftovers post tomorrow night.

Hamilton-Wenham Game Preview: General Alert

2011-10-27T13:08:00.002-04:00

See if this scenario rings a bell.

The defending league champion, undefeated and riding high after steamrolling through the non league portion of their schedule, easily defeats a weaker league opponent away from home. Feeling good about themselves, this favorite to win the championship heads out on the road for a second consecutive road league game. Their opponent, though sporting a pedestrian 3-4 record after a tough non-league schedule, remains a dangerous foe and still one of the top contenders for the title.

So what happens?

The underdog contender plays their best game of the year, rises up and smites the favorite, handing them their first loss and ultimately knocking them out of the league championship race.

Sound familiar?

It should.

The 2010 Pioneers were that undefeated, league favorite and the above is exactly what played out last year in Newburyport. The Pioneers were 7-0, coming off an impressive 30-13 come-from-behind win over Amesbury at Landry Field when they traveled north to Newburyport. The Clippers had played a tough CAL Large-heavy non league schedule and came into the game under .500, but still regarded as a major roadblock to the Pioneers' repeating as champs.

The Clippers played an inspired game, dominated the Pioneers on both sides of the ball and scored a decisive 24-7 win. The Pioneers rebounded the next week with a 41-0 rout of Ipswich then lost 16-15 on a last second field goal in Hamilton that clinched the title for the Generals.

Though painful, ultimately that loss to H-W didn't cost Lynnfield the title. The Clippers won the rest of their games and would have beaten out the Pioneers anyway thanks to that head to head win. However, Newburyport lost their matchup with H-W earlier in the year and that gave the crown to the Generals.

So fast forward to this week's game at the Middle School Field.

This year it's Hamilton-Wenham who is rolling into town undefeated off a big league victory, 35-6 over Manchester Essex. Attempting to play the role of Newburyport is your Lynnfield Pioneers.

After playing a fortified non-league schedule and struggling past a revved up Ipswich team 13-6, the Pioneers come in to the game 4-3. But they are still one of the key contenders the Generals have to beat to retain their crown.

The parallel to last season goes even further.

Before the Newburyport game last year, there was plenty of hoopla surrounding the undefeated Pioneers. Fox News selected the game for its High School Friday feature and the Pioneers were the focus of the hype. The pregame circus included interviews with Fox personalities.

This year, Hamilton Wenham is getting all the ink. They were profiled in this feature in Thursday's Globe North and this article in the Salem Evening News.

The Evening News site includes two video podcasts, one featuring sportswriter Matt Jenkins interviewing the three General captains and another in which Jenkins and fellow News sportswriter Dan Harrison preview Saturday's game. Interestingly enough, Jenkins and Harrison spend nearly 10 minutes lauding the Generals, mentioning a half dozen Hamilton Wenham players by name. Guess how many Pioneers they mention. Can you say none?

Talk about flying under the radar.

Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald is also picking the Generals to win in his Thursday Pickorama.

The Generals have obviously earned the plaudits being laid at their cleats.

They are one of only 14 undefeated teams in eastern mass and have now won 11 straight regular season games. They have dominated, particularly on the defensive side of the ball where they have allowed only 29 points in six games, and 13 of those came against the Generals' second team.

Offensively, the Generals present enormous problems.

Quarterback Trevor Lyons is settling in after being converted from tailback last year. He has run for almost 700 yards, over 400 in the past two weeks, and 50 points. Running back Elliot Burr has just over 600 yards rushing and 44 points. He gets most of his pounding on the inside and if you try to shut that down, Lyons will kill you on the edge.

Making them even more difficult to stop is that they are operating behind one of the best offensive lines in the area. Seniors Taylor Drinkwater (6'4 220), Shane Jenkins (6'2 225), Kevin Anthony (6'0 190) and Matt Forninger (6'1 205) and junior Matt Vogus (6'3 220) have been devastating.

"We have three or four wide open holes every time," Elliot Burr told Jenkins in the podcast interview. "We don't have to worry about getting tackled until you get to the second tier so it makes it really easy."

"They're good," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "Right now they're head and shoulders above everybody in our league. They are definitely the team to beat."

The Pioneers have been playing a series of wing T variation offenses which feature tricky inside handoffs, misdirection and sleight of hand. There is no such problem figuring out what the Generals are going to do. They are about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But there is a big difference in knowing what's coming and then being able to stop it.

"What they do, they do really well and you have to stop it," Weidman said. "That's what it comes down to."

They have blown out Bishop Fenwick, Pentucket and Manchester Essex, but they barely got by Amesbury 7-0 and Triton 6-0. They overcame Newburyport 18-6 in a hard fought game.

"They know us and they always do a good job defending us," Weidman said. "They are a physical, tough team and it's always a grind and a battle."

So can the Pioneers fight pull a "Clipper" and halt the General express train?

It won't be easy, but this is high school football, so anything is possible.

Here are my keys to the Pioneers' springing the upset.

1. Fast Start. The Pioneers have struggled out of the gate allowing both Pentucket and Ipswich to score first the past two weeks. They were able to come back and win, but falling behind to a juggernaut like Hamilton-Wenham would be fatal. On the reverse side, if the Pioneers can score first, it would be the first time all year the Generals will have trailed in a game. It's a lot different "grounding and pounding" when you are behind, than when you are ahead.

2. Neutralize the H-W Offensive line. The Pioneers were able to comeback and beat Pentucket by dominating the line of scrimmage. Tri-captain Jonathan Roberto, Andrew Kibarian, D.J. DeGeorge and Zack Panzini will have to do that Saturday against the best offensive line they will probably see all year. If the General O line allows Burr to get to the Pioneers' young linebackers or lets Lyons get to the edge, the home team will be in for a long day.

3. No mistakes. Frankly, the Pioneers are going to have to virtually play a perfect game. Turnovers and penalties will be deadly. H-W is too good. The Pioneers can't help them.

4. Force Lyons to pass. If the Generals are allowed to run roughshod and pick up over 300 yards on the ground as they have the past two weeks, the Pioneers are doomed. Lynnfield has to find a way to contain Burr and Lyons (way easier said than done) and force Lyons to go to the air. He is still learning the position and has a nice target in Matt Putur, but the Pioneers' chances go up exponentially with ball coming out of Lyons' hands rather than it being under his arm.

5. Move the ball. The Pioneers are going to have to find a way to move the ball and score against a stout General defense. It will be tough to run against them, but quarterback Mike Karavetsos is going to have to be quick and accurate and receivers Alex Pascucci, Steve Yobaccio, Nico Varano, Dan Ashwell and A. J. Gallo are going to have to find space in the General secondary and make some yards after catches.

6. Convert opportunities. When the Pioneers get into the redzone either by driving or via turnovers, they have to convert. They may not get many of them so they have to cash in when they can.

7. Want it more than H-W. When you look back at Newburyport's win over the Pioneers last year, one thing was obvious - the Clippers wanted it more. The Pioneers have to bring that same level of enthusiasm and desire, a level that they haven't shown yet this year but will need this week.

One last note. Tom Waisnor, the Voice of the Pioneers, is urging Pioneer fans to get to the field early and pack the stands, particularly in front of the press box to support the home team.

Finally, this is obviously a huge game for the Pioneers. I'm sure coach Weidman is preparing his pregame pep talk, so I will live him with this famous pregame speech as inspiration. Just substitute "football" for "hockey."

Game time at the Middle School field is 11 am. Let the fun begin.

Check back Saturday afternoon for my post game post.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Possessed in Pentucket

2011-10-26T18:00:00.008-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

October 25, 1986

You can't win if you don't score. And you can't score if you don't have the football.

The Pentucket Sachems learned that painful lesson the hard way when they fell to the Super Pioneers of 1986 in West Newbury 25 years ago this week.

Similar to last week's opponent Masco, Pentucket has come to represent winning and domination in the Cape Ann League. However like the Chieftains, the Sachems were CAL also rans in the 80's. Coming into the 1986 game, the Pioneers had beaten Pentucket five straight times, but most of those were close fought battles.

The Pioneers didn't figure to have much trouble with the winless Sachems in this one, but the home team still managed to hang around, despite not having the ball much.

According to the game account by Villager reporter David Angelini, the Pioneers controlled the ball for 30 of the 40 minute contest. They ran off 57 plays to only 33 for Pentucket and they never really threatened.

The Pioneer ground game set the tone early with a numbing opening drive that featured 18 running plays and chewed up 9:41 of the first period. Quarterback David Frontero scored from three yards out and added the extra point to give the undefeated Pioneers a 7-0 lead.

The Lynnfield defense, led by Mike Pascucci, dominated Pentucket throughout. Pascucci, a 5' 9", 150 lb defensive end was filling in for the injured Bill Aldenberg and wreaked havoc on the Sachem offense. He picked up four tackles in the first half and keyed the Pioneers' second scoring drive by recovering a fumble at the Sachem 15 yard line.

Lynnfield turned that into their second scoring drive which was led by co-captain Todd Coviello, who picked up 70 yards on 20 carries on the day. He scored the Pioneers' second TD from one yard out and although Frontero's PAT try was short, Lynnfield still had a 13-0 lead at the half.

In the second half, it was the Pioneer defense that dominated and made the lead stand up. Co-captain Darrell Carty, linebacker Mark Sutera and linemen Chris Loomos and John Dean formed an impenetrable wall that Pentucket could not breach. The quartet had 11 tackles in the third quarter alone, according to Angelini.

Safety Scott Yerardi had a nice pass deflection that ended one Pentucket drive and Coviello showed what he could do on the defensive side of the ball with a sack of Sachem quarterback Jason Peterson.

The Pioneers finished with 184 yards rushing with Sutera gaining 41 on 6 carries.

The victory lifted the Pioneers to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the CAL. Losses by Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich gave Lynnfield sole possession of first place and they also sat atop the Division Three Super Bowl ratings.

Again head coach Bill Adams was not particularly happy with the win.

"We sat back at times and were just too complacent," Adams told Angelini after the game. "But I give a lot of credit to Pentucket. Every year they play us tough."

Adams must have continued to boil during the long bus ride home because according to Loomos, the coach's anger had not subsided once they arrived back in Lynnfield.

"The coaches were really mad," Loomos told me recently remembering that game. "When we got back to the high school right after the game, Coach Adams lined our whole team up on the goal line. He made us hold hands as he gave us a lecture. He was pretty mad."

Despite the Pioneers being undefeated, Adams knew that something was not right with his team. He wouldn't have to wait much longer to have his worst fears realized.

Next: The Pioneers return home to host lowly Amesbury.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 7

2011-10-24T20:14:00.001-04:00

Well the season is underway and the first slate of games went pretty much according to plan. First, let's take a look at the standings which for the first time includes league games.

Of the three league games on opening night, only the Pioneers-Tigers contest had any suspense.

As expected, Hamilton Wenham ran over Manchester Essex 35-6 and it wasn't even that close. The Generals' stellar quarterback Trevor Lyons scored on the third play of the game and would score another touchdown early in the second quarter and rush for nearly 150 yards as the Generals rolled for almost 350 yards of offense in the rout.

H-W built a 21-0 halftime lead and would extend it to 35-0 in the third quarter. The hometown Hornets managed their only score early in the fourth period.

M-E faces another dominating ground game when it travels to North Reading this Friday night.

The Generals are hitting on all cylinders as they head for Lynnfield this Saturday in the biggest game for the Pioneers since.....last year's H-W game.

And speaking of teams on a roll, the North Reading Hornets continue to get comfortable with their "ground and pound" wing T offense. Friday night they crushed Georgetown 35-17 as outstanding running back Carl Lipani scored three more touchdowns.

Lipani is starting to pull away in the Division 3A scoring race as he now has 15 touchdowns and 92 points, a 12 point lead over Joe Epps of Bourne,.

The Hornets scored twice in the first period and two more times in the second to go up 28-0. Tyler Wade nailed a 33 yard field goal with no time remaining in the half to get something on the board for the Royals.

But North Reading iced it on C. J. McCarthy's second score of the night to make it 35-3 after three. Tyler Wade and Jackson Fritz scored two touchdowns for Georgetown in the final three minutes to account for the 35-17 final.

The Royals will host Ipswich in a battle of one win teams. One of them will pick up win number two and their first league win on Saturday afternoon.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for my next installment of the 1986 Super Pioneer series.

Ipswich Leftovers

2011-10-23T21:03:00.000-04:00

There's an old saying in golf that applies to the Pioneer victory over Ipswich Friday night: They don't draw pictures on the scorecard.

Yes it was a win. Yes it gave the Pioneers a critical first victory in the CAL/NEC 4 title chase. But it certainly wasn't pretty.

The Pioneers were outplayed for most of the first half and for stretches of the second half, but they made critical plays when they needed to and came away with a win in a place that is always difficult for the Pioneers' to play.

Head coach Neal Weidman will take the victory, but he knows his team dodged a bullet in Ipswich.

"(Ipswich) did a great job," Weidman told me after the game. "Other than making a few mental mistakes like a young team's going to make, but as far as being physical an playing hard, they're good. That's what they do all the time. (Tiger head coach) Ted (Flaherty) does a good job with that. he always has his kids ready to play. They're tough kids. Not always the biggest team in the world, but they're always tough."

So what exactly were the Tigers doing in the first half that allowed them to bottle up the Pioneer offense while slashing through the Lynnfield defense?

"They just played the heck out of us," Weidman said. "What they ran is what we thought we'd get. They were tough to block and they were blocking us. That's what it comes down to. We picked it up a little in the second half, blocking them better and we started getting off blocks better defensively too.

"It wasn't just that we were playing poorly in the first half," Weidman went on. "You have to give Ipswich credit. They were playing well. They were ready to play. I'm not going to take anything away from them. Do I think we played our best game? No, but the biggest reason for that was because they made us play that way."

"They're a good team," he summed up. "They only have one win and they haven't had much success the past few years but I've never seen a team play as well as they play without being rewarded for it."

Halftime Adjustment
The Pioneers did a better handling the Ipswich Delaware Wing T in the second half, especially on the Tigers' opening possession of the third quarter. Lynnfield forced the Tigers into their first (of only two) three and outs on the night, giving the ball to the offense quickly.

One of the keys to the change was the Pioneers' switching to a three man front from the four down linemen they came out in. That was the formation the Pioneers' used so successfully against Pentucket, but clearly Ipswich was ready for it.

"We started mixing it in a little bit," Weidman said of the three man alignment. "They were definitely prepared for our four man front so we decided to mix it up a little bit.

The change helped the Pioneers slow down the Tiger offense a little, holding them to that first three and out and then holding them on fourth down deep in Lynnfield territory late in the third period. The Pioneers followed that up with another forced three and out before the nerve-wracking final drive at the end of the game.

Critical Downs
Part of the Pioneers' problem in the first half and at the end of the game was their inability to stop the Tigers on third and fourth downs. Ipswich was 3 for 4 on third downs in the first half. The Pioneers limited that to 1 for 4 in the second half. But on the final drive of the game, Lynnfield allowed the Tigers to convert on their only third down attempt and two of their three fourth down attempts.

The Tigers failed on their other fourth down try when substitute quarterback Louis Galanis lost track of the downs and spiked the ball to stop the clock on fourth down when Ipswich was still a yard shy of the first down marker.

The Pioneers were 2 for 6 on third and fourth downs in the first half but improved to 3 for 4 in the second half.

QB Switch
Speaking of Galanis, the senior was subbing for the Tigers' freshman signal caller Nick Andreas who was injured against Newburyport. His loss obviously hampered the Ipswich passing game as Galanis, who hadn't played quarterback since he was a freshman himself, was clearly rusty throwing the ball. He completed only one pass in seven attempts (of course it was a 23 yarder on fourth down on the final edge-of-your-seat Tiger drive).

"He brings other things that are tough to defend," Weidman said of the QB switch. " We didn't know the freshman wasn't going to play. He warmed up before the game and looked okay but they went with the other guy."

Galanis is clearly a more dangerous runner and hurt the Pioneers several times with keeper sweeps. He picked up 56 yards on 13 carries.

Scary Moment
The Pioneer faithful who journeyed to Ipswich held their collective breath early in the game when quarterback Mike Karavetsos was shaken up on the fifth play of the game. He was stood up by the Ipswich defense and was struggling for another yard or two when he was popped in the side. The Pioneer coaches were yelling for him to go down, but the hit came first.

Backup Alex Roper came in to hand off to Alex Pascucci on third down and then carried on a fake punt that came up a yard short at the Tiger 42 yard line on fourth down.

The Tigers took over and marched to their only touchdown and when the Pioneers got the ball back after the kickoff, Karavetsos was back at the controls.

