by Tom Condardo
So's how's it feel to beat Newburyport?
"It's good," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman said following Saturday's hard fought opening day victory over the Clippers. "It's been awhile - 2009. Now we have to beat them up there one of these times."
"We're kind of young and semi-inexperienced so to play a good team like Newburyport was good for us," Weidman said.
You can get all the game details in my Villager story on Wednesday, but here are a few bits and pieces from the game.
The win snaps a three game Clipper winning streak against the Pioneers and ups Lynnfield's overall record against Newburyport to 9-32. They are 2-4 in the Weidman Era with a 2-1 record at home.
The well-coached Clippers gave the Pioneer offense all it could handle, breaking but not bending in the first half. They stopped Lynnfield on a fourth and sixth from the 11 yard line on the Pioneers' opening drive. They forced a fumble inside the five yard line on Lynnfield's second drive. Instead of being down by a couple of scores, the Clippers found themselves in a 0-0 game.
Deep Depth
The Pioneers finally broke through, lost the lead then regained it on captain Matt Kramich's kickoff return, then put the game away with a long drive in the fourth quarter. That last "nail-in-the-coffin" march began after the defense held the Clippers on fourth down from the Lynnfield 33.
"We showed some character there," Weidman said. "Stopped them on fourth down and then be able to put a drive together and get downhill on them. I felt like we were able to wear them down a little bit. We were running some guys in and out. I felt like our depth helped us."
The Pioneers will likely be able to do that to a lot of teams this year. The seven man offensive line corps of captain Dom Costa, David Adams, Cameron DeGeorge, Alex Ganter, Anthony Vaccaro, Steve White and Matt Connelly averages 6'1" 246 lbs. Not many teams in Division Four are going to be able to match up with that.
Stout Up Front
Defensively, the Pioneers did a solid job against the revised Newburyport Power I option offense. The Clipper offense showed flashes in their first outing with new quarterback Michael Shay. Shay, Chance Carpenter, and Trevor Bradbury are dangerous backs capable of breaking it on any play. They are only going to get better as the year goes on.
Lynnfield was able to hold them to 103 yards rushing on 32 carries with 29 of those coming on one Bradbury carry. Take that out and the Pioneers held the Clippers to 74 yards on 31 carries - a stingy 2.4 yards per carry.
"We practiced against it," Weidman said of the retooled Clipper offense. " We knew they were going to be more of an I team this year. We knew they'd be running typical I plays off the power, but we thought they would give us more dives and dive options. They ran a little bit of it last year out of the single back using the slot guys, but we knew it was going to be more of a staple for them this year. It took us a while to prepare for it. It's assignment football. We had extra time to prepare so that was helpful for getting ready for the option."
The front seven did a solid job, not allowing the Clippers any running room up the middle. Any gains they were able to pick up came more from using their speed to the outside.
"We were pretty stout," agreed Weidman. "The effort was great."
As expected, there were some things the coach wasn't happy about.
"The disappointing things were the 15 yard penalties on both of their scoring drives and two really good offensive drives with no points," said Weidman. "Then their one long kickoff return on special teams."
Another Opening
The victory snaps a two year opening day losing streak - both to Newburyport. In the Weidman Era the Pioneers are 4-2 in first games. Overall, Lynnfield is 31-25 on opening day.
Picking Right Up
Junior Cam Rondeau picked right up where he left off last year with his first interception of the year on Saturday. He was co leader in that category last year with four.
Happy Returns
Kramich's kickoff return for the touchdown was the first for the Pioneers since Ricky Berardino ripped off a 93 yarder on the opening kick against Bishop Fenwick in 2010. That led the way to a 42-21 romp over the Crusaders. There have been only 22 kickoff returns for touchdowns in the history of LHS football or an average of one every two and a half years. Sounds like this one came right on schedule.
Just prior to returning the kick, Kramich saw that the score was 7-6 in favor of the Clippers. He told me at that moment he remembered that was the final score last year. It took him 17 seconds to make sure that history didn't repeat itself.
Random Stats
- After holding an almost seven minute edge in time of possession in the first half, the Pioneers had the ball for only 58 seconds in the third period. But they outscored the Clippers 8-7.
- The Pioneers were at 50% on third down conversions (5 for 10) but they were much better on fourth down converting on 4 of 6 (67%). The Clippers were 6 of 11 on third down, but only 1 of 3 on fourth.
Resourceful Cheerleaders
The Pioneer cheerleaders showed some quick thinking resourcefulness before the game. As the Pioneers were gathering under the goal posts to enter the field, the big welcoming "Lynnfield" banner snapped right down the middle.
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| Pioneer Cheerleaders with an Emergency Banner Repair |
Uni-Watch
The Pioneers unveiled new uniforms on Saturday and the home uni's feature a navy blue theme from head to foot with a white stripe at the shoulders and "Lynnfield" in white above the number on the chest. The while "L" on the matte, navy blue helmet is gone, replaced by each player's number in white.
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| Sophomore Alex Soden models the new Pioneer Uniforms |
Traditionalists may lament the loss of gold, the other half of "Blue and Gold" anywhere on the uniform. The last vestige was a small outline of gold around that "L" on the helmet the last few years. The only appearance of "the other school color" shows up with some of the players sporting gold undershirts. I did notice a couple of players wearing gold belts.
The numbers are also different, with the main number the same navy blue as the shirts, outlined in white.
Tom Waisnor, the Voice of the Pioneers, reports that the new look is not PA Announcer-friendly but I'm sure he'll figure out a way to adjust.
Blast From The Past
I ran into former Pioneer head coach Scott Brennan in Amesbury at the Triton-Indian game Friday night. He is now the assistant principal at Triton. He coached the Pioneers from 1995-99 in a time when numbers and participation was down and Lynnfield was still playing a full bore CAL schedule.
I told him that the Pioneers had a turnout of 70 this year and we discussed about how in 1995 he normally suited up around 20 players including one game when he had only 13. In typical Scott Brennan fashion, he didn't lament his bad luck but instead was genuinely happy for Weidman and the Lynnfield program. "That's the way it should be," he told me.
He coached my son through his junior year and is one of the most positive, classiest people around. For many reasons beyond his control, his teams didn't enjoy a lot of winning (although he did have a great 6-4 season in 1996 as part of his overall 15-37 mark). However, I couldn't have asked for a better coach - and person- to teach my son the lessons in life that are more important than wins and losses.
Brennan is now coaching youth football in West Newbury and they couldn't have a better man working with their kids.
That's it for now, check back tomorrow when I'll take a look at the weekend action around the league.
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