Around the CAL Small: Week 6

by Tom Condardo

Well we're into the home stretch of the CAL Small title race with only two weeks to go and one thing is clear: if the Pioneers can beat Hamilton-Wenham Saturday, they'll nail down their second consecutive league championship and clinch a spot in the Division Four North Playoffs. Only Georgetown at 0-3 in the league has been mathematically eliminated. Everyone else is still alive for both first and second place in the league. This week will sort out most of that.

I'll review last week's games and take a look at the updated division Power Rankings, but first, a look at the league standings.



Amesbury continues to surge after their loss to the Pioneers. They won their second straight this week with a convincing 35-14 victory over Ipswich. They sport the same 2-1 league mark as H-W, but their 20-13 win over the Generals gives them the edge in the head to head tiebreaker for second place.

Ben Cullen scored three touchdowns to lead the Indians in their final home game of the regular season. Quarterback Mac Short threw for over 100 yards in the game as Amesbury built a 29-7 halftime lead and never looked back. Short booted a couple of field goals in the second half.

The Indians will travel to Georgetown this weekend in what might be a more interesting match than the standings would indicate. Amesbury is on a roll and needs their third win in a row to stay alive in the playoff hunt. However, if the Royals come out with the same intensity they showed against the Pioneers, they could make some noise. They will have a huge size advantage over the Indians so it remains to be seen if they can capitalize on that. They will also have to corral the speed of Cullen and Short, no easy task.

Hamilton-Wenham kept their title hopes alive with a hard fought 14-6 win over Manchester Essex. General running back Ian Dickey scored the first of his two TD's to open the first period scoring. The Hornets' Chris Dumont matched that to pull the Hornets to 7-6 after one quarter. The General defense stifled M-E from that point on.

Dickey, who carried 27 times for 125 yards, scored from 34 yards out in the fourth to account for the final score. The Generals were obviously intent on running the ball since H-W quarterback Jack Clay attempted only nine passes, connecting on five for 42 yards.

Sophomore running back Cam Macri did not play but H-W coach Andrew Morency told me several weeks ago he was hoping to get him back for the M/E or the Lynnfield game so the Pioneers might seem him this week. He will surely help a General offense that has sputtered managing only a pair of scores in their last two games.

The Hornets travel to M-E Friday night and barring a tie, one of those squads will go to 2-2 to stay alive. The loser will drop from the race.

Power Rankings



The Pioneers picked up 17 points this week - 8 points for the win over Georgetown and 3 points each for wins by Newburyport, Amesbury, and Saugus. They still rank third however, behind Pentucket and Watertown, mostly because of strength of schedule.

They have more Own Points due to their five wins while Pentucket has only played four games and won them all while Watertown is 4-1. However, two of the Pioneer wins have come against Division 5 schools - Man-Essex and Georgetown - so they only received 16 Own Points there. Pentucket meanwhile has three wins against Division Four opponents (10 points each) and a big win over Masco, a Division Three team which gave them 12 points.

The Pioneers only have 24 opponent points - nine from Newburyport, six each from Amesbury and M-E, and three from Saugus. They have no opponent points from winless Georgetown.

Again note that the above standings are not strictly by the Power Rating which is the way they are being published everywhere else. The first and second place teams in each league automatically get playoff spots which is why Winthrop and Amesbury jump over Triton and Bedford. Amesbury and H-W have the same 2-1 league record, but as we mentioned, they own the head to head tiebreaker so are in second place as of this week.

So if these were the final standings, six teams would automatically qualify due to finishing first or second in their league. Bedford and Triton would get the two wild card berths to fill out the bracket.

Interestingly, if this were the final division standings, guess who the Pioneers would be playing in week one of the playoffs? That's right, Amesbury. What a shock.

If they got past the Indians, they'd take on the winner of the Watertown/Bedford game.

But. There's still two big weeks to go and these standings can still be scrambled quite a bit. But it is interesting to start talking about possibilities.

Senior Day
Also a reminder that Saturday is Senior Day when the Pioneers will honor their outgoing class.

That's it for now. Check back on Thursday night for my preview of the Pioneer-H/W battle.