"He got the wind knocked out of him," Weidman explained. "He came back, didn't have a great first half but he showed some character in the second half and played well. He played well enough for us to win which is good. He didn't have his best game but he still made plays for us to win the game.

Economical Offense?
The Pioneers finished the night with 201 yards of offense. 82 of those came on the Pioneers' two scoring plays - the 30 yard TD run by Karavetsos and the 52 yard TD pass from Karavetsos to Nico Varano. The Pioneers ran off only 40 plays in the game and of those 15 were for no gain or a loss.

Hole Diggers
For the fourth straight game, the Pioneers allowed their opponent to score first. But for the second week in a row, they were able to dig their way out of the hole and record a win. It is not a trend Weidman wants to continue.

"Right now I don't know what to do about that," he admitted. "We're just not starting games well. I think a lot of it is that they are still unsure of themselves. We're still a pretty young team and we're just a little unsure of ourselves when we start the game, I think. Until they feel it out and then realize that they can play.

"I think it shows character no doubt (that they have been able to come back from those starts," Weidman continued. "The hard part is when you play a real good team it makes it difficult to come back from. Like the St. Mary's of the world. We made a little bit of a run against them, but they were just too good to get behind by that much."

Snapping the Streaks
The win snaps two losing streaks that stretch back a year. It ends a four game road losing streak and a string of three straight night game losses. The last time Lynnfield has won at night and on the road was against Amesbury last October 22.

Keeping Their Balance
Although many look at the Pioneers' spread offense as a wide open passing attack, the numbers actually show a very balanced offense.

Through their first seven games, the Pioneers have run for 1066 yards and 11 touchdowns. They have passed for 961 yards and nine TD's.

Notable
- The Pioneers hold a 23-13 advantage in turnovers through their first seven games
- Lynnfield played without another injured senior in Dan Ashwell who sat out after a big hit against Pentucket. He is expected back against Hamilton Wenham.
- The Pioneers have now won five straight against the Tigers. That includes two tough wins Ipswich - Friday night and a tougher than you would have expected 20-3 win in the 2009 championship year.
- The Pioneer defense has shown huge improvement since being lit up for 82 points against St. Mary's and Danvers. They have allowed only 20 points in their last two games against Pentucket and Ipswich.
- The 13 Pioneer points is the fewest they have scored since the 24-7 loss to Newburyport last year.
- The last time the Pioneers scored as few as 13 points and won was in 2008 when ironically they defeated Ipswich 13-7.
- The 6 points was the fewest the Pioneers have allowed since shutting out - you guessed it - Ipswich 41-0 last year.

That's it for now. Check back Monday night when I'll take a look at the first week of play in the CAL/NEC 4.

Survival

2011-10-21T22:15:00.000-04:00

Make no mistake. That is what it was tonight for the Pioneers at Jack Welch Field in Ipswich.

It was another good news, bad news night for Lynnfield.

Bad news is that for the second week in a row, the Pioneers fell behind to an opponent in the first half. The good news is for the second week in a row they came from behind in the second half to nail down a close win.

The Pioneers trailed 6-0 thanks to a lackluster first two periods and a revved up band of Tigers. The home team bottled up the Pioneer offense and sliced through the Lynnfield defense in the first half, but thanks to a couple of turnovers, could only go into the break with a 6-0 lead.

The Pioneers rebounded in the second half on touchdowns by Mike Karavetsos (30 yards) and a Karavetsos to Nico Varano 52 yard pass. Alex Roper hit one of two PAT attempts.

Meanwhile the Pioneer defense made some nifty adjustments at the half and shut down the Tiger Delaware Wing T offense in the second half to escape with a 13-6 victory.

Lynnfield is now 1-0 in the CAL/NEC 4 and a date with powerful Hamilton Wenham is on tap for next Saturday at the Middle School Field.

That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for more on the game in my Ipswich Leftovers post.

Ipswich Game Preview: Task One - Tame the Tigers

2011-10-20T20:16:00.009-04:00

To borrow the old tag line from Fox25 sports regarding the MLB All Star Game, this time it counts.

After a six week, non league "extended preseason," the Pioneers get down to real business this Friday night when they visit Ipswich to take on the always dangerous Tigers in the CAL/NEC 4 league opener.

You can read my thumbnail preview of the league in yesterday's Villager, but today I thought we'd do three things: 1) Review the non league portion of the Pioneers' schedule, 2) Preview how the league race could shape up and 3) Take a closer look at the Tigers.

Non League Schedule Review
Last season, the Pioneers played five non league games, along with a league game against Georgetown mixed in, to start the season. The Pioneers breezed through Manchester-Essex (non league last season) 37-6, Bishop Fenwick 42-21, Cathedral 40-0, Danvers 40-18 and Chelsea 28-0. A perfect 5-0 record and a 187-45 scoring advantage.

Fun for the ego, but not exactly challenging. Did that affect the Pioneers' play once the league games got underway? Hard to say.

The Pioneers struggled in the first half against Amesbury in the league opener, then blew the Indians away in the second half to cruise 30-13.

Then came the dreaded trip to Newburyport when the the Clippers chopped down the undefeated Pioneers 24-7. After an easy win over Ipswich, the Pioneers lost a heartbreaker to Hamilton-Wenham 16-15 on a last minute field goal.

Would stiffer competition in the non league portion of their schedule have made a difference once the Pioneers took on the iron of the CAL Small? There is really no way to tell, but this season head coach Neal Weidman made a concerted effort to toughen up the non league schedule, dropping Cathedral and Chelsea and adding Pentucket and St. Mary's. They also continued their rivalries with Newburyport and Amesbury as non league games. Bishop Fenwick and a much improved Danvers team rounded out the slate.

The Pioneers finished that six game stretch with a 3-3 mark and clearly faced much tougher competition.

Did Weidman feel he got what he wanted out of his non league schedule?

"I think so," he told me. "I guess we'll find out. We played against some good competition this year. I think the kids have improved which is good. We're still pretty young but we've gotten a lot of experience. Hopefully that's going to help us going into the league games."

"It was good," Weidman went on. "We learned how to play in some close games. We've had a couple of wins that were close and a couple of losses that were close."

"3-3 would have been what I kind of expected coming into the year," Weidman continued. "We had a chance to be and probably should have been 4-2. But those are the things that you learn about a young team. Hopefully we fixed some of the mistakes that we were making in some of those other games. I think we took a step in that direction this week (against Pentucket)."

Did he see the development of his team that he was hoping to get?

"I was concerned 10-12 days ago that maybe we weren't taking enough steps forward and maybe staying a little stilted," the coach said. "But we took steps forward this last week. Hopefully we continue to do that."

Injuries have ravaged the Pioneers' senior class with tri-captain Mike Thomas heading a list that includes Jonathan Rogers, Frank Coburn and Michael Doherty.

"Our juniors and sophomores are getting a little bit more action than I wanted them to," Weidman said. "Hopefully that will benefit us."

League Preview
Clearly it looks like Hamilton Wenham then everyone else in the CAL/NEC 4. The Generals have dominated in a tough non-league schedule that was heavy on former CAL Large opponents. They stand at 5-0 having outscored their opponents 117-26 and 13 of those points came against their second team defense in a 46-13 rout of Bishop Fenwick.

"Based on the scores, Hamilton Wenham seems to be the most dominant team right now," acknowledged Weidman. "If I had to pick, I'd say they are the team to beat. North Reading based on scores is probably just behind them. The rest of us are kind of together in the middle."

I would agree that the Generals appear to be clearly the class of the league. North Reading is 3-2 with wins against Saugus and Austin Prep which appear to be in down cycles. They routed a young Bishop Fenwick team just as the Pioneers did. The Hornets lost to the Clippers 28-7 a week after Newburyport beat the Pioneers 27-14. North Reading lost an overtime game to Amesbury, whom the Pioneers beat by a point.

Based on those comparatives, I'd say the Chestnut Street archrivals appear to be neck and neck in the next tier behind H-W.

A small step behind them would be Ipswich and Manchester Essex. Ipswich started slowly, losing big to much larger Marblehead, Triton and Pentucket. They then upset Amesbury in four overtimes for their first win. Then they lost to the Connor Wiley/Brett Fontaine Aerial Circus in Newburyport. In a nutshell, don't be fooled by their 1-4 record. This team will contend and you'll get to see them first hand Friday night against the Pioneers.

Manchester Essex has the same 3-3 record as the Pioneers but again they defeated Saugus and Austin Prep as well as Division 4A North Shore. Those three teams are 3-14 combined this season. The Hornets have lost to Cathedral, Amesbury and a strong Northeast Regional team.

Georgetown's numbers are down, so they are struggling. They defeated West Bridgewater to start the season and have since lost four straight by a 119-38 count.

The Pioneers will find out quickly if they are going to be part of the title chance. They open against the Tigers and then face the iron in H-W in week two. They then face Georgetown and Manchester before finishing up with North Reading.

With only six teams and five league games, the pressure is on to run the table. One stumble could prove fatal.

"There is nothing you can really do except prepare each week," Weidman said when asked how to react to that type of presure. "We have to expect to come out each week and prepare for the team we are playing and give ourselves a chance to win that game. If we can do that, there's not much else we can do."

Who knows. If things break right, the Thanksgiving Day games between the Pioneers and Hornets, and Hamilton Wenham/Ipswich could decide the crown.

Let's kick it off

Ipswich Preview
One thing is certain, the Ipswich Tigers are probably not the team you want to start the league season against. Especially not on the road.

The Tigers have slowly come back from a dreadful stretch of losing football and are once again a team to be reckoned with.

Part of what makes the Tigers so tough to deal with is that they run the Delaware Wing T offense. In Ipswich, you run that offense from the first time you strap on an oversized helmet in youth football. They've been running it for nearly 40 years and they do it better than anyone. It is an offense that takes advantage of quick traps, misdirection runs and double handoffs among other sleights of hand.

Depending on the type of quarterback they have, they also add in a sneaky good passing game. This year the Tigers are starting a freshman at quarterback in Nick Andreas, but he is not playing like a ninth grader. He is big at 6'0" 163 pounds and has a good arm. Andreas was hurt at the end of the Newburyport game last week so his availability is not known.

If he is in there throwing the ball, it makes it harder for the Pioneer defense to focus on Ipswich's quick running backs Peter Moutevelais, Derek Chamberlin, Cam Murray and John Elnagger.

The passing game involves receivers Louis Galanis, Chris McCormack and Pat Curran. Galanis can line up a receiver or running back.

They can move easily from the strict run-at-you wing T to the more wide open passing game.

Two all league linemen in center Chris Desmond and guard Peyton Primack anchor the offensive line.

In the past, what has made the Tigers difficult to handle is the fact that their offense was unique and trying to duplicate it in practice is difficult. The Pioneers won't have that problem since they are very familiar with the wing T having played five teams in a row (Amesbury, Bishop Fenwick, St. Mary's, Danvers and Pentucket) that use some variation of the wing. They have been preparing for and playing against this offense for over a month now.

That doesn't necessarily make it any easier to stop.

"They're pretty good," Weidman said of the Tigers. "They run the wing T well offensively. They are similar to Pentucket in what they do. They're very similar in terms of scheme goes."

Defensively, the Tigers try to get pressure on the quarterback, especially when playing a spread offense like the Pioneers. Moutevelis and McCormack key the defensive line from the end position. Linebackers Desmond, Chamberlin, Elnagger and Brenden Gallager are the linebackers.

"They've been good this year defensively," said Weidman. "They're real aggressive and their defensive line is really good. They'll scheme defensively to take our run away. They always do. They always do something a little different against us. That makes it tough because we don't always know what to game plan for. We'll have to see what they come out in and if they are really going to commit to taking away the run, we'll have to make them pay a little bit as far as throwing the ball in order to get them to cover people so we can run the ball. "

This will be the 43rd meeting between the schools, making the Tigers the Pioneers' second most frequent opponent. The number one rival is North Reading, the only team Lynnfield has played all 53 years the program has been in existence.

Overall, Ipswich owns a 26-16 advantage but the Pioneers are currently on a four game winning streak, outscoring the Tigers 94-24 in their last four meetings.

"They gave Pentucket every thing they could handle," Weidman said about the Tigers' 28-12 loss to the Sachems in which they trailed 14-12 going into the final quarter. "It's going to be a tough game."

Game time in Ipswich is 7 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Friday night for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Mauling Masconomet

2011-10-19T21:21:00.002-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

October 18, 1986
When you think of Masco today, you think of the biggest school in the CAL with the powerhouse football team. Such was not the case in the mid 1970's and 1980's. The Chieftains were regularly the league doormats and the Pioneers regularly trounced their neighbors off Route 95.

From 1977 through 1991, the Pioneers amassed a 13-1 record against Masco, outscoring them 446-142. The only Chieftain win in that stretch came in 1982. Following that loss, the Pioneers ran off three straight wins against Masco, including a 55-0 beating in 1985.

With the Pioneers coming into the game at the Middle School field 4-0 and Masco winless at 0-4, the Lynnfield faithful expected more of the same in 1986.

They were not disappointed.

After four tough games against strong opposition to start the season, the Pioneers got their first "breather" against the Chieftains.

Lynnfield cruised to a 14-0 halftime lead and built that to a 28-0 advantage before Masco put up a meaningless score in the waning minutes to make it a 28-7 final.

Co-captain Todd Coviello scored a pair of touchdowns (one yard, and 14 yards), junior Jason Mochi (9 carries, 74 yards) tallied on a 24 yard run and quarterback Dave Frontero hooked up with converted quarterback Jay Kelleher on a 12 yard TD pass to account for the Pioneer touchdowns. Frontero kicked all four extra points.

Linebacker Scott Yerardi paced a swarming Pioneer defense that held Masco in check all afternoon. Yerardi recovered a Chieftain fumble on the two yard line on a kickoff setting up the Pioneers' fourth TD. Mark Sutera and Bill Aldenberg recorded sacks and Steve Bucci picked off an interception for the second game in a row.

According to the account in the Villager by reporter David Angelini, the home crowd received a scare in the fourth quarter when Aldenberg went down with what appeared to be a serious injury. He was not moved and emergency personnel had to remove him from the field. Fortunately, the injury did not turn out to be as severe as first feared. Aldenberg was diagnosed with a neck strain, according to Angelini.

The win was the Pioneers' 12th straight, stretching back to 1985 and kept them in a first place tie in the CAL with Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich who both remained undefeated at 4-0 in the league. Lynnfield's overall 5-0 record lifted them into sole possession of the Division 3 Eastern Mass Super Bowl rankings

Next: The Pioneers travel to last place Pentucket.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 6

2011-10-17T10:25:00.004-04:00

Well that's it. The Preliminaries are over. Time to get down to business. The league race starts this week. But before we get into it, let's take a look at the final week of non-league play.

First, let's take a look at the standings.

Hamilton-Wenham came off its bye week with a vengeance, mauling Bishop Fenwick 46-13 to remain undefeated at 5-0. Although there wasn't much doubt, this final non league tuneup cemented the Generals as the team to beat in the CAL/NEC 4.

Trevor Lyons, the running back turned quarterback, did most of the damage for the Generals scoring five first half touchdowns and rushing for nearly 300 yards before heading to the sideline early in the third period.

The Generals rolled to a 46-0 lead before the Crusaders' Rufus Rushins scored a pair of TD's against the Hamilton-Wenham junior varsity. In all, the Generals rushed for nearly 500 yards in picking up their 10th straight regular season win.

The Generals travel to Manchester by the Sea to open their league season against the Hornets this Friday night. Barring a monumental upset of seismic proportions, Hamilton Wenham will strut onto the Middle School field a week from Saturday with a 6-0 mark looking to put away what might be their biggest obstacle to the league crown in the Pioneers.

Manchester-Essex was worn down by Northeast Regional in their final non league contest, falling to the Knights 26-7.

The Hornets hung tough with the two time defending Division 4A Super Bowl champs, battling through a scoreless first period and most of the second before giving up two late first half scores to go in at the break down 12-0. M/E kept it that way until early in the fourth quarter when they couldn't convert after getting a first and goal at the Northeast one yard line.

The Knights took over on downs and drove the field to go up 20-0 and seal the win. The Hornets came back to make it 20-6 but Northeast scored as the game ended to account for the final score.

According to the Nick Curcuru of the Gloucester Times, the game got ugly as the Knights were flagged for 120 yards in penalties, including seven personal foul or unsportsmanlike calls. According to Curcuru's article, Hornet coach Mike Athanas refused to allow his team to participate in the traditional post game handshake line, fearing that things might get out of hand.

The Hornets will be decided underdogs when they host Hamilton-Wenham to start their league schedule Friday night.

