Around the CAL Small: Week 1

by Tom Condardo

There was limited action in all of high school football last weekend but a pair of CAL Small teams did kick off their seasons with a couple of non league contests. I'll take a look at both of them but before that, a look at our first standings of the year.



Manchester-Essex traveled to Wakefield Friday night to face Northeast Metro. The Hornets built a 16-0 first half lead and held a 16-6 edge after two periods. But in the second half, the Knights, who the Pioneers defeated 21-12 in a three period scrimmage last week, exploded for 36 points to take the 36-28 victory.

The Knights scored on a long TD pass, then converted a Hornet fumble for another score to take a 22-16 lead. M/E tied it up at 22-22 on a 37 yard TD pass from Craig Carter to Liam Logue. From there, Northeast went into ground and pound mode and wore down the Hornets with three unanswered scores.

M/E got rushing touchdowns from Carter, Chris Dumont and Nate Riehl. They have the week off to regroup before facing Greater Lawrence in two weeks.

Georgetown was also on the road at Madison Park High School in Boston to take on Cathedral to start their season. Unfortunately the Royals couldn't hold on to the ball and five turnovers made the score seem more lopsided than it really was.

Georgetown took a 6-0 lead in the second quarter on a Colby Ingraham run, and held that at the break. The Panthers quickly took an 8-6 lead with an 85 yard kickoff return to start the second half. They stretched that to 14-6 with another third quarter score and then broke it open with two fourth quarter TD's to win 26-6.

The Royals had a shot to get back into the game in the fourth. Down 20-6, Ingraham hit big tight end Pat Bjork for a long bomb to the ten yard line. But on the next play Georgetown fumbled, Cathedral scooped it up and returned it 90 yards for the backbreaking touchdown.

The Royals host Greater Lawrence this Saturday in their second non-league game.

The rest of the league gets under way this week with all non league games. In Friday night action, Amesbury travels to Byfield to take on Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings fresh off an impressive 33-7 win over Swampscott, Hamilton Wenham will be in Peabody to face a strong Bishop Fenwick team and Ipswich hosts North Reading.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday for my preview of the Pioneer-Clipper game.