Around the CAL Small: Week 3

by Tom Condardo

Well that's it. The non-league portion of the schedule is complete. Where in past years, league games wouldn't start until mid October, this year things are different. We jump right into the thick of the league schedule next week.

But before we go there, let's take a look at the updated standings and review last weekend's games. Georgetown had the week off, but everyone else was in action.



I got an up close view of Hamilton-Wenham Friday night as they tangled with North Reading, and the Generals looked solid. They were without the services of sophomore sensation Cam Macri who suffered an ankle injury in the opener last week. I spoke to coach Andrew Morency after the game and he expects to have Macri back in three or four weeks which would put him on schedule to face the Pioneers in what could be a big showdown game on October 19.

The Generals took the opening kick against North Reading and came out firing on all cylinders. Senior quarterback Jack Clay was short hitting six out of seven passes - three to Christian Ecker, and one each to Peter Duval, Jimmy Campbell, and Alex Rogers. H-W mixed in runs by Ian Dickey as they marched down the field picking up five first downs. They looked like were going to punch it in but the tough NR defense stiffened after yielding a first down at the 15. Dickey got it to the nine but two passes fell incomplete and the Generals attempted a field goal which sailed wide right.

After an exchange of punts, the Hornets turned the tables on the Generals, using their power single wing to drive to the General one yard line, but HW held on fourth and goal and got the ball back.

The Hornets put up all their scoring in the last two and a half minutes of the first half. C. J. McCarthy cruised in from the 16 for their first TD. The PAT was blocked but on their next possession, NR punched it in again with McCarthy plowing in from the one. Blake Tamlyn-Hayden scooted in for the two and the Hornets led 16-0.

That would be it for the scoring as the teams battled to a scoreless second half. The Generals threatened late in the third, getting down to the three yard line, but Ryan Sanborn picked off his third interception of the night to kill the threat.

Morency was particularly pleased with his team's ability to stop the Hornet attack, especially in the second half. NR had four three and outs and only one first down in the second half. The Generals held them to only 46 yards of offense in the final two quarters.

H-W opens their league schedule at home against Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers, struggling to install their new spread offense, ran into an angry Newburyport team still smarting from their loss to the Pioneers. The Clippers took it out on Ipswich in a 38-7 beating at World War Memorial Stadium.

Ipswich hung tough, playing the Clippers to a scoreless first quarter. Unfortunately the Tigers were undone by a couple of blocked punts in the second quarter that opened the floodgates and led to a 24-0 half time deficit.

The Tigers showed some positive signs as quarterback Kyle Blomster was 8 for 15 for 199 yards. Nate Glaster had four catches for 36 yards and Alex Kuljik had a pair for 64 yards. Ipswich will face H-W in the first of two contests this year. The two will meet up on Thanksgiving Day as well.

Amesbury got off on the wrong foot early against Pentucket as the Sachems scored on a 60 yard pass on the first play of the game and then added another on their next possession to jump out to an early 14-0 lead. The Indians righted the ship a bit and hung tough from there.

Ben Cullen's one yard run cut the lead to 14-7 but the Sachems added a backbreaking TD with ten seconds left in the second to make it 21-7 at the half. The teams battled through a scoreless third period but Pentucket blew it open with three fourth quarter scores.

Amesbury comes to town this weekend having been outscored 82-14 in their first two games.

Manchester-Essex became only the second team in the league to post a win as they upended Greater Lawrence 22-12 in a game that shouldn't have been that close. The Hornets shut down the Reggies, holding them to under 75 yards of total offense, only 20 in the first half. Linebacker Doug Rodier, Nate Riehl, Will Davis and Leo Gallo led a swarming Hornet defense that frustrated Greater Lawrence's spread offense all game.

Unfortunately, the Hornet offense couldn't get much separation. Riehl capped an impressive opening drive with a 6 yard TD run, but that was all the scoring M/E could do in the first two quarters. So despite a dominating edge in yardage, they led only 6-0 at the half. As is usually the case in games like that, the lack of offense came back to bite them as GL broke the second half kick for a 65 yard touchdown to tie the score.

Quarterback Craig Carter snuck it in, then hit Chris Dumont for the two point conversion to take the lead back at 14-6. The Reggies answered with their only scoring drive of the game topped by a 19 yard TD pass to cut the lead to 14-12. But the Hornets responded with another score. Carter again snuck in from the one and this time Dumont ran it in for the two to give the Hornets a 22-12 lead that would hold up.

In another Thanksgiving preview, the Hornets will host Georgeton Friday night in the league opener for both teams.

Power Rankings
With a couple of games now in the books, the power rankings are starting to take shape. Here is what they look like heading into the league season.



The Pioneers are tied for first based on the Power Rankings alone. They have a pair of 10 point wins for their own value and Newburyport's win over Ipswich gave them 3 opponent value points for a total of 23. Divide that by 2 to get their 11.5 rating. Things will start to get interesting the more games that are played. Every win by Saugus and Newburyport gives the Pioneers 3 more points each.

Also, next week the league standings start to come into play. First or second place in the league is the first determining factor in the rankings. Then the power ratings are used to break any ties.

It should be interesting.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday for my Amesbury game preview.