Georgetown suffered the wrath of Amesbury in their final non league tilt losing 33-6 at Landry Stadium. The Indians, still smarting from their four overtime upset loss to Ipswich, took it out on the Royals who suffered their fourth straight loss.

The Indians scored the first three times they touched the ball rolling for nearly 300 yards in the first half and putting this one out of reach quickly. They led 27-0 before Tyler Wade connected with Nevs Dana for the Royals' only score just before the half ended. Amesbury added a fourth quarter score to account for the 33-6 final.

Georgetown travels to North Reading to open their league season on Friday. The Hornets were off so will have had two weeks to prepare for the Royals.

Ipswich traveled to Newburyport for their final non league game fresh off their first win of the year in the overtime classic against Amesbury. They would not have a similar experience against the Clippers.

The Tigers started strong sacking Clipper quarterback Connor Wile on the first play of the game causing a fumble which Peyton Primack returned for a score. Before everyone was settled into their seats at War Memorial Stadium, Ipswich led 7-0.

It was shortlived as Newburyport answered with a quick march down the field for a score to tie it 7-7. Then Wile tossed the first of three touchdown passes to Brett Fontaine to give the Clippers a 13-7 lead.

The Tigers would not go away as they came up with another defensive score when Nate Glaster picked off a Wile pass and returned it 93 yards to give Ipswich a 14-13 lead. That would be it for the Tigers as the Clippers scored twice more before the half to go in up 27-14. Wile and Fontaine connected for the third time in the third period to make it 34-14.

The Clipper defense completely shackled the Tiger Delaware Wing T, which couldn't manage a score.

Ipswich returns to Jack Welch Field Friday to host the Pioneers in the league opener for both teams.

I'll have a full preview of that game on Thursday. Meanwhile, check back on Wednesday for my next post in my series on the 1986 Super Pioneers.

Pentucket Leftovers

2011-10-16T21:19:00.001-04:00

After allowing 729 total yards and 82 points combined to Danvers and St. Mary's in back to back games, the Pioneers made a significant change to their defense. Until this week, the Pioneers had been using three down lineman rotating D. J. DeGeorge and Zach Panzini in the lineup.

Against Pentucket, the Pioneers came out with four down linemen with both DeGeorge and Panzini joining tri captain Jonathan Roberto and Andrew Kibarian on the Lynnfield front. It was an inspired move by head coach Neal Weidman and his staff and the results were dramatic.

The Pioneers held an explosive Sachem offense to only 152 yards rushing and only one long TD drive. This was a Pentucket team that shredded a bigger Haverhill team for 342 yards rushing last week and the Pioneers clearly contained them. Using the four big linemen, Lynnfield won the battle in the trenches and that translated to a huge victory for the Pioneers heading into their league schedule next week.

It was especially important for the Pioneers to figure out how to stop the Wing T offense, since they will be seeing it again Friday night when they open up their CAL/NEC 4 season in Ipswich.

"It's good," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said about facing the same offense he will see next week. "We haven't stopped it until today. That's the first time we stopped it this year. It wasn't good leading up to this game. I didn't realize until the season started that we weren't going to be able to stop the Wing T until we couldn't in the scrimmage. Then we end up playing six wing T teams. But that's great. Now hopefully we can build on it and play well going into next week too."

You can get all the details in my game story in the Villager on Wednesday, but let's take a deeper look at Saturday's big victory over Pentucket.

Early Jitters
For the third week in a row, the Pioneers allowed their opponent to score first, and this time it was particularly disappointing. They held Pentucket to a three and out and had the chance to get out to a fast start. However, the Sachem punt hit sophomore Kyle McGah and Pentucket recovered on the Lynnfield 19 yard line. Five plays later the Sachems punched it in from the one to take a 7-0 lead.

"We gave them the first (touchdown) on special teams," Weidman said. "We should have fair caught it in the first place. Kyle was working his butt off to make a block and no one lets him know the ball is near him. You can't do stuff like that. Those are the things that we're slowly improving upon. We still have some things to clean up."

The Pioneers appeared to have recovered their composure as they immediately drove the ball down the field and looked ready to score the tying touchdown. However, McGah was stripped inside the five as he struggled to get to the endzone.

"We moved the ball down and fumbled," Weidman said. "Still the young stuff. Kyle ran the ball hard. He ran it great. He fumbled on the one yard line. He bounced it out and he shouldn't have. But that's just the things that sophomores do."

Tough Guy
Despite the early miscue, McGah continues to impress as he picks up the running load for injured tri-captain Mike Thomas. The young sophomore picked up 80 yards on 16 carries and is clearly getting more comfortable running the ball. He's run for 155 total yards the past two weeks and is proving to be a tough guy to bring down.

One run in particular demonstrated what a tough runner McGah is becoming.

Midway in the second period, a Pentucket punt pinned the Pioneers at the ten yard line. On first down, quarterback Mike Karavetsos handed McGah the ball at the six yard line. At the nine yard line, a Pentucket defender grabbed a piece of McGah's jersey but he shrugged that off.

A Sachem grabbed his leg at the 11 and he broke that one as well. He broke a third tackle at the 15, stumbled and nearly went down but put his hand down and regained his balance. He was hit low at the 20 and kept going then hit high at the 22. He finally started to go down and dragged both tacklers all the way to the 26.

End result? An impressive 16 yard run and a first down that got the Pioneers out of trouble.

"He's a nice little player," Weidman said. "He's got a low center of gravity. He's thick. He needs to develop a little more upper body strength but he's got big, thick strong legs. He's just young, that's all. He's getting a lot of valuable experience right now. He doesn't come off the field."

"Knute" Weidman?
Trailing 14-0 after two quarters, the Pioneers roared out after the break, scoring on their first three possessions of the second half to earn the come from behind victory.

What inspirational half time speech did Weidman deliver at halftime?

"The attitude was great," Weidman said of how his club was feeling at the break. "You know why? Because they knew they were playing better defensively especially. To be honest with you, win or lose that's what we were looking for. And I told them that. I said if you guys improve and do the things we ask you to do and improve on those things, we have a chance to win this game too. And we did. That's a good one for us."

The Pioneers were particularly sharp on the first drive of the third quarter. They marched 80 yards in nine plays capped by Mike Karavetsos' 30 yard TD run to cut Pentucket's lead to 14-7.

"That's huge," Weidman said of the drive. "I always tell the kids that the first possession of the second half is the most important drive of the game. Whether it is or isn't, I always tell them that at halftime because it can change momentum whether you have the momentum going in at the half or whether you don't. You can either keep the momentum or you can change the momentum. That's what we needed. We went down and the kids did a great job."

Standing Tall
As big as that TD drive was, the goal line stand on the following Pentucket possession was nearly as important.

After the Pioneers scored, the Sachems answered with a long drive that got them to the Lynnfield two yard line. On fourth and goal, Mike Soden fought off a block and dragged Sachem running back Cody Rothwell down short of the first down marker and the goal line.

"If they punched it in it's going to be real tough for us to come back," acknowledges Weidman. "That would make it 21-7 late in the third. That would be a difficult task. That changes the momentum. Then we turn around and get the ball back and go the length of the field and score."

Gamblin' Man
Another key play occurred on the winning drive when the Pioneers pulled off the successful fake punt with Alex Roper hitting Tyler Palumbo for a first down.

How hard was it for Weidman to make that call with a fourth and five from his own 35 yard line?

"I guess it was kind of hard but not super hard," Weidman said. "Honestly, it's a non league game. They were coming (to block the punt). We told them at halftime if we get a chance we'll call it and then let them know if we're going to punt it or run the play. (Pentucket) came (to block it) and came close a couple of times. It was good down and distance. Fourth and five. If we punt it back to them and if they drive the field the game's over.

"We had to use it eventually," he continued. "We've practiced it for four years and never used it. The good thing is that Alex is the backup quarterback but he plays (on defense). So you're not having a kid go in there cold and try to make a play. He throws the ball well. And he did the right thing too. (Palumbo) was wide open. (Alex) didn't try to over do it. He put a little air on it and got it to him. Tyler comes up big too. He's got to catch it and run with it."

Roped In
And speaking of Roper, the junior had a superb all around game. On the fake punt, he actually had to make a nice catch as the snap was down and to his left. He had to go down and get it.

Roper also played strong at his outside linebacker position. Containing the dangerous outside run game of the Sachems and also doing a nice job in pass coverage. At the end of the game on Pentucket's last ditch try to tie it, Roper knocked down two straight Kuchar passes.

And for good measure, he was three for three on PAT tries.

"He played a great game," Weidman said. "He's been doing well for us all year."

Dragon Slayer
Pentucket running back Nolan Dragon, who had 237 yards last week against Haverhill, was held to 46 yards rushing by the Pioneer defense. However, Dragon is also Pentucket's best defensive player, but was neutralized there as well. Weidman credited lineman Andrew Kibarian as being responsible for that.

"Defensively (Kibarian) was good," said Weidman. "But I tell you what, he was real good on the offensive line today. He got the best linebacker in that league (Dragon) blocked. Dragon didn't play much in the second half but in that first half he blocked him. There haven't been too many people blocking him this year."

Dragon hurt his arm sometime in the first half and played sparingly on both sides of the ball in the second period.

Be Careful What You Wish For
Pentucket is predominantly a running team. In their first five games, Sachem quarterback Ryan Kuchar threw only 23 times total. He completed 13 of those for 249 yards and that included a 95 yard TD pass.

However on Saturday, the Pioneer defense was so effective at stopping the Pentucket run game, that the Sachems had to go to the air. And they did a pretty good job of it.

Kuchar was 6 for 17 for 101 yards including a big 39 yard Kuchar to Jon Simard strike on the their second TD drive.

"They're very capable of doing both," Weidman said of the Sachem offense. "Obviously Dragon didn't play much in the second half. He got hurt which obviously is going to hurt their running game a little bit. He's a beast. He ripped off two 60 plus yard traps last week against Haverhill."

Karavetsos Measures Up

Going into the season, there was obviously a good deal of concern with the loss of a talented senior class. Among those graduating were quarterback Gino Cohee, who set the record for single season and career touchdown passes, is the number three scorer in LHS history and was named All CAL twice.

Stepping into those shoes was a tall order for junior Mike Karavetsos, but he has done a superb job running the explosive Pioneer spread offense thus far. With the season just over the half way point, I decided to compare Karavetsos' numbers to Cohee's first six games his junior year of 2009 and last season.

Karavetsos measures up very well.

In the first six games of his junior year, Cohee ran 75 times for 468 yards and 8 touchdowns. In the same period his senior year, Cohee carried 46 times for 338 yards and 4 touchdowns. During the non league part of the schedule, Cohee was not asked to run as much since he was nursing a balky ankle.

For his first games this year, Karavetsos has rushed 79 times for 531 yards and five touchdowns.

After the Pentucket game, another reporter remarked to Weidman that Karavetsos didn't look like he was running fast or hard but that he just kept picking up yardage.

"He glides a little bit," Weidman responded. "He's not overly powerful. Although for his weight he's very strong. He's just light. He worked really hard (in the off season). He never missed a lift. Not one. But he's fast. He can run. When he gets some green in front of him it's tough to catch him. He's shifty."

To that point, four of his five touchdowns are from 30 yards or more and two are 50 yards are longer.

As for passing, through six games in 2009, Cohee completed 40 of 74 passes (54%) for 487 yards, 4 TD's and 4 interceptions. Through six game in 2010, Cohee connected on 41 of 77 (53%) for 778 yards, 11 TD's, 1 two point conversion and 4 interceptions.

Through six games this year, Karavetsos is 50 of 87 (57%) for 861 yards, 8 touchdowns, 2 two pointers and 4 interceptions.

Quite an impressive performance for the first six starts of his career.

Silver Celebration

Saturday's win marked the 25th victory for Weidman as head coach of the Pioneers. It took him 40 games to do it.

He obviously doesn't pay much attention to those number since he was not aware of it and asked me "Is that good or bad?"

I told him it was better than his 25th loss. He responded "Do I have 25 losses?"

The answer is no. He is 25-15 overall, and 22-7 since the beginning of 2009.

For comparison purposes, former Pioneer head coach Bill Adams' (1985-94, 2000-07) was the fastest Lynnfield coach to get to 25 wins. It took him 30 games. Steve Sobiek (1958-66), the Pioneers' first coach got to 25 wins in 35 games. It took Bill Rodan (1969-84), the most successful Lynnfield coach with a 101-52-2 mark, 38 games to reach 25. Garland Johnson (1967-68) and Scott Brennan (1994-99) did not reach the 25 win mark.

Comparing Comebacks

The 14 point deficit the Pioneers overcame is the longest in the 23 seasons that I have been keeping records. The closest I could dig up in the past two decades came in 2007 when the Pioneers fell behind 12-0 to Lawrence, but came back to win it 30-24. Chris Grassi tossed a 30 yard TD to Jeff Milinazzo with a minute and a half left to nail down the win. It was one of only three victories for the Pioneers in 2007.

TEASE ALERT: If you want to know about the most famous comeback in Lynnfield High history, you'll have to check back in four weeks in my Wednesday series on the 1986 Pioneer Super Bowl team. That was one for the ages.

Senior Injury Bug

Senior Dan Ashwell suffered a hand injury in the first half and did not play the rest of the way. It's not known how serious it is but it's another senior that has suffered a injury that forced him to miss playing time. Seniors Thomas, Jonathan Rogers, Frank Coburn and Michael Doherty have already been lost this year to injury.

Notable:

- The 355 yards of offense against Pentucket marks the third time in the last four games that the Pioneers have topped 350 yards of offense. For the season they are averaging 304 yards per game.

- The win was the 15th victory at home for the Pioneers in the past 16 games.

- The victory snapped an 8 game losing streak against Pentucket. The last time they beat the Sachems was in 1997 when they prevailed 13-0. Lynnfield is now 17-16-1 all time against Pentucket.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow for my look around the CAL/NEC 4.

Comeback!

2011-10-15T16:45:00.000-04:00

A very impressive win for the Pioneers today at the Lynnfield Middle School field.

Trailing 14-0 at halftime, the Pioneers exploded for three TD's in the second half to take a 21-14 win from a tough Pentucket team.

This one had everything: Goal line stand, 99 yard touchdown march and successful fake punt on the winning drive among others. Get all the details in my Villager game story on Wednesday.

Another big day for Mike Karavetsos who had running TD's of 30 and 35 yards and another touchdown bomb to Steve Yobaccio, this one for 50 yards which turned out to be the winning score.

Hard running from sophomore Kyle McGah, outstanding all around performance from Alex Roper and stellar two way game from Andrew Kibarian led the way.

The biggest factor was a dominating two way performance from coach Gino Fodera's line. Tri-capt John Gaff and Jonathan Roberto, Kibarian, D. J. DeGeorge and Connor Lordan offensively and Kibarain, Roberto, DeGeorge and Zach Panzini on the defensive side. The Pentucket line was no match today.

Pioneers finished their non league schedule 3-3 and now prepare for their CAL/NEC 4 league opener against Ipswich next Friday night.

That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for my Leftovers post.

Pentucket Game Preview: Dragon Hunting

2011-10-13T17:01:00.005-04:00

All year I've been talking up Hamilton Wenham and their bruising running back Elliot Burr who has terrorized all H-W opponents thus far. He is big at 6'0 200 lbs and carries would-be tacklers like tin cans tied to his legs.

So what does that have to do with the Pioneers' game this Saturday against Pentucket?

Well, the Pioneers will get a chance for a sneak preview of Burr in Sachem running back Nolan Dragon. Pentucket's big fullback is about the same size at 6'1" 210 lbs, and just as tough. The Lynnfield defense is going to have to slow him down if they hope to upset the 3-2 Sachems.

Dragon almost single handedly slew Haverhill last week rushing for 237 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned an interception for a fourth score. In all, the Sachems rushed for 342 yards in the 41-21 rout.

In addition to Dragon, Pentucket also features halfback Cody Rothwell, who transferred in from St. John's Prep and presents a dangerous outside threat option to Dragon's inside pounding.

The Sachems fell to Marblehead 14-12 in their season opener and then allowed Hamilton-Wenham to roll for 214 yards on the ground in a 30-7 General win. But after falling to 0-2, the Sachems have now taken three in a row with wins over Danvers 19-0, Ipswich 28-12 and then last week's victory over Haverhill.

There are rays of hope for the Pioneers who return home trying to snap a two game losing streak.

Ipswich handled Pentucket for nearly three quarters, entering the final period down15-12 before the Sachems blew it open. The caveat there is that the Tigers had an advantage since Pentucket utilizes nearly the same Delaware Wing T offense as Ipswich, so the Tigers were defending the same offense that they see every day in practice.

