Around the CAL Baker: Week 8

By Tom Condardo

Well it was an eventful final weekend in the Bakery as all three games ended up having playoff implications. The Pioneers needed the win to maintain the second seed in the Division Four North playoffs, Hamilton Wenham was able to nail down second place in the Baker thanks to its win over Georgetown and Amesbury's stunning loss to Manchester Essex. I'll review those last two games and take a first look at the playoff pairings. First, a look at the final standings of the Baker's Half Dozen.



The Pioneers went into their game with Ipswich having already sewn up a playoff berth and it was just a question whether they would finish second or third in the division. That wasn't the case for Amesbury and Hamilton Wenham. The Indians had their fate in their own hands needing only a win over Manchester-Essex to nail down second place and an automatic playoff bid. The Generals were on the outside looking in, rooting for the Hornets to knock off Amesbury.

The Indians jumped out to a 12-0 lead at Hyland Field in Manchester on a Mac Short to Pat Scanlon pass and another TD on a tipped pass that Jack Fortin turned into a 24 yard touchdown. Chris Dumont punched one in for the Hornets from three yards out to cut Amesbury's halftime lead to 12-6. They nearly tied it on the final play of the half when Seth Cohen was stopped at the one yard line after an 18 yard reception as time ran out.

A long drive capped by another short Dumont touchdown and two point conversion gave the Hornets a 14-12 lead in the third. A Ben Cullen score with just under seven minutes to play in the gain gave the Indians the lead back at 18-14, but the Hornets weren't done.

With under three minutes to play, the Indians faced a fourth and inches at the M/E 35 yard line, but the Hornets came up with the play of their season and held. The Hornets took control and marched right down the field. Dumont then gave the Hornets the win with his third TD of the night, this one from a yard out with 47 seconds to play.

The win gives M/E a 4-3 record and vaulted them into the playoffs in Division Five where they will be the sixth seed. The loss meant the Indians needed Georgetown to beat Hamilton Wenham on Saturday and hope to win the points-against tiebreaker among the three teams.

That didn't happen as the Generals did not squander their opportunity. The Royals jumped on top 6-0 when Pat Bjork hit Sean Swanton on a 15 yard TD pass. The Generals tied it at the end of the first quarter on an Ian Dickey run.

It was all H-W from there as Dickey added another score in the third quarter followed by TD runs from Christian Ecker and Jimmy Littlefield to account for the final 27-6 score. The Generals secured a spot in the playoffs with the win.

Final Power Rankings
With the first part of the season now complete, it's on to the playoffs for six of the 12 CAL teams. The Pioneers, H/W, Pentucket, Triton, and Newburyport are all in the Division Four North bracket and M/E will represent the Baker in the Division Five playoffs.

Here's a look at the final Division Four North Power Rankings



Despite the win, the Pioneers had to sweat out one final Saturday game when winless Belmont took on a one win Winchester team. The Sachems ultimately prevailed, but if Belmont had won, that would have giving Bedford three more opponent points and would have lifted them to a 16.5 ranking. That would have edged out the Pioneers for the second seed by .21 of a point.

The best story of the weekend came on Friday night when Lynnfield's own Pat Sheehan's Triton Vikings crushed Masco 33-6 in Topsfield. That not only catapulted the Vikes into the playoff picture but earned them the fourth seed and a home game this Friday. The Vikes picked up the most points in the division for the week leaping from 69 to 97 points with the big win. Congrats to Pat and the rest of the Lynnfield North coaching staff and the Viking players.

Tough break for North Reading who finished with a big 28-14 win over Kinney Champion Pentucket but still finds itself on the outside looking in. The Hornets have been hobbled by injuries all season and they finally put it together against the Sachems. They finished with a Power Ranking of 10.14 which is higher than H-W's 8.71, but the Generals came in second place in the Baker which comes with an automatic bid. Making it tougher to swallow for the Hornets is that they beat the Generals 16-0 earlier in the season.

However as I've been saying all year, league standing is the MOST IMPORTANT qualifier for getting into the playoffs. Each league is guaranteed two qualifiers. The Generals finished second in their league and the Hornets finished sixth in the Kinney. It doesn't necessarily look fair, but that's the way the system is right now.

The seedings, matchups, times and locations are now all set and the full bracket can be found here at the MIAA Tournament site. Be patient. It takes a few minutes to load.

As you must know by now, the Pioneers will host Stoneham on Saturday at 2:30 pm (that's a change from the original schedule) at the Middle School field. Stoneham is one of 11 teams that made the playoffs from the 12 team Middlesex League. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Bedford/Newburyport game which will take place in Bedford on Friday night.

On the other side of the bracket, Triton will host Watertown on Friday night and Hamilton-Wenham will travel to Pentucket on Saturday.

I'll have a full preview of the Pioneer game in the Villager on Wednesday and more here on Thursday night. Check back then.