Around the CAL Small: Week 5

by Tom Condardo

One big upset and the league has been tossed into a turmoil. Because of their convincing win over Manchester Essex, for now the Pioneers are above it all with a 2-0 league mark which puts them in sole possession of first place. But with three weeks to go, everything is still in play. Let's take a look at the updated standings.



The shocker this week occurred up at Landry Stadium in Amesbury where the reeling Indians pulled things together to stun Hamilton-Wenham 20-13. Outscored by over 100 points in their first three games, the Indians put together the upset special to join in on the four-way second place tie.

The Generals opened the scoring at the end of the first quarter on a seven yard Christian Ecker run. Amesbury answered on the next series when Mac Short connected with Jack Fortin for a 59 yard TD. The try for two failed and H-W led 7-6 at the half.

H-W took a 13-6 lead on a one yard plunge by Ian Dickey in the third. The Indians tied it on a three yard Ben Cullen run early in the fourth. Cullen notched the winning score when he picked off a pass with just over five minutes to play and returned it 60 yards for the score. They they held on for the 20-13 win.

Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman was in attendance and was impressed with the Amesbury effort.

"They had a nice little scheme going," he said. "They kept (H-W) off balance. They ran the ball well, they threw when they needed to and they looked good. They played tough. They were physical and they played with emotion."

Hamilton-Wenham hosts Manchester-Essex this weekend in the Hyphen Bowl.

Meanwhile over in Ipswich, the Tigers did their part to create a four way tie for second with a 14-0 win over Georgetown. It was Greg Brotherton's first win as head coach. Quarterback Kyle Blomster is beginning to settle in at the controls of the Tigers' new spread offense as he completed 13 of 17 for 120 yards and he ran for 79 more.

Blomster started things off with a 47 yard TD run in the first quarter to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead over the winless Royals. He then tossed a 20 yard scoring strike to Aleks Kuljik in the third to account for the final score. Kuljik had 3 catches for 42 yards.

The Tigers, led by Ed Flaherty, held Georgetown to  only 113 yards total offense, all on the ground. With starting quarterback Colby Ingraham out for the season, the Royals were 0 for 10 passing with three interceptions.

This week, Ipswich travels to Amesbury while the Royals will host the Pioneers.

Power Rankings



So now with three weeks left the playoff race is starting to get interesting. You need to pay attention to the above ratings instead of the ones you are seeing in the papers. Those have everyone ranked 1-16 based on Power Ranking, but as I've said before, that's not the way the post season berths are going to be determined.

For example, looking at it strictly by the ranking numbers, you would say Ipswich with a 3.25 has no chance to make it. However, unless Manchester Essex finishes second, either Amesbury, H-W, or Ipswich will do so and make the playoffs - regardless of their number. Winthrop jumps up to fourth place because they are currently tied for first in their league.

The Pioneers picked up only eight "own points" for beating M/E since they are in Division 5, but they did get six points for the Hornet's two wins giving them 14 for the week.

Each week sorts things out a little bit more so stay tuned.

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