Another potential good sign for the Pioneers is that although Pentucket appears to be difficult to run against, they have been susceptible to the pass. In particular in last week's game, Haverhill quarterback Tom Morgan, operating out of a similar spread formation as Lynnfield, completed 21 of 29 passes for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

In another crack in the Pentucket defense, Triton was able to move the ball against the Sachems last Thanksgiving. The Vikings, which basically runs the same offense as Lynnfield under former Pioneer assistant Pat Sheehan, had particular success with the quarterback pull and go, a play that quarterback Mike Karavetsos has run well so far this year.

Karavetsos has completed 57% of his passes in his first five games (43 of 75) with seven touchdowns and only four interceptions and a total of 770 yards. His leading targets have been Dan Ashwell (8 catches, 172 yards and two TD's), Alex Pascucci (10 for 151) and Steve Yobaccio (9 for 137, 2 TD's). Nico Varano has come alive in the past two games hauling in three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown.

With tri-captain running back Mike Thomas out for the season and the running burden falling on sophomore Kyle McGah, look for the Pioneers to rely on Karavetsos both throwing and running to compete with the Sachems.

Pentucket is returning to the Pioneer schedule after an absence of three years. The last time Lynnfield met the Sachems was in 2007 when they fell to Pentucket 28-13.

The Pioneers began their series with the Sachems in 1973 when both schools became members of the new Cape Ann League. They would meet annually for the next 31 years. Lynnfield dominated through 1987, winning 12 of the teams' 14 meetings. Things turned dramatically beginning in 1988 as Lynnfield's enrollment began to shrink while Pentucket became a large regional high school. The Sachems won 12 of the next 16 contests.

In 2004, the Cape Ann League divided into Large and Small Divisions, with each school only having to play three teams in the other group each year. The Pioneers got a respite in 2004 and 2005 but Pentucket was back on the schedule in 2006 and 2007, handing Lynnfield two more losses by the combined score of 53-28.

After 2007, the crossover games were no longer mandated and the Pioneers eliminated the Sachems from their schedule. This season, Pentucket is in the new CAL/NEC 3, and Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman added them in one of the moves toward making the schedule more challenging. The Sachems will certainly provide that challenge.

The Pioneers have lost eight straight to the Sachems going back to 1998. They haven't beaten Pentucket since a 13-0 win in 1997. That's another streak the Pioneers will be hoping to snap this Saturday.

This is the final non-league contest for the Pioneers (2-3) who will be looking to even their season mark heading into their league schedule.

Game time at the Middle School field is 2 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Saturday after the game for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Revenge in North Andover

2011-10-12T17:31:00.001-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football WayBack Machine

October 11, 1986

In 1985, the Pioneers had a wildly successful season, enjoying a CAL co-championship with an 8-1 league record. Overall they finished 9-1 and the lone loss ultimately cost them sole possession of the league crown and a trip the the Division Three Superbowl.

That one loss came at the hands of the North Andover Scarlet Knights by a 14-7 count at the Middle School Field.

In 1986, the two juggernauts again came into their matchup undefeated and the Pioneers were aching to avenge the only blemish on their 1985 resume.

However, revenge didn't appear to be on the menu at Hayes Stadium in North Andover as the game began. The Knights fired out of the locker room, took the opening kick and sliced through the Pioneer defense in a game opening scoring drive that took 60 seconds. NA's star running back Leonard Annalaro took it in for the score and though the PAT try was wide, the home team led 6-0 a minute into the game.

Unfazed, the Pioneers struck back with a quick strike of their own. Lynnfield quarterback Dave Frontero found receiver Ron Grasso with a 53 yard TD pass on the Pioneers' first possession. Frontero added the extra point and the visitors led 7-6.

The Pioneers then held the Knights on their second possession and again took over on offense. This time, the Lynnfield offense took the overland route, marching 82 yards for another score. Sixty of that was ground out by a punishing Pioneer running game led by co-captain Todd Coviello and junior Jason Mochi. Coviello capped the drive but the point after was blocked but Lynnfield was in control and in the lead 13-6 at the end of the first quarter.

According to the game story by Villager reporter David Angelini, the second period was much quieter than the first. Pioneer fans got to cheer an interception by Steve Bucci but the real fireworks erupted at the end of the quarter.

Lynnfield's Mike Pascucci forced a North Andover fumble and the Pioneers took advantage. Again Coviello led the ground attack moving the Pioneers to the Knight 18 yard line. With ten seconds left on the clock, Frontero drilled a 35 yard field goal and the Pioneers went in at the half leading 16-6.

Coviello, returning to full strength following his knee injury in the opening game, carried 12 times for 58 yards and a score in the first half.

The Pioneers controlled most of the second half. Coviello and junior Mark Sutera scored touchdowns to give Lynnfield a 29-6 lead. Meanwhile, co-captain Darrell Carty and John Dean led a defense that held the Knights in check until the later stages of the game.

Midway in the fourth quarter, Sam Comte scored for North Andover on an 85 yard runback and then came back to make it 29-18 on a late Annalaro score. That would be as close as they would get, however, as the Pioneers recovered a pair of onside kicks to seal the big win.

The victory kept the Pioneers perfect at 4-0 (3-0 in the CAL) tied with Hamilton-Wenham for the league lead. The win also catapulted Lynnfield into a first place tie with Concord-Carlisle in the Division 3 Super Bowl rankings. The Pioneers were ranked third in both points scored with 69 and points allowed with 37.

Despite the big road win, head coach Bill Adams channeled a future Bill Belichick and was not completely happy with the win.

"We are capable of playing even better football," Adams told Angelini following the game.

Next: The Pioneers host winless Masco.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 5

2011-10-10T17:14:00.001-04:00

The frontrunner (Hamilton Wenham) was off this week and will host Bishop Fenwick this Saturday, but there were some very interesting scores that put a whole new spin on the upcoming league race. First, let's take a look at the standings.

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The wildest and most interesting contest took place at Landry Stadium in Amesbury where the Ipswich Tigers picked up their first win in stunning fashion, beating the Indians 37-34 in overtime.

Going into this one, the Indians were heavy favorites with a 2-2 record. Both losses were close as they fell to Lynnfield by one and then lost a tough one to Hamilton Wenham 7-0. The Tigers, meanwhile have struggled, losing their first three games while scoring only 20 points total.

But that's why they play the games. Ipswich held a 6-0 lead at the half and were tied 20-20 at the end of regulation thanks to a late Amesbury TD. The Indians actually had a chance to win it right there but Ipswich's Louis Galanis blocked Mac Short's PAT try to send the game into OT.

Both teams scored in the first overtime and missed the two point conversions. Neither team scored in the second overtime. Both teams scored in the third overtime and converted the two pointers.

In the fourth overtime, the Tigers' Brendan Gallaher nailed a 24 point field goal to give Ipswich the lead. Then the defense held Amesbury on three downs forcing a Mac Short field goal attempt that was partially blocked and fell short.

Tiger running back Peter Moutevalis scampered for over 140 yards and five touchdowns.

The win could rejuvenate the Tigers and make them a force in the upcoming league race. The Pioneers will find out quickly. After Ipswich travels to Newburyport this week they get ready to open the league season by hosting the Pioneers on October 21.

North Reading improved to 3-2 with a 43-26 beating of Bishop Fenwick in a game that wasn't nearly that close. The Hornets rolled to a 36-0 lead behind another ridiculous performance from running back Carl Lipani. The junior averaged over 10 yards per carry in amassing 258 yards and scored five touchdowns. Lipani now has 12 TD's which not only leads Division 3A but is tied for second most in all of Eastern Mass. Vincent Burton of Blue Hills has 13 while two other players have matched Lipani with 12.

The Crusaders picked up 26 points against the Hornets' second team but this one was never in doubt. The Hornets are off this week and will begin preparation for their league opener against Georgetown on October 21.

Manchester Essex lifted its record to 3-2 with an exciting 21-18 win come from behind win over Austin Prep that came down to the final minutes of play. The two teams battled to a 6-6 tie heading into the fourth quarter when both offenses got in gear. The Hornets scored first to take a 14-6 lead but the Cougars answered with two touchdowns to edge past M/E 18-14.

With just over a minute to play, the Hornets faced a fourth and goal from the eleven yard line. M/E quarterback Corey Burnham threw a bubble screen to running back Jake Fitzgerald who picked his way through the Austin defense for the go ahead score. John Beardsley sealed the win with an interception of a Cougar pass.

The Hornets travel to Northeast this week for their final non-league tilt.

Georgetown fell to 1-3 after losing to previously winless Saugus 28-6. The Sachems built a 28-0 lead before the Royals scored their lone touchdown late in the game.They travel to Amesbury Friday night for their last non league game against what should be an ornery Indian team following their loss to Ipswich.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday for my next installment of the Super 1986 team series.

Danvers Leftovers

2011-10-09T17:00:00.005-04:00

Since preseason began, Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman has said that the only games that really matter are the CAL/NEC 4 games which begin on October 21. He purposely toughened up his schedule to get the Pioneers ready for their league season. He knew there would be some lumps dished out to his young squad as they went through this non-league learning process.

That said, the coach was clearly not happy with the performance of his team against Danvers.

"This was a winnable game that we lost," Weidman said following the wide open contest.

You can read all the details in my Villager game article on Wednesday.

"We started off lousy, came back scored three times then we let them regain momentum," Weidman said.

The Pioneers started off slow again as they did last week against St. Mary's, dug themselves a hole and this time nearly climbed out. They also allowed Danvers to roll up 370 yards on the ground, the third time in five games they have allowed over 300 yards rushing. Amesbury went for 329 and St. Mary's had 359. The Pioneers have allowed 1244 yards rushing and 433 yards passing in their first five games, a 332 per game average.

Weidman wants to see both those trends end with only one non-league game left before the league schedule begins.

Karavetsos Strong Again
Junior quarterback Mike Karavetsos had another huge game, throwing for 240 yards and two more TD passes. That gives him seven on the season. He has passed for 770 yards in five games. He picked up another running TD giving him three on the year to go along with a pair of two point conversions. Karavetsos is also the team's leading rusher with 364 yards, a 6.3 per carry average.

"This is only his fifth game starting," Weidman pointed out. "He's improving each week. He's doing a great job."

Running Back Change
The saddest person at Dr. Deering Stadium Thursday night was tri-captain Mike Thomas who was on the sideline with a broken collarbone that has ended his senior season. As the fireworks continued to explode in the fourth quarter, I turned to him and said, "Great game huh? I wish you were in there."

"So do I," he replied quietly.

Thomas' hard running will be sorely missed but he also leaves a hole on defense where he had been making an impact.

Offensively, sophomore Kyle McGah stepped in and had a solid debut against Danvers, rushing for 75 yards and two touchdowns. In addition to his increased offensive responsibilities, McGah continues to man one of the crucial inside linebacker spots on the Pioneer defense.

"We ask him to do a lot," said Weidman. "He's going to be really good."

Getting Into The Action
Senior Steve Yobaccio continues to get more involved in the Pioneer attack. He scored another touchdown this week on a beautiful 56 yard bomb from Karavetsos. He nearly had another late in the fourth quarter but he was downed at the one yard line after hauling in a 24 yard Karavetsos throw. In the past two games, Yobaccio had caught five passes for 105 yards and two TD's.

"We know we need to get him going so we made a conscious effort to get him involved," said Weidman.

Sound of Danvers
One of the treats of having the Falcons on the Pioneers' schedule is being able to watch and listen to the nationally recognized Danvers High Band. Over 125 strong, the Falcon band presents one of the best shows by a high school band in the area.

The Danvers band, which has appeared in the Rose Bowl parade among its many notable appearances, will be traveling to Honolulu in early December to represent Massachusetts and New England at the ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Offensive Output
Danvers and Lynnfield combined for 892 yards of offense with both teams going over 400 yards. That is the first time since I have been covering the Pioneers that such a feat has been accomplished.

The two teams combined for 30 first downs and 77 points.

That ties the record for most combined points in a Pioneer game. The only other time that happened was in the 49-28 Saugus victory over the Pioneers in 2008.

The Falcons and Pioneers combined for 11 touchdowns. Putting that into context, the game featured a touchdown on average every four minutes of game time. The game lasted two hours and 13 minutes so in real time, there was a touchdown scored on average every 12 minutes.

Quick Strikes
The Pioneers did not exactly practice ball control in this one as they were constantly in hurry up mode trying to catch the Falcons. Lynnfield's five TD drives in game time consumed 2:42, 0:45, 2:03, 1:26 and 0:42.

Sticky Fingers
The fourth quarter featured some remarkable catches by the Pioneer receivers. Nico Varano had two diving catches including one for his 16 yard touchdown. Alex Pascucci also had a diving grab as did Yobaccio.

Notable:
- In honor of Breast Cancer awareness month, members of both teams wore pink socks and towels.
- This was Danvers' first win over the Pioneers after suffering losses of 40-18 last year and 14-6 in 2009.
- For only the second time in school history, the Pioneers have allowed 40+ points in consecutive games. The only other time it happened was in 2006 when Lynnfield lost back to back games to Hamilton-Wenham 42-14 and Newburyport 42-7.
- The Falcons had a rough time with penalties being flagged 13 times for 82 yards. The Pioneers were penalized only twice for 15 yards.
- The Pioneers lost the time of possession battle 17:46 to 26:14.

That's it for now. Check back Monday night for my look around the league.

Shootout!

2011-10-06T23:29:00.004-04:00

Eleven touchdowns, 77 points and nearly 900 yards of offense.

Yep, I guess that would qualify as a shootout.

Unfortunately for the Pioneers, they ran out of bullets first as the Danvers Falcons outscored Lynnfield 42-35 in one of the most wide open high school games I have ever seen.

You can get all the details in my Villager game story on Wednesday, but suffice to say that neither team had their defensive cleats on.

The Pioneers fell into an early 14-0 hole, fought back with three unanswered touchdowns to take a 21-14 lead before falling behind again 35-21. They could never get the lead back as they traded haymakers with the Falcons for the rest of the way before ultimately running out of time.

It was another big night for quarterback Mike Karavetsos who threw two more touchdown passes and ran for another and also punched in a two point conversion.

Sophomore Kyle McGah, filling in for injured tri-captain Mike Thomas, scored twice. Thomas is lost for the season as a result of a broken collarbone suffered against St. Mary's.

Steve Yobaccio and Nico Varano each caught TD passes. Alex Roper was 3 for 4 on PAT tries.

Exciting but ultimately a dissapointing Pioneer loss.

That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for my Leftovers post.

Danvers Game Preview: Falcon Quest

2011-10-05T22:16:00.000-04:00

There should be no surprises when the Pioneers travel to Danvers to take on the Falcons for a rare Thursday night game this week. For the third week in a row, the Pioneers will have to deal with some variation of the run first wing offense.

Last week, the Pioneers got a heavy dose of the double wing attack of St. Mary's. Two weeks ago they saw a bit of the same with Bishop Fenwick. Three weeks ago, they took on the Amesbury offense which is predominantly Wing T. That is what they will primarily see from the Falcons.

Where last week the Spartans lined up with running backs in the wing position on both ends of the line with a fullback behind the quarterback, the single wing is a bit different. As the name implies, instead of having wings on both ends of the line, the Falcons will line up one of the Valles brothers, either Nick or Alex, on one of the wings. Two other running backs, the remaining Valles brother and fullback Jake Palazola, line up behind quarterback Paul Nicolo.

The wingback will sometimes go in motion and 95% of the time that is where the play is going. Sometimes Nicolo will pitch to a running back going wide or give to Palazola up the middle.

"They play a wing T similar to Amesbury," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "Bishop Fenwick ran a little of it as well. With a short week of practice, luckily we have see it already."

Unlike St. Mary's, Danvers will change up their formations. Sometimes they will come out in the double wing, or Double Valles. Other times they will line up in a pro set with three wide receivers and a running back behind Nicolo.

Also unlike St. Mary's, Nicolo will throw the ball, sometimes deep. Last week he only threw four times and connected on three, but all of them were for touchdowns.

They moved the ball well in a 21-7 loss to Peabody but killed themselves with turnovers and penalties in the red zone. Last week in a 47-14 rout of Saugus, they put it all together scoring the most points they have put up in 39 years.

Defensively they are very aggressive with a good defensive line that can get after the quarterback. In the loss to Peabody, they made it difficult for the Tanners to run their spread offense. Most of the Peabody offense came on broken plays and two of their touchdowns came on long runs.

The Pioneers' experienced line is going to have to control the line of scrimmage so quarterback Mike Karavetsos can operate the offense. Karavetsos is coming off two strong games passing, with four TD passes. He may have to attack the Falcon through the air to move the move this week.

Danvers come into the game 2-2. doubling their win total of last year. The dropped Winthrop 18-8 in their opener, then lost two in a row to Peabody then to Pentucket 19-0 before bouncing back last week against Saugus.

Last season, Lynnfield ran up nearly 400 yards of offense in 40-18 pasting of Danvers and you can bet they are itching to make up for that.

The Pioneers will be looking to bounce back after suffering a 40-16 beating by St. Mary's.

Weidman sees a benefit of the short week after that St. Mary's game.

"After a game like that, this is a good time to have a short week," he said. "Hopefully we'll play better on Thursday night."

Game time in Danvers is 7 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday night for my post game post.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Mochi Rescues Pioneers From the Vikings

2011-10-04T18:00:00.001-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football WayBack Machine

October 5, 1986

After two night road games to begin the season, the Pioneers returned to the Middle School Field on a bright, fall Sunday afternoon for their home opener against the Triton Vikings.

The Vikes came into the game also undefeated at 2-0 and the Pioneers steeled themselves for a tough CAL battle.

The Pioneers were bolstered by the return of co-captain running back Todd Coviello who missed the previous week's game against Newburyport. Though not yet at full strength, Coviello would prove to be a valuable weapon for head coach Bill Adams in this one.

But it was junior Jason Mochi who carried the offense, picking up a combined 121 yard rushing and receiving.

According to the account by Villager reporter David Angelini, neither team could get untracked offensively, but it was Lynnfield who finally got on the board in the second quarter. Coviello started the 94 yard scoring drive with a nine yard carry from the Lynnfield six yard line. Mochi covered 66 yards on the drive sandwiching 36 yards rushing around a 30 yard reception from quarterback Dave Frontero.

With a first and goal from the Triton eight yard line with 3:40 left in the half, Adams sent in Coviello. The senior "broke cleanly past a hole opened by linemen Chris Loomos and Darrell Carty," reported Angelini, "cutting hard to his right and thundering through for the touchdown."

Frontero banged through the extra point to give the Pioneers a 7-0 lead.

Triton threatened at the end of the half moving to the Lynnfield 15 yard line, but Frontero picked off an interception to end the Viking scoring bid.

The second half continued the defensive struggle, but Triton got a huge break when a bad snap from center on Frontero's punt attempt gave the Vikings a first down on the Lynnfield 35 yard line.

With the clock ticking down, the Vikings ground toward the Lynnfield goal line. With 25 seconds left, Triton fullback Eric Corkum blasted into the endzone from the one to cut the Pioneer lead to 7-6.

Triton coach Ron Corcoran elected to go for the win ("It was never worth questioning," Adams told Angelini after the game. "Why kiss your sister?").

Viking quarterback Rick Gardella took the snap, rolled left and threw to what he thought was a wide open receiver in Steve Wood. However, before Wood could haul it in, Mochi reached over his back and swatted the ball away to preserve the 7-6 win.

The victory raised the Pioneers' record to 3-0 on the season (2-0 in the CAL) and lifted them into third place in the Division Three Super Bowl rankings tied with Hamilton Wenham.

The Pioneers would have to hit the road again the following week for another expected hard fought contest against North Andover.

Next: A rematch with the 1985 co-champions.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 4

2011-10-03T18:35:00.002-04:00

Another full slate of non league games and we're now only three weeks away from the start of the league schedule. So let's see how the rest of the Pioneers' competition is doing. First, let's take a look at the standings.

Let's start with the prohibitive league favorite up route 128 in the Hamilton-Wenham Generals. I took in the H-W Amesbury game, the second time I've seen the Generals live, and they are a load. That said, they were only able to beat Amesbury 7-0, although they ended the game taking a couple of knees on the Indian seven yard line.

The Indians defense did play tough, keeping the Generals out of the endzone for the rest of the game after a long H-W scoring drive to open the game.

Both teams had ample opportunities to score, but two good defenses came up with the plays when they had to.

Amesbury intercepted General quarterback Trevor Lyons at the Amesbury 19 late in the first period and recovered a General fumble at the Indian six yard line early in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Amesbury played a similar game to the one in Lynnfield, moving the ball well, but making key mistakes in the red zone. They picked up 201 yards of offense but quarterback Matt Talbot was intercepted at the HW one yard line late in the second period, the Indians fumbled at the HW six early in the third and Talbot got picked off again at the HW 17 midway in the fourth.

General running back Eliot Burr continues to be a beast. He carried 29 times for 192 yards and their only touchdown. At 6"0" 200 lbs, Burr not only picks up huge chunks of yardage, but punishes anyone who tries to tackle him.

The Generals' other dangerous weapon, Lyons, continues to get more comfortable at quarterback after being a tailback last year. He ran for 69 yards but still struggled passing, completing only 2 of 7 passes for 24 yards and an interception.

And if the Generals' opponents didn't need more to worry about, H-W coach Andrew Morency had Lyons operating out of the spread on several occasions. You could see he wasn't quite with it yet, but if they are able to master that along with Burr out of the power I, the Generals will become even more dangerous.

The only warning sign for the defending CAL Small champs is the lack of depth on the General squad.

They suit up only 41 players, including 13 freshmen. They have 13 seniors but only 5 juniors.

Most of starters play both ways including Burr and Lyons, and according to my count, H-W used only 14 players against Amesbury. That could be a problem for H-W as they get deeper into the season.

But they obviously have the right players, since the win lifts the Generals to 4-0 against four tough non league foes. They have allowed only 13 points, a stingy 3.25 average.

Circle October 29th on your calendar. That is the date the Pioneers will take on this monumental challenge at the Middle School Field. The Generals have this week off then come back to host Bishop Fenwick and travel to Manchester Essex, so there is a pretty good chance that Hamilton Wenham will swagger into Lynnfield for the big showdown undefeated at 6-0.

Down at the other end of Chestnut Street, the North Reading Hornets evened their season record at 2-2 with a comeback victory over Austin Prep. Eric Valenti booted a 27 yard field goal to give the Hornets a 3-0 lead, but the Cougars responded with two unanswered touchdowns to take a 14-3 halftime lead.

The Hornets single wing offense took over in the second half controlling the ball for most of the final two periods. Carl Lipani, who ran for 170 yards, scored midway in the third period. The rush for two failed but NR now trailed 14-9. Later in the period, CJ McCarthy broke loose for a 33 yard TD and Lipani added the two pointer to give North Reading the 17-14 win.

The Hornets travel to Peabody Thursday night to take on Bishop Fenwick.

Fenwick should be revved up for North Reading coming off a 30-13 pasting of Georgetown who fell to 1-2 with the loss. The Pioneers handled the Crusaders easily last week and bottled up running back Rufus Rushins, holding him to only 38 yards rushing. Georgetown wasn't as successful as the freshman sensation ran wild against the Royals, rolling for 184 yards and three touchdowns.

Georgetown trailed 14-7 at the half and pulled to 14-13 in the third, but BF responded with 16 unanswered points to run away with this one.

Tyler Wade through for one TD and Matt Prescott had a 41 yard TD run for the Royals.

Georgetown hosts Saugus on Saturday.

Up in West Newbury, the Ipswich Tigers showed some serious signs of life against Pentucket on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers came in as heavy underdogs at 0-2 having scored only one touchdown and having been outscored, 66-8 in their first two games.

None of that mattered as they gave the Sachems all they could handle even though things started out badly for Ipswich. Cody Rothwell took the opening kickoff back 78 yards and gave Pentucket a 7-0 lead before all the fans were seated.

But give Ipswich credit. They roared back with their Delaware Wing T chewing up the clock and marching down the field. Senior Cam Murray capped a 63 yard drive with a nine yard run. The PAT was no good but the Tigers were back in the game at 7-6. They drove to the Pentucket six yard line on their next possession but a field goal attempt was wide and they still trailed by a point.

Again the Tigers held the Sachems forcing them to punt and Ipswich then blocked the kick. This time they capitalized when Peter Moutevalis scampered in from nine yards out to give the Tigers a 12-7 lead at halftime.

Pentucket came back in the third period to score and take a 15-12 lead. The Tigers tried to answer but early in the fourth period, Sachem Jeff Porter picked off Ipswich quarterback Nick Andreas to end the threat. Pentucket then rolled down the field to score and take a 21-12 lead. They would reach the endzone one more time to account for the 28-12 final.

Despite falling to 0-3, the Tigers will certainly gain some confidence from that first half when they outplayed Pentucket. The Pioneers will see the Sachems a week from Saturday then open the CAL/NEC 4 schedule with a trip to Ipswich.

The Tigers will be looking to break into the win column Friday night when they travel to Landry Stadium to take on Amesbury.

Finally, Manchester-Essex moved down two divisions to pick up their second win of the season in an easy 28-7 rout of North Shore.

Hornet running back Jake Fitzgerald had a monster day rushing for 241 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Corey Burhham added a one yard sneak for M-E's fourth score.

The Hornets scored on their first play from scrimmage when Fitzgerald broke a 96 yard run. Burnham's rush made it 13-0 on their next drive. They then pulled off an onside kick and scored again to build a 20-0 lead in the first quarter. They would get to 28-0 before the Bulldogs broke the shutout with a score in the final minute of the game.

M-E hosts Austin Prep this Friday.

One final note, Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings won their third straight game with an impressive 28-20 win over Masco and now stand at 3-1 on the season.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night for the next post in my series on the 1986 Super Pioneers.

St. Mary's Leftovers

2011-10-02T17:00:00.002-04:00

Before the season, Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman talked about Lynnfield's difficult non league schedule and getting his team "battle tested."

Friday night's game against St. Mary's was just what he had in mind when he toughened up the first six weeks of the Pioneers' season.

Yes taking a 40-16 beating is never enjoyable, and it's a lot more fun trouncing Cathedral 40-0. However, as we saw last year, waltzing through weaker opponents is not always the best thing for a team.

When the Pioneers were trying to turn around a program that had suffered through too many lopsided defeats to schools with double Lynnfield's enrollment like Masco and North Andover, putting some lighter weight opponents on the slate made sense. Confidence had to be built. The team had to learn how to win.

However, the Lynnfield program under Weidman is way past that stage. The seniors on this team have known pretty much nothing but success. Even after Friday night's loss, the Pioneers's record since 2009 is 21-6 with a league championship and a playoff appearance under their belt. They should be able to handle a loss like this to a quality opponent and learn from it.

And trying to keep up with a powerhouse like St. Mary's will do a lot more to prepare the Pioneers for upcoming tough league games against Hamilton-Wenham and North Reading than a five touchdown win over an overmatched opponent.

You can read my full game account in the Villager on Wednesday, but there are some observations about the game we should look at.

"Hopefully our game speed improved as a result of playing them," Weidman said. "We did start flying around a bit."

And despite the final score, there were some encouraging signs.

"At times we played it pretty well with what we were trying to do," Weidman said of the Spartans' dangerous Double Wing offense. "Everytime we squeezed the hole they were trying to run to they just took it in a little tighter. Those backs are real good. It doesn't matter how you play it they'll just take it in a hole sooner and they get right down hill on you. They don't need much. They jump over the pile. They're at three yards before you even bat an eye."

You could see the Pioneers struggling to keep up at the start of the game. The offense sputtered and the defense was clearly on its heels. But eventually Lynnfield got back into the rhythm of the game. After falling behind 24-0 early in the second, the Pioneers began to regroup.

"We tried to keep it a game there for a little while," said Weidman. "If we had gotten a stop and maybe another score, we might have been able to make it a little more interesting but we didn't."

After falling into that three touchdown hole, the Pioneers began to match St. Mary's scoring once at the end of the half and then on their first possession of the second half.

"I think we would have scored again if not for the fumble there at the end," Weidman said. "I felt if we picked up another score there and we got the two point conversion it would be 32-24 then we try an onside kick."

St. Mary's coach Matt Durgin was impressed with the play of the Pioneers.

"I thought Lynnfield played very tough," he told Bill Newell of Moorestuffonline.com. "They made us earn this win. They played right to the end. The score was not indicative of the game."

But the Pioneers could never get the stop they needed and ultimately, that was their downfall in this one.

Solid Peformance from Karavetsos

Junior quarterback Mike Karavetsos continues to improve and had another solid night against St. Mary's. His 12 for 19, 145 yard, 2 TD, 0 interception game earned him an impressive passer rating of 121.6 for the game (using the NFL formula). It was his second straight two TD pass game. He also carried eight times for 25 yards and a two point conversion.

For the year, Karavetsos is now 30 for 56 (54%) with 530 yards, 5 TD's, two 2 pt conversions and 3 interceptions. His passer rating for the four games is 93.6.

Just for fun, I plugged in the 1 for 2, 3 yards, 0 interception performance of Spartan quarterback Jonathan Capano to get his passer rating. The result: 56.5. Of course with running backs like Todd Collier and Cory Donahue, why would he EVER throw.

Night and Day

Since the 2009 season, the Pioneers have played nine night games out of the 27 played (33%). They are 5-4 (.555 winning percentage) in those contests. By contrast, their day game record is 16-2 (.888). Of course the night losses might have something to do with the competition rather than the lights. Those four losses, which represents 67% of all Lynnfield losses since the beginning of 2009, were to Wilmington, Austin Prep in the playoff game, Newburyport last year and St. Mary's Friday night. The only two Pioneer day game losses were to Hamilton-Wenham last year and Newburyport in this year's opener.

While on the topic of splits, the Pioneers are 13-1 at home since 2009, 8-4 on the road, and 0-1 on a neutral field. Again, level of competition comes into play. The road and neutral field losses were to Wilmington, Newburyport, Hamilton-Wenham, St. Mary's and Austin Prep. The Pioneers are currently in the midst of a three game road losing streak which they will look to snap this week in Danvers.

As for league and non league, the Pioneers are 10-2 in league play with their only losses coming to Newburyport and Hamilton Wenham last season. They are 11-4 in non league play. The losses were to Wilmington, Austin Prep, Newburyport this season, and St. Mary's.

Forward Looking

There is no disputing the effectiveness of St. Mary's powerful running attack. They ran the ball 53 times, not counting the two kneel downs at the end. Of those, the Spartans were held to zero or negative yardage only once and that was for negative 1 yard.

Part of that is the scheme, but most of it is the talent of the running backs.

"Typically when they run super toss between guard and tackle, a few times we squeezed it doing what we were supposed to do taking on the pullers right at the guard and they just jumped over the center and went there instead," explained Weidman. "They're good."

Carpal Tunnel

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I tweet in-game updates. Between charting the game and taking photos, I am only able to text scoring updates and I have to do that between the time the touchdown is scored and the ball is then kicked off.

The way the Pioneers have been scoring these past few years, I've had to get pretty quick on the keyboard to keep pace.

This year has been even more challenging with the success of quarterback Mike Karavetsos as you might imagine. When he connected with Steve Yobaccio Friday night for the Pioneers' second score I almost fainted. YOU try typing "Karavetsos to Yobaccio 9 yard pass" quickly. Then Mike hit Dan Ashwell for the two point conversion adding another quick typing challenge.

"Roper kick" is a lot easier.

I think I'm going to have to utilize "Quick Text" better.

Going For It

I asked the coach why he decided to go for it on fourth and five from the Spartan 46 at the end of the first period trailing 8-0.

"You have to score with them," Weidman explained. "You can't give them the ball back. We didn't make them punt. Unless you're pinned deep you have to make hay while the sun shines when you have the ball. We knew we were going to have to try and score with them."

Rare Two Pointers

St. Mary's nearly always goes for the two point conversion after touchdowns which they did five times Friday night. That forced the Pioneers to keep Alex Roper's PAT toe on the sideline after Lynnfield's two scores just to keep pace.

The Pioneers converted both times, the first on a Karavetsos rush and the second when the quarterback found Dan Ashwell with a pass. It was the first time in over 20 years that Lynnfield picked up two or more two point conversions in a game.

The last time it happened was in 1990 when quarterback Chris Sutera ran one in and then hit running back Steve Migliero for another in a 16-13 win over Masconomet.

Injury Bug

A growing concern is the spate of injuries that are beginning to add up for the Pioneers. The latest was a shoulder injury to tri-captain Mike Thomas that kept him out of most of the second half.

Player loss is starting to affect the defense as well. Sophomore Matt Kramich, who has been a special teams standout so far this year, saw a good deal of action at linebacker in the second half.

"We're down," Weidman explained. "No (Jonathan) Rogers, no (Jacob) Landess. (Kramich) is the next guy in. That's where we are at. He'll do a good job. He's going to be a good player."

Notable:

- Karavetsos' TD pass to Yobaccio in the third period was the 275th touchdown pass in the history of the Lynnfield High football.

- Only three penalties were called in the game for a total of 20 yards. One offsides call on the Pioneers and a holding call and a motion call against St. Mary's.

- Not surprisingly, the Spartans dominated time of possession, holding the ball twice as long as the Pioneers 29:35 to 14:25.

- The Pioneers have now been outscored 89-79 in their first four games.

- St. Mary's averaged 6.5 yards per carry (359 yards on 55 carries)

That's it for now. With the compressed schedule due to the Pioneers' game Thursday night, I'll be accelerating my posting. I'll take a look around the league Monday night, then post the next entry in my 1986 Super Season series on Tuesday and finally I'll have the Danvers preview on Wednesday.

Speed Bump

2011-09-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

Watching St. Mary's play football is like watching the NFL Redzone in fast forward on your DVR.

The Spartans' relentless double wing offense led by running backs Todd Collier and Cory Donahue, ran over, around and through the Pioneer defense for over 350 yards and 20 first downs in a convincing 40-16 victory at Manning Field tonight.

I believe Collier wore number 28 and Donahue was number 23 but it was really hard to tell since they were mostly a blur all night. The Pioneer defense worked hard, but those backs didn't need much daylight and when they got it, they were gone.

The Pioneers were able to put together a couple of nice scoring drives with Mike Karavetsos connecting on two more TD passes, a 30 yarder to tri-captain Mike Thomas and a nine yarder to Steven Yobaccio. Karavetsos also ran in a two point conversion and tossed a two pointer to Dan Ashwell.

In the end, St. Mary's proved to be too quick and athletic for the Pioneers. But being forced to try and stay with the Spartans can only help in the development of the young Lynnfield squad as they head further into the season.

You can read my full game account and and check out my photos in this week's Villager. And check back tomorrow night for my Leftovers post.

St. Mary's Game Preview: Get Ready for Rush Week

2011-09-29T17:57:00.001-04:00

After last week's 40-12 victory over East Boston, St. Mary's head coach Matt Durgin was joking with Daily Item reporter Steve Krause trying to recall the last time the Spartans had completed a touchdown pass.

"I don't know," Krause quoted the coach in his Item game story. "We threw the ball once last week...and it was incomplete. This week we were perfect. One pass, a completion...and a touchdown."

The Pioneers attempt and complete more passes in a quarter than St. Mary's attempts in several years.

This season they have scored 17 touchdowns in three games defeating Cambridge 35-0, Martha's Vineyard 44-22 and East Boston. Of those, 16 came on the ground.

But you can't argue with success. The Spartans are a perennial power in the Catholic Central Large, compiling a 10-1 mark last year and just missing the postseason.

They run a double wing offense, similar to the one that the Pioneers faced against Austin Prep in their 2009 playoff game. It is a patient, ball control offense that hammers away until it finds a crack and then one of their speedy backs breaks through for a big gain.

The formation is basic.

The line uses tiny splits where their cleats nearly touch.

Quarterback Jonathan Capano crouches low underneath center so the defense can barely see him. On the right wing, facing him at an angle is Cory Donahue (6 TD's, 2 conversions, 40 points). On Capano's left wing, facing him is Todd Collier (5 TD's, 4 conversions, 38 points). Directly behind the quarterback is fullback Xavier Gonzalez (3 TD's, 1 conversion, 20 points).

One of the backs usually shuffles into motion and then the fun begins. Capano can hand it off to one of the backs cutting inside him, he can quickly lateral it to the back who then looks for his hole, he can pitch it to one of the backs outside or he can give it to the fullback diving up the middle. Occasionally he may keep it. And once every couple of games, he will throw it.

Defenses have to stay at home, read their keys and be disciplined. If not, they will get burned instantly, especially by this quicksilver Spartan backfield.

"They're very good," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "They're super athletic and they score a ton of points. They have a ton of speed. They try to get the edge on you."

Defensively they are led by Collier, last year's Daily Item Defensive Player of the Year. They like to blitz and if you catch them, you can capitalize. East Boston caught them for one of their two TD's that way.

East Boston had some success moving the ball and there were some open pass plays, but their quarterback took advantage only occasionally. It will be interesting to see how St. Mary's handles the spread.

The Spartans have virtually no kicking game. They don't use a tee to kick off, instead laying the football on the ground like a loaf of bread and then squibbing it to the return team.

They have attempted only three PAT's and made only one. However, they are 11 for 14 on two point conversions.

The Pioneers will be looking to extend their winning streak to three while at the same time snapping a two game road losing streak. The last two Pioneer games away from the Middle School Field were losses to Hamilton Wenham and Newburyport last year.

After an easy win over Bishop Fenwick last week, the Pioneers will be much more severely tested against a quicker, more experienced, proven winner like St. Mary's. How they perform will be a good indication of how far they have come since the beginning of the year.

This will be the second meeting all time between these two schools. The Pioneers shut out the Spartans 36-0 in their only other meeting in 1991.

Game time at Lynn's Manning Field is 7 pm.

That's it for now. Check back Friday night for my post game summary.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Carty For the Defense in Newburyport

2011-09-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

September 26, 1986

There was consternation heading into the Pioneers' Cape Ann League opener following a lackluster non-league victory over Wayland to begin the season. Not only did the Pioneers have to open the league schedule against one of the preseason favorites, but they would have to travel to Newburyport to do it.

Lynnfield football followers have come to know War Memorial Stadium as the Pioneers' personal House of Horrors, and things weren't much better 25 years ago. Lynnfield had traveled to the "Home Port of the Clippers" seven times since the CAL had been formed in 1973, and the Pioneers had come away with only a pair of wins.

Making the task even tougher this night was the fact that the Pioneers would be playing without standout running back Todd Coviello. The senior co-captain hurt his knee against Wayland and was unavailable in this game.

Luckily the Pioneers had two co-captains.

Outstanding tackle Darrell Carty picked up the slack on defense to lead the Pioneers to victory. When the dust had settled, Carty had 13 solo tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. He led a tenacious Lynnfield defense that kept Newburyport out of the endzone until the last play of the game. For his efforts, Carty was named the Division 3 Defensive Star of the Week by the Boston Globe.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, a pair of juniors filled in admirably for the injured Coviello. Mark Sutera picked up 66 yards on 10 carries while Jason Mochi rushed 12 times for 51 yards.

The Pioneers banged on the door early, with a pair of first quarter scoring drives thwarted by interceptions on the four yard line and in the endzone. But Lynnfield broke through big time in the second period scoring three times to build a 19-0 halftime lead.

Dave Frontero got things started by recovering a fumble on the first play of the second period. On the next play, Frontero completed what he started by tossing a 48 yard touchdown pass to Mark Guido who glided into the endzone for the score. The PAT was blocked, but Lynnfield led 6-0.

A 22 yard punt return by Ron Grasso gave the Pioneers great field position at midfield on their next possesion. Nine plays and 49 yards later, Sutera finished the drive on a nine yard draw play. Frontero booted the extra point and the Pioneers led 13-0.

Head coach Bill Adams dipped into his bag of tricks late in the half when he called for a fake field goal on a fourth and goal from the nine. Backup quarterback and holder Steve Bucci took the snap, rolled to the left and drilled one to Mochi who slipped by a defender to get into the endzone. That gave Lynnfield a 19-0 lead at the break and it was clear the Clippers would not be coming back in this one.

The defense, led by Carty, Chris Loomos, Bill Aldenberg and David Aldenberg, kept the Clippers beached. They did punch in a score in the first, but the play was called back on a penalty and the Pioneers would not allow them back into the endzone. Newburyport got their lone TD on the final play of the game on a 16 yard pass.

The win lifted the Pioneers to 2-0 and into eighth place in the Globe's Division Three Super Bowl rankings, tied with Triton who knocked off 1985 co-champion North Andover 21-15. That set up a big early season showdown between the Pioneers and the Vikings in Lynnfield's home opener the following week.

Next: The Pioneers' home opener against tough Triton.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 3

2011-09-26T21:29:00.000-04:00

All five other teams in the league were in action as we reach the midpoint of the non-league portion of the schedule. First up, let's take a look at the standings

Hamilton-Wenham took another giant step toward cementing themselves as the prohibitive favorite in the CAL/NEC 4 with another dominating win. On Friday, the Generals went on the road in the rain and snuffed out Newburyport 18-6 for their third consecutive win.

The tandem of Burr and Lyons may sound like a law firm, but it is taking on more of a look of a funeral home for the opposition as a devastating one-two offensive punch for H-W. The Clippers held quarterback Trevor Lyons in check in the rain early and actually scored first. Newburyport quarterback Connor Wile found James Conway with a 12 yard TD pass to give the Clippers a 6-0 first period lead.

Then Burr and Lyons went to work. Normally, Burr does most of his damage with his bruising running, but in the second period he turned into a receiver. Lyons hooked up with him three times to get the Generals to the five yard line. Lyons ran it in for the score and after the try for two failed, the teams were knotted at 6-6.

Burr went returned to earth on H-W's next drive carrying the load as the Generals marched down the field for another score. Burr did the honors from the one. The rush for two failed and H-W led 12-6 at the half.

The teams remained scoreless throughout the third period and deep into the fourth. With just over three minutes left, the Generals drove to the Newburyport 20 where Lyons finished it off with a pass to Pete Duval on a fourth and eight. The PAT kick attemp failed but the Generals had wrapped up the 18-6 win.

H-W has now allowed only 13 points in three games and looms large as the league schedule gets closer. The Generals return home to face Amesbury on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile down the road apiece in the same rainstorm, North Reading battled Amesbury at Landry Stadium and for the second consecutive year, fell to the Indians in overtime.

The Hornets got 177 yards and a pair of TD's from Carl Lipani who lugged the pigskin 40 (yes FORTY) times. But it wasn't enough to overcome the home team.

Amesbury took a 7-0 lead in the first but NR came back to tied it in the second period on a Lipani one yard run. Eric Valenti tied it with his PAT and that's the way the first half ended.

The Indians took the lead in the third, but missed the PAT and led 13-7. The Hornets used a mind-numbing 11 1/2 minute drive to tie the score again and Lipani capped it with a two yard run with just over a minute to play. However, Valenti's kick was wide, setting up the overtime.

North Reading scored first on a miraculous pass completion from Jason Kellogg to Charles McCarthy on fourth and 14. Under the tiebreaker rules, you can't kick an extra point on the first series, and Lipani was stuffed on the two point try leaving them with a 19-13 lead.

Amesbury tied in on the second play of their series and then won it when Delante Castle took a pitch and ran into the endzone for the two points.

The 21-19 loss was the Hornets' second in a row as they fall to 1-2 in non league play. The Hornets host Austin Prep this Friday night.

Georgetown was on the road as well this week and fell to Whittier Voc 28-13 in Haverhill Saturday morning.

The Royals scored first on a Tyler Wade 11 yard pass to Colby Ingraham. The pass for two failed but Georgetown led 6-0. Whittier then took command, scoring four unanswered touchdowns. The Tigers led 20-6 at the half and 28-6 until late in the game. Georgetown added a touchdown when Wade connected with Thomas Zargaf for 39 yards. Wade added the point but it was too little too late as the Royals suffered their first loss of the year and fall to 1-1.

They play at Bishop Fenwick on Saturday.

Manchester-Essex fell to 1-2 with a 14-8 loss to Cathedral after allowing two second half Panther touchdowns at Hyland Field Friday night.

The Hornets actually had a chance at the go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute to play but a fumbled snap out of the shotgun killed the threat.

M/E controlled the first half and scored first on a six yard TD run by Chris Dumont. A bad snap out of the endzone by Cathedral gave the Hornets two more points and they led 8-0 at the half.

However, the Panthers came back to tie it in the third and take a 14-8 lead mid way in the fourth period. The Hornets couldn't get any closer though as Cathedral won it's third straight game.

M/E travels to North Shore this Saturday.

And finally, the troubles for the Ipswich Tigers continue. They fell to 0-2 after suffering a 26-0 beating at the hands of Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings who have now won two in a row after snapping their 12 game losing streak.

The Tigers have now been outscored 66-8 in their two losses. They have another tall task this Saturday when they travel to Pentuckert.

That's it for now. Check back Wednesday night for my next post in the series celebrating the 1986 Super Bowl season.

Bishop Fenwick Leftovers

2011-09-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

Now that was more like it.

After last week's...fortunate...win over Amesbury there was no telling which way the Pioneers would go. Would they have a false sense of invincibility or would they recognize their fortune and learn from the escape?

Clearly it was the latter.

"They watched the film (of the Amesbury game)," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "They knew they weren't good. I was confident they would come out and play better than we did last week. They probably played a little better than I thought we would."

You think?

The Pioneers crushed Bishop Fenwick, dominating the line of scrimmage and rolling for 408 yards of offense. You can read my full game account in this week's Villager, but Lynnfield started strong in this one and never looked back.

This was the first 400+ yard game for the Pioneers since last year's 30-13 comeback win at Amesbury. They only had one other game that topped the 400 yard mark and that was against Cathedral (421 yards)

This was a team possessed which had learned from the Amesbury game.

"Amesbury was tough," Weidman continued. "They came ready to play last week. They were real physical. We didn't have a great week of practice last week and we played like we practiced. This week was better in practice and we played better. I keep telling those guys that they have to recognize that correlation that they practice better then they play better."

Weidman also cautioned that Bishop Fenwick was not Amesbury.

"Fenwick is a real young team," he said. "They do have a couple of players or kids that are going to be players. (Freshman Rufus Rushins) is a tank and (sophomore Eric Razney) is real quick and will be a nice one. (Sophomore quarterback Nick Bona) is young, but is going to be a good player. He's tough and fast."

It was also mentioned that the Pioneer line had a distinct size advantage over the smallish Crusader line.

"That's always a struggle for smaller schools," he replied. "Finding some bigger kids that are willing to play offensive line."

Weidman also said that getting the first win last week was a contributing factor to how well the Pioneers played against Fenwick.

"That's part of it," Weidman explained. "Gaining some confidence from the fact that they won it. The first one is the hardest one.

Explosive Start
The Pioneers put this one away early, taking the fight out of the Crusaders in the first quarter with two surgically brutal scoring drives. In leaping out to a 13-0 lead, the Pioneers gained 156 yards on 19 plays (8.2 yard per play average). More than half the plays (11) were good enough for first downs (9) or touchdowns (2). While the Pioneers were mowing them down in those first eight minutes, the Crusaders managed to run three plays for eight yards.

"You like to be able to put points up early and take advantage of that," said Weidman. "Getting off to a fast start has always been good for us. Whenever we get out to a fast start, we usually play pretty decent."

Thomas Tallies
After being held out of the endzone in the Pioneers' first two games, tri-captain Mike Thomas got into the scoring column early in the third on a nifty 13 yard run. It would have been his second TD of the game if not for a bizarre play on Lynnfield's opening score.

On Lynnfield's opening drive, Thomas rumbled through one of the many holes the Pioneer offensive line ripped in the Fenwick front wall and appeared headed for a 14 yard score. However, the ball was stripped at the three yard line, then bounced straight up into the grateful arms of Alex Pascucci who took it into the endzone to get credit for the score, the first of his varsity career.

Thomas looked much more dominant in this game, punishing defenders and dragging would be tacklers. That included one play that resembled a rugby-like scrum where a hive of nearly all 22 players bounded about 10 yards toward the Pioneer goal line. Thomas finished with 113 yards on 16 carries.

"He ran well and carried some people," Weidman said. "He ran hard. It was hot and humid so we had to get some guys some breaks but he was good."

Redemption Island?
Senior Dan Ashwell had a breakout game which Weidman acknowledged.

"He had a good game," the coach said. "Two TD catches and an interception and a couple of nice tackles. He dropped that pass in the endzone last week and I think he wanted to redeem himself."

Ashwell's two scores came on passes of 45 yards and 75 yards from Mike Karavetsos. On both plays the speedy senior simply ran by the Fenwick defense and Karavetsos led him perfectly both times.

It was the first two touchdown reception game by a Pioneer receiver since Rick Berardino did it against Georgetown a year ago.

Karavetsos Coming
Weidman also noted the improvement in Karavetsos, his junior signal caller.

"He's getting better each week and that's the goal," Weidman said. "He's getting over being super nervous to start the game and he's starting to take some time to get some experience. The kid's come a long way. He's not only come a long way since he was a freshman, but he's come a long way since the start of this year."

The running game has been there for him all year and he is the Pioneers' leading ground gainer with 234 yards in three games. He's averaging 7.1 yards per carry.

But it's his passing game that has improved most dramatically. After a 2 for 9, 12 yard performance against Newburyport, Karavetsos put up an 11 for 18, 214, 1 TD, 2 Interception performance against Amesbury which could have included more completions and touchdowns if not for a couple of dropped passes. Then last week, the junior was 5 for 10 for 159 yards, 2 TD's and 1 int.

Being a stat freak, I decided to dust off the NFL's passer rating formula to see how those performances tracked.

Against Newburyport, Karavetsos put up a 26.16 rating. Then against Amesbury that jumped to 74.77 and then against Fenwick it leaped to an impressive 135. For the year, Karavetsos has a 79.22 passer rating.

For comparison purposes only, former Pioneer quarterback Gino Cohee had an 84.47 rating as a junior in 2009 and a 99.13 last year as a senior.

Palumbo Power
Junior Tyler Palumbo made his presence felt all over the field on both sides of the ball against Fenwick and is fast becoming one of the Pioneers' more consistent players.

Palumbo had several key pass breakups in coverage from his linebacker spot, was in on many tackles and had a couple of quarterback pressures on blitzes. On offense, he had a couple of carries, caught a two point conversion pass and threw several key blocks. He was also in on several special teams tackles.

"He started as a sophomore last year, one of only three starters back," said Weidman. "We expect him to do well and he is. He's a tough kid. He's not very big but he's pretty tough."

Special Teamers
Speaking of special teams, a couple of youngsters made their impact felt on kick coverage Saturday.

Sophomore Matt Kramich and freshman Alex MacLachlan each had a pair of special teams tackles hustling down field to help stifle the Fenwick return game.

Kramich has been doing it in all three games beginning with the opening kick of the season when he stuck the Newburyport kick returner.

Home Stand Over
The Pioneers' completed their three game homestand with a 2-1 mark. They now head out on the road for visits to St. Mary's in Lynn and Danvers for night games the next two weeks.

They have now played four straight home games going back to Thanksgiving Day last year. Their last road game was the nightmare, last second loss to Hamilton Wenham last November.

The last time the Pioneers opened a season with three straight home games was in 2006. That year, they lost to Georgetown and Matignon, then beat Hull before heading out on the road.

Notable:
- A special Ronald Reagan Centennial coin was used for the opening toss. It was part of a nationwide ceremony to honor the late president for the 100th anniversary of his birth.
- The 35 points scored by Lynnfield was the most for the Pioneers since the 41-0 beatdown of Ipswich last November 6.
- The Pioneers are now 2-0 against Fenwick having outscored the Crusaders 77-29. However, with all the young talent Fenwick has, something tells me these games will be much more competitive if the series continues next season.
- The Pioneers played without last week's receiving standout John Rogers who now has several pins in his thumb. It is not known when he will return.
- They also played without linebacker A. J. Gallo, last week's hero for his game winning fumble recovery. Gallo was suited up but was in bed with strep throat most of the week, according to Weidman.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night when I take another look around the CAL/NEC 4.

Breakout

2011-09-24T15:22:00.000-04:00

The young Pioneers put their first major imprint on their 2011 season this afternoon with an impressive 35-8 blasting of the Bishop Fenwick Crusaders at the Lynnfield Middle School Field.

The Pioneers rolled up 350+ yards in the first three quarters enroute to the victory that ups their record to 2-1.

Quarterback Mike Karavetsos led the way both running and throwing including two long touchdown connections with Dan Ashwell. Tri-captain Mike Thomas, Kyle McGah and Alex Pascucci added rushing touchdowns, Karavetsos hit Tyler Palumbo for a two point conversion and Alex Roper drilled three PAT's to account for the scoring.

The Pioneer line dominated both sides of the ball and the Lynnfield defense continues to grow, forcing the beleaguered Crusaders into six turnovers.

You can read my full game account in this week's Villager and check back tomorrow night for my Leftovers post for much more on the game.

OD's Run

And finally don't forget about OD's Run which will be held tomorrow, Sunday, September 25 at 10 am at Lynnfield High School.

The annual 5K memorial road race and walk is held to raise funds for scholarships awarded in memory of Johnny "OD" O'Donnell. Johnny is a former Pioneer football player and this event is a tribute to his short life.

For more information contact Karen Mahon at (508) 528-1286, odsrunwalk@comcast.net or www.odsrunwalk.weebly.com.

I hope to see you there.

Bishop Fenwick game preview: Schizophrenia

2011-09-22T13:21:00.009-04:00

To say the Bishop Fenwick offense is in transition would be an understatement.

In last year's 42-21 Pioneer victory over the Crusaders, Bishop Fenwick ran the spread offense similar to Lynnfield's. They had an experienced senior quarterback in Bret Kidik who threw for 2711 yards and 23 touchdowns on the season and a receiver in Ryan Lipka who caught a record setting 115 passes.

Despite the high octane passing game, BF struggled through a 3-8 year. Kidik, Lipka and 12 other seniors have graduated, and the Crusaders are going with a youth movement.

They have also ditched the spread offense and now focus on the ground game from the I formation. Unless they go into their Wing T offense, a long time favorite of BF coach Dave Woods. Suffice to say, they pose a lot of preparation problems.

"They do a whole bunch of stuff that we're going to have to prepare for," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "They're in the spread a little bit, the wing T a little bit and the I a little bit. They do a ton of stuff."

In their first two games, both losses, the Crusaders ran the ball 95% of the time. That would be expected with a sophomore quarterback in Nick Bona at the controls. Although he was named a captain as a sophomore, he is still feeling his way with the varsity, and in 34-14 loss to Northeast and a 20-0 defeat to Weston, Woods was hesitant to put the ball in the air.

Against Weston, they trailed 14-0 at halftime and came out running in the second half. Even falling behind 20-0, they continued to run the ball.

Which brings up another oddity about Fenwick. They are not very big, except in the backfield. Their two monster runnings backs are Fran Hannon (6'1" 210 lbs) and freshman Rufus Rushins (6'1" 220) (and isn't that the perfect name for a running back.)

However, their offensive line averages 5'10, 192 lbs.

Their game plan is to clearly pound the two running backs out of the I formation. They like the quick give to Hannon who is the up man in the I. If he doesn't get the ball, he becomes the biggest lineman on the field opening up holes for Rushins, or Eric Razney, another back that sees a lot of action.

Against the big line of Northeast, which the Pioneers tangled with in their scrimmage, Fenwick could not get much going from the I. NE defensive coordinator Joe Papagni put seven or eight men in the box to stop the running game, daring the Crusaders to pass. They never did, but they did switch to the wing T (think Amesbury and Ipswich with inside handoffs and reverses) in the second half and had a little more success.

Against Weston, they ran the I most of the game, and sustained several long drives but were unable to score.

Defensively, Fenwick was no match for the Northeast roadgrader offensive lineman and the Knights jumped out to a 20-7 lead. The Crusaders closed to 20-14 but NE blew it open in the fourth quarter as they wore down the smaller Fenwick line and won going away.

Weston runs the spread like Lynnfield. They didn't throw often, although they did score on a 36 yard TD pass. They did have good success with the quarterback running on the pull and go play out of the spread. Their first two touchdowns came on that play and they also had several other big gainers that way.

With the way Mike Karavetsos has been deftly handling the fakes, look for him to do some damage running the ball.

Which brings us to the Pioneers, which has also shown a split personality so far this year.

Against Newburyport, they ran for 173 yards but only had 12 through the air. But last week against Amesbury, Karavetsos had a breakout day completing 11 of 18 for 214 yards and a TD but they could manage only 44 yards rushing.

They will be looking to get the best of both worlds against Fenwick.

The key will be controlling the two big Fenwick backs and forcing them to go to the air, which they have been reluctant to do. If the Pioneers allow the bruising runners to run wild, that would mean trouble for the locals. Offensively, they need to continue to fine tune the spread and convert some of the plays that Weidman felt were there against Amesbury.

Game time at the Middle School field is 11 am.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Lynnfield Cuts Through the Fog in Wayland

2011-09-21T17:52:00.009-04:00

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

The LHS Football Wayback Machine

September 19, 1986

From the Lynnfield football program's inception in 1958, the Pioneers traditionally opened the season against Wayland, a fellow member of the Dual County League in the early years. When Lynnfield left the DCL to join the Cape Ann League in 1973, the Pioneers continued to play the Warriors in their non-league opener. In 25 previous meetings, the Pioneers held a slim 13-12 edge. However, the Pioneers dominated in the first half of the 1980's. They came into the 1986 game riding a 5-0 streak against the Warriors, outscoring them 95-14 and shutting them out three times. They were coming off a 28-6 win in 1985.

It would not be so easy in the 1986 opener.

According to the account by Villager reporter Rob Irion, the Pioneers literally and figuratively played in a fog for most of the night. On a wet field in Wayland, playing in a persistent mist, the Pioneers could never really get untracked.

The Warriors stunned Lynnfield on their opening possession marching 43 yards for a score on a 9 yard pass play. The PAT failed, but the home team jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead.

It looked like the Pioneers would answer when Bill Aldenberg recovered a Wayland fumble at the Warrior 36 yard line as the first quarter ended. Runs by co-captain Todd Coviello and Jason Mochi got it to the 16 yard line but Coviello was stopped on a fourth and one and the Pioneers couldn't score the equalizer.

The defense came to the rescue later in the second period when junior tackle John Dean sacked the Wayland quarterback twice to pin the Warriors on their own 11 yard line. The ensuing punt gave the Pioneers the ball in great field position on the Wayland 42.

Mochi carried to the 25 for a first down. Then quarterback Jay Kelleher pitched to Coviello who rocketed down the right sideline to knot the score at 6-6. A bad snap botched the extra point try but the teams went in at the half tied 6-6.

Compounding the Pioneers' struggles was the loss of Coviello, who spent the second half on the sideline icing his knee. He told Irion "I made a cut on a run and strained my knee. I won't risk it tonight, but I'll be back next week."

Keller was 0-4 in the first half, so Adams decided to change things up in the second half and inserted Dave Frontero at quarterback.

"We just wanted to mix things up," Adams told Irion. "Frontero's a much shiftier kid. It wasn't to slight Jay. He might be back next week. He threw the ball well in the first half."

With Coviello sidelined, the running burden fell to Mochi who responded. He picked up 67 yards on the night, most of those in the second half.

The defense struck again when Scott Yerardi recovered a fumble on the first play of the second half. A holding penalty backed the Pioneers to mdfield, but that didn't phase Mochi who took a pitchout and raced 50 yards for an apparent go ahead touchdown. The score was nullified on a clipping call which did not please Adams.

"That was called when Jason was 25-30 yards downfield," Adams said.

The Pioneers broke through late in the third quarter when Frontero found Mark Sutera with a 16 yard scoring pass. Frontero looked to pass for the two point conversion, but instead ran through a gaping hole on the right side to make it 14-6.

But Wayland made one last valiant attempt.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Warriors marched to the Lynnfield 4 yard line. They had four chances to punch in the potential tying score, but the defense was having none of it.

On first down, Sutera dropped the Wayland quarterback for a one yard loss. After an incomplete pass on second down, co-captain Daryl Carty swatted down a pass on third down. Then on fourth down, Frontero made a diving breakup of a pass in the endzone to preserve the win.

"I'm really happy to get out of here with a win," Adams told Irion after the game. "We knew they were a tough team but I didn't think it would be this tough. The way they played, theoretically, we should have lost."

Escaping with a non-league win was one thing, but a more serious problem loomed for the Pioneers: the condition of running back Todd Coviello. Adams didn't agree with Coviello's rosy proclamation that he would be ready for the league opener the following week. Adams had a terse, one word answer when asked if Coviello would be available for the important league opener against Newburyport.

"Doubtful," Adams said succintly.

Next: Under the Friday Night Lights for the league opener in Newburyport.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com

Around the CAL/NEC 4: Week 2

2011-09-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

All non-league games again this week. Georgetown was off but everyone else was in action.

First let's take a look at the standings.

If there was ever any doubt, there is more evidence this week that the big gorilla on the CAL/NEC 4 block is Hamilton Wenham. For the second week in a row the Generals defeated a former CAL Large and current CAL/NEC 3 opponent to up their record to 2-0.

This week they thumped Pentucket 30-7 which should definitely throw a scare into the hearts of the rest of the CAL/NEC 4. Granted the Sachems were without their big running back Sean Brennan, but I'm not sure he could account for the entire 23 point difference. More concerning than the score was the fact that Pentucket coach Steve Hayden told Dan Harrison of the Salem News that "physically they were better than us."

That is high praise indeed from the coach of a team that prides itself on steamrolling opponents with a relentlessly physical Wing T ground game.

The Sachems opened the game with their usual "death march" running attack, methodically driving 67 yards in 8:18 with DJ Engelke pounding in from the three. But that would be all Pentucket would celebrate on the day.

The Generals responded on their first drive with a 23 yard Elliot Burr TD that made it 7-6. They then quickly converted two Pentucket fumbles in their own territory into another pair of scores. Trevor Lyons hit Matt Putur with a six yard screen pass for the first TD then ran it in for the two. Burr made the Sachems pay for the second turnover with a one yard blast. Lyons and Putur converted the two and before you could say "defending CAL Small Champs", the Generals led the stunned Sachems 22-7.

Lyons added the final score in the second half on an eight yard rush and Burr added the two point conversion to account for the final score.

Apparently the Generals' only weakness is lack of a kicking game since after missing the PAT on the first TD they went for two every other score. That Achilles heal would have come in handy last year when H-W beat the Pioneers on a last minute field goal, but no use crying over spilled pigskin.

The Generals travel to Newburyport Friday night in what looks to be a VERY interesting contest.

And speaking of World War Memorial Stadium, North Reading sailed into the "Home Port of the Clippers" last Friday night and had their brand new single wing offense stuffed and mounted. Newburyport picked up where they left off against the Pioneers and swatted the Hornets 28-6.

North Reading moved the ball well with their tight split blocking schemes against Saugus last week, but found little running room against the Clippers.

"They went seven guys on the line and they're very, very good skilled kids," Wall told me on Saturday. "They were letting them fly around and make plays."

Newburyport's first team defense stymied outstanding Hornet running back Carl Lipani until they had built up a 28-0 lead. With the Clipper second team defense in, NR mounted their only scoring drive with Lipani picking up most of the yardage including their only TD.

Wall obviously did his homework and watched as Clipper QB Connor Wile and receiver Brett Fontaine put up big numbers against the Pioneers last week. His defense was set up to stop the passing game but Fontaine instead did it on the ground, collecting 136 yards rushing, mostly on sweeps from his end position.

"They had one good pass on a broken play and got a lot of yards on that," Wall said. "Other than that I thought we had him stifled but then they handed him the ball. Credit to them. They're big up front, very physical and great skill kids."

So how are things going with the Hornets and their new offense?

"Until (Friday night) I thought it was going real well," said Wall. "We still saw some things that were there but then they were just more physical. You say 'well we can run this' and then they just stuff it. They had a good scheme going. When they're bigger and they're going to play more physical, it doesn't really matter what offense you run."

"We're young and that's part of our problem," he continued. "And it showed (Friday night). We only started two seniors on defense. It looks good for the future, but how many 28-7 drubbings do you have to take."

The Hornets (1-1) will try and get back on the winning track when they travel to Landry Stadium in Amesbury this Friday night.

Manchester-Essex (1-1) broke into the win column for the first time with a 23-19 seesaw battle at CAL/NEC 3 Saugus. The lead changed hands six times as the two teams exchanged haymakers back and forth.

The big gun for the Hornets was junior running back Jake Fitzgerald who had a pair of touchdowns. M/E led 7-6 on a pass from Corey Burnham to John Beardsley. They took the lead back 15-12 on an eight yard run by Fitzgerald then notched the game winner on a one yard plunge by Fitzgerald.

Former Pioneer defensive coordinator Greg Haberland was in attendance and said that the Hornet line was big and opened some nice holes for Fitzgerald.

The Hornets host Cathedral on Friday night.

Ipswich (0-1) stumbled out of the starting gate with a 40-8 loss to CAL/NEC 2 Marblehead.

The young Tigers, who graduated over a dozen seniors, was pinned in its own territory most of the night as the Magicians pulled out to a 40-0 lead. They avoided the shutout thanks to a Peter Moutevelis 81 yard kickoff return.

Things don't get much easier for Ipswich this week when they travel to Triton to take on Pat Sheehan's Vikings.

And finally, speaking of Sheehan, congrats to the former Pioneer offensive coordinator and captain as his Vikings finally broke through snapping a 12 game losing streak with a 28-27 squeaker against Haverhill.

The Vikes gave up 301 yards to Hillie running back Chance Brady and had to stop a two point conversion try in the middle of the fourth quarter to secure the win, but they got it done.

"It's a huge weight off our shoulders," Sheehan told me. "The kids were real excited."

That's it for now. Check back Thursday for my preview of this week's Bishop Fenwick game.

Amesbury Leftovers

2011-09-18T19:32:00.003-04:00

Anyone relatively new to following Lynnfield High football should not take yesterday's win for granted. Despite being outplayed, the Pioneers were able to make enough plays to win.

Not too long ago, these were the games Lynnfield routinely lost. That is a credit to how far the program has developed under head coach Neal Weidman. Winning is an attitude and that has much to do with the way the Pioneers were able to pull out a win that probably should have been a loss.

Which is not to say the head coach was very happy with the way his squad played.

"We were out there too long," he said after the game. "They made too many first downs. Did we run an offensive play in the second half?"

Weidman was being facetious but he wasn't far off. The Pioneers ran ZERO offensive plays in the third quarter and nine overall in the second half.

"The defense made the plays when they needed to, but we have to get off the field on third down," Weidman continued. "We're not doing a good job that way. Too many third and shorts and too many big plays on third and long."

Amesbury was 6 for 13 on third down and 2 for 5 on fourth down. The three misses on fourth down came at the Lynnfield one yard line, 21 and on the final play of the game.

I asked the coach if Amesbury was doing anything special to allow them to run up nearly 400 yards of offense.

"They were blocking us," he deadpanned.

But he did give credit to the Amesbury running game which features waves of backs coming at you.

"They're good," Weidman said. "They run the wing T and they run it well. They're young but you can tell they have kids that are into it."

The Indians had four runners with over 50 yards. Quarterback Matt Talbot (82), Delante Castle (65 and two TD's), CJ Collin (60) and Stephan Deas (58). Fullback Perry Mroz had 36 and sophmore Ben Cullen had 28. That's a lot of production.

That explains why they were able to hold the ball three times as long as the Pioneers Saturday.

"It was ridiculous," said Weidman. "We've got to get off the field on defense. We've got to figure that out."

I asked Amesbury head coach Thom Connors how they were able to run so well against the Pioneers.

"We think we have a good running game," Connors told me. "We stick with it. We practice it a lot. It's pretty simple. We were just able to move the ball. They were giving us a few things that we were able to take advantage of."

Weidman wasn't too happy with his offense either.

"We dropped two passes that should have been touchdowns," he said. "We are not capitalizing when we need to. They were begging us to throw. They were covering three guys with two. We can't drop bubble passes. It was there. Either we dropped it or we're running 30 yards down the sideline and then we get a holding call. That type of stuff will drive you crazy. We had a chance to put it away, but for some reason we weren't able to do it."

So as poorly as the Pioneers played and as productive as Amesbury was moving the ball, how did the Indians not win?

"We made crucial mistakes,"said Connors, "and when you make crucial mistakes to a good football team, this is what happens. And (Lynnfield) is a good football team. Neal does a great job with them. They're well coached and disciplined. We just made big mistakes when we couldn't afford to."

Bottom line, the Pioneers dodged a bullet and got the win. Learn from it and move on.

Going for Two?
When the Indians scored early in the fourth quarter, some were wondering if Connors should have gone for the two point conversion to take the lead.

"I thought about going for two at that point," Connors told me. "It was nine minutes left and we were doing a pretty good job of stopping them. We'd only given them one touchdown on a blown coverage."

He could have added that the Lynnfield defense wasn't exactly stopping the Amesbury offense.

The other factor may have been that although the Indians averaged 5.3 yards per carry against Lynnfield, the Pioneer defense did stop Amesbury for one yard or less 15 times up to that point. That included the huge goal line stand on the Indians' opening drive.

As it turns out, Tyler Palumbo threw a monkey wrench into Amesbury's plans with the winning play, sneaking through to block the PAT.

Karmic Payback
The Pioneers have now beaten Amesbury three straight times and in two of the three, they were outplayed by the Indians and won the game on similar plays.

"(A. J. Gallo's) fumble return won us the game," Weidman said. "It was like two years ago when Timmy (Lamusta) returned one for a touchdown. Without that we lose that game. They outplayed us today and they outplayed us two years ago when we won. But that's how this series has been. Whoever has played the worst has won.

"When they won the Super Bowl (in 2008) we outplayed them up there and lost 13-12. We played them the year before that and outplayed them and lost 20-15," he said.

"Next year both of the coach's strategies will be to play worse than the other team and you'll win," Weidman joked. "It's unbelievable."

Yesterday's game was eeriely familiar to the 2008 game that Weidman referred to. In that game three years ago, Amesbury was on the way to a Super Bowl Championship and the Pioneers were struggling through a 3-8 year in Weidman's first season.

The Pioneers dominated time of possession two to one, had more total yards 290-193, more first downs 16-7 and double the plays 64-32.

Gino Cohee, then a sophomore, scored touchdowns of six and four yards to give the Pioneers a 12-0 half time lead. Amesbury cut it to 12-7 early in the third period and then won it when quarterback Jared Flannigan sprung lose on a 63 TD run in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Looks like yesterday's win was a payback from the football gods.

The Play That Almost Wasn't
The Pioneers' first TD was a pretty 93 yarder from Mike Karavetsos to Jonathan Rogers, but it came perilously close to never happening.

After the Pioneers outstanding goal line stand, which not only kept the Indians out of the endzone, but prevented them from getting a first down at the one yard line, Lynnfield took over on the one.

On the first play from scrimmage following the stand, Karavetsos carried up the middle. The ball was shaken loose and it looked like a disastrous turnover deep in Pioneer territory.

But Karavetsos dived into the pile and came up with the recovery. Two plays later, Karavetsos and Rogers hooked up for the long distance TD.

Rogers Out?
Speaking of Rogers, Weidman said after the game that he may be out for the year with a torn ligament in his thumb.

That would be a shame. This was a break out game for the senior who is in his first year playing for the Pioneers. He had four receptions for 136 yards against Amesbury and was looking like a real threat.

Hopefully he will be able to return to the lineup at some point.

Warned by Waisnor
In my preview post of the Amesbury game I noted that the Pioneers would be trying to stop the run to put the ball in the hands of inexperienced quarterback Matt Talbot and force him to beat them with the passing game.

Shortly after I posted, I received an email from the Voice of the Pioneers, Tom Waisnor, with the ominous subject line "Beware Matt Talbot."

In his message, Tom stated, "This might sound funny, but when Matt Talbot was 12, he single handedly defeated our youth football team and ended our 23 game unbeaten streak. (This team is currently the juniors). I have video...this kid could throw. I still have nightmares."

Well the Pioneers did force the ball into Talbot's hands, but instead of throwing it, he ended up running with it picking up huge chunks of yardage running outside. Talbot turned out to be the Indians' leading running back with 82 yards on 15 carries. He was fairly pedestrian throwing, completing five of 11 for 39 yards.

You can sleep well for another year Tom. But Talbot is only a junior so we'll see him again next season.

Still Impressed
I asked Connors after the game how he thought the Pioneers looked compared to last year.

"They do a good job running that offense," he replied. "They're young and learning it. They were a well oiled machine last year so were a lot tougher to play. But we have battles with them all the time. Obviously they graduated some great kids. But they're coming. They're going to win football games. They're a good team."

Notable
- Junior Alex Roper nailed two more PAT's, one of them the game winner, and is now four for four on the season.
- Amesbury was forced to punt only once all game
- This was the Pioneers' first one point victory since 2006 when they edged Hull 8-7 at the Middle School field.
- Gallo's fumble recovery for a touchdown was the first since Tim Lamusta's against Amesbury in 2009.
- The Pioneers did not get their initial first down until midway in the second period. They finished with only six first downs
- The Pioneers are now 23-15-1 against Amesbury all time. They have outscored the Indians 589-580.
- The Lynnfield defense has now given up 642 yards in two games, 447 on the ground and 195 passing. They have allowed 37 first downs and have lost the time of possession battle by exactly a two to one margin - 58:40 to 29:20

Campus Update
Former Pioneer captains Gino Cohee and A. J. Roberto found themselves on opposite sidelines for the first time ever Saturday afternoon when Merrimack College hosted Pace University in North Andover.

Unfortunately for Cohee, his Setters took it on the chin as the Warriors romped 63-7. Roberto was credited with one unassisted tackle for Merrimack who improved to 2-1. Cohee didn't make it into the stat column. The Setters are now 1-2

Meanwhile down in Milton, another former Pioneer captain Jeff Gannon is seeing action for the 2-1 Curry College Colonels. According to dad Mike, Gannon is being used primarily as a blocking fullback. He has carried twice for net five yards.

OD's Run
And its not too early to start thinking about participating in OD's Run which will be held this Sunday, September 25 at 10 am.

The annual 5K memorial road race and walk is held to raise funds for scholarships awarded in memory of Johnny "OD" O'Donnell. Johnny is a former Pioneer football player and this event is a tribute to his short life.

For more information contact Karen Mahon at (508) 528-1286, odsrunwalk@comcast.net or www.odsrunwalk.weebly.com.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow night when I take a look around the league.

Survivors

2011-09-17T17:08:00.003-04:00

Big plays trumped big numbers today as the Pioneers notched their first win of the year with a nail-biting 14-13 victory over Amesbury.

The Indians rolled for nearly 400 yards of offense, but the Pioneers stopped them at the one, 21 and 27 yard lines to seriously limit the damage and stay in the game.

The Pioneers got big play TD's on a 92 yard pass from Mike Karavetsos to Jonathan Rogers and a 70 yard return of a fumble recovery by A. J. Gallo. Alex Roper added both extra points, the second of which turned out to be the margin of victory.

And probably the biggest play of the game was Tyler Palumbo's PAT block that preserved the win.

You can get all the details and action photos in my game account in the Villager on Wednesday. Meanwhile check back here tomorrow night for my Leftovers post.

And has been said before, they don't draw pictures on the scoreboard.

Pioneers are now 1-1.

Amesbury Game Preview: Storm the Castle

2011-09-15T17:24:00.033-04:00

For the second week in a row, the Pioneers will face a familiar foe from the CAL and CAL Small in the Amesbury Fighting Indians.

The Pioneers and Indians have clashed 38 times since 1973 and Lynnfield owns a 22-15-1 edge in the series. They currently have a two game winning streak as a result of two come from behind victories in the past two years.

In 2009 it was the Evan Panzero strip and Tim Lamusta fumble recovery for a 29 yard touchdown with six minutes to play that lifted the Pioneers to a 14-10 win.

Last year, the Pioneers trailed 13-7 at halftime but exploded for 23 unanswered points in the second half to cruise to a 30-13 win. That outburst included two touchdowns by this year's tri-captain Mike Thomas.

The Indians went on to finish 4-7 last year and lost significant firepower to graduation. Gone are quarterback Tyler Lay, running backs Ian McLaughlin (who also anchored the defense) and Matt Enaire and receiver/kicker Nick Croce.

Left behind to pick up the slack are three dynamic running backs in Delante Castle, C. J. Collins and Stephan Deas. Castle and Deas carried only four times against the Pioneers last year, but they gained 53 yards. Both are electric. Castle dismembered Manchester Essex last week with 110 yards and three TD's in 11 carries in a 28-7 rout of the Hornets. Collins carried nine times for 109 yards.

There was some poor tackling on the part of the Hornets and the Pioneers are going to have to make sure they wrap up those runners or they will run wild again.

The biggest hole that Amesbury head coach Thom Connors has to fill is at quarterback. He held a four player tryout this preseason and the winner was Matt Talbot, who was listed as a running back last year.

Connors has admitted that Talbot has not played very much at quarterback, so expect most of his contributions to come in the running game. Against M/E, Talbot threw sparingly (1 for 6 for 6 yards), but then again, with Castle and Collins, he didn't have to put it up much.

The Pioneers will likely load up on the running game and dare Talbot to beat them through the air. The Lynnfield defense was solid against the run against Newburyport in the first half but the Clippers broke through in the second half behind Tyler Martin's strong performance. The Indians will come in thinking they can run against the Pioneers.

Offensively, Lynnfield will be looking to improve in the passing game as they try to get into the win column. The Pioneers were solid running the ball against Newburyport, picking up 173 yards on the ground behind quarterback Mike Karavetsos (105 yds) and Thomas (68 yds). The Pioneers averaged 5.2 yards per carry.

Karavetsos was 2 for 9 for 12 yards passing, so any pick up there should give the Amesbury defense something else to worry about.

But ultimately the Pioneers want to put the game in the hands of Talbot and to do that, they need to corral the Indians running game. The extent to which they can do that should determine the outcome of this one.

Game time at the Middle School is 11 am.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: Not So Great Expectations

2011-09-14T17:49:00.010-04:00

2011 year marks the 25th anniversary of the only Lynnfield football team to make it to the Super Bowl. I thought it would be appropriate for today's Pioneer fans to follow that 1986 team week by week as they moved through that historic season.

Each Wednesday, I will post an article of what was happening with the Super '86 team that week 25 years ago. Most of my information comes from news articles from the Lynnfield Villager of that year and from retrospective interviews I have done over the years with Bill Adams, head coach of that squad, Harry Jameson who was an assistant coach and a few ex-players I have met along the way.

If you played on that team and want to share any memories of specific games, I'd love to include them. Just email me at tcondardo@gmail.com.

For my kickoff post of that special season, I look back at the preseason preview of that 1986 team and what the expectations were for them.

The LHS Football Wayback Machine

September 10, 1986
When preseason practices began for the 1986 squad, there were some huge holes to fill. The 1985 team had earned a share of the CAL Championship with a 9-1 record. Their only blemish was a 14-7 loss to the other co-champion North Andover.

Gone to graduation were CAL & Globe All Stars defensive lineman John Caruso and QB Mark Nevils. Running backs Scott Milne and Rob Lake were also gone. Milne scored 97 points, Lake posted 36 and Nevils tallied 12. That trio accounted for 65% of the 225 points the Pioneers racked up in 1985.

In its preview story, the Villager did not sound optimistic.

"It appears at first glance that Bill Adams' team will be hard pressed to match last year's championship performance," the article read.

But Adams, beginning his second year as Lynnfield head coach, put on a brave face.

"My outlook is pretty optimistic," he told the Villager. "We're really pulling together as a unit. I think we're at the same point defensively as we were last year and ahead of where we were offensively. We'll be very competitive throughout the year."

However when I interviewed him about the '86 season for a ten year retrospective in 1996 he admitted that he wasn't expecting a championship type season.

"I thought we has lost too much (from 1985) to repeat in 1986," Adams told me. "But we had a tremendous junior class led by Mark Sutera and Jason Mochi to supplement the four returning starters."

Assistant coach Harry Jameson had similar sentiments 10 years after the fact.

"We didn't have too many seniors so we didn't expect much," Jameson said.

Adams was clearly enamored of his co-captains tackle Darrell Carty (6'3" 230) and FB/LB Todd Coviello (6'1" 200). The pair were the only full time returning starters from the '85 champs and Adams called them "the heart of the team."

As Adams and his staff of Jameson, Paul Harrington and Scott Brennan prepared for the season, they had to deal with a quarterback concern. Senior Jay Kelleher was expected to be the starter but he was dealing with a knee injury and was day to day. Junior Dave Frontero was handling most of the snaps in Kelleher's absence.

They represented a contrast in styles as Kelleher was the classic drop back passer while Frontero was smaller and faster and presented more of a running threat.

Adams told the Villager that the complete Pioneers' lineup looked like this:

Offense:
QB - Frontero/Kelleher
RB - Coviello
RB - Jason Mochi
RB- Mark Sutera
WB - Mark Guido
WR - Ron Grasso
WR - David Callahan
T - Carty
T - Dan Madden
G - Paul Booras
G - Chris Loomos
C - Kevin Murphy
PK - Frontero
K - John Wilson

Defense:
T - Carty
T - John Dean, Booras
E - Callahan
E - Bill Aldenberg
NG - Loomos
LB - Coviello
LB - Sutera
CB - Kelleher
CB - Steve Bucci, Mike Pascucci
S - Frontero
S - Mochi, Scott Yerardi

In handicapping the rest of the league, Adams felt that Newburyport, Triton and North Andover appeared to be the top obstacles to the Pioneers title defense. Those three just happened to be the first three teams on Lynnfield's league schedule.

That being the case, the Pioneers were going to find out quickly how they measured up in 1986.

Next: The Pioneers non league opener against Wayland.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com