Bedford Leftovers

by Tom Condardo

I received an envelope last night and it contained a report I've been asked to share with the Pioneer fans still feeling the sting of yesterday's tough playoff loss. So here it is.

To: Pioneer Football Nation
From: The Department of Perspective
Re: The State of Lynnfield Football

Tom,
We here at the Department of Perspective pride ourselves on presenting the bigger picture when it comes to high school football. We usually get involved following a tough loss when coaches, players, parents, and fans are most emotionally down and out and need a way to move on. Since we know that many Pioneer fans follow you in your local paper, the Villager, and in your Gridblog, we thought this would be the appropriate forum to disseminate some helpful information in the wake of the Pioneers tough 14-7 loss to Bedford yesterday.

We understand that coaches, players, and parents invest countless hours of work into a football program. It becomes an all-consuming passion and when a team is hit by a loss like the one the Pioneers suffered yesterday, the letdown can be steep. That's all understandable. But we've found in our many years of research that in the aftermath of such a devastating loss, it helps to step away and take a wider point of view.

First of all, there are only so many things that are controllable. Everyone can put their heart, soul, and effort into the process, but they really can't control the outcome. If at the end of a tough game like yesterday, everyone involved can look back and say "we gave it everything we have," then that has to be enough, regardless of the result. From the reports we got here at the department, that was the case in yesterday's game. The result just didn't happen to go your way. It happens.

So with that in mind, we've combed through our files of Lynnfield football history here at the department and have come up with some information we think Pioneer Nation might want to take into consideration.

Our researchers were particularly impressed with the level of success your Pioneers have enjoyed over the past five years under head coach Neal Weidman and his staff. We feel safe in saying that this is clearly one of the Golden Age periods of the Lynnfield Football Program.

Since 2009, your Pioneers have a record of 41-14, a winning percentage of .745. Four of those five years were winning seasons, and the "down" year was an injury-riddled 2011 when your team went 5-6. In that five year span, you enjoyed three championship seasons and played in five playoff games including a trip to a Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium. Very impressive indeed.

The accomplishments of the past five years are even more stunning when looked at in the light of the 21 seasons prior to 2009. Now many of you may look at that history as having as much relevance to you as the Roman Punic Wars, but that's what we do here at the Department of Perspective. We like to place all events in context.

First some points of reference. The period from 1988 to 2008 was a tough one for Lynnfield football. But none of it was caused by a lack of effort from coaches or players of those teams. We understand that during that time, the enrollment at LHS plummeted but the Pioneers got little relief in the schedule. Year after year they battled much, MUCH, bigger schools and suffered their lumps. Many years, the Pioneers were fielding teams with 25-30 players facing the Mascos and North Andovers who double-bussed it to town with more than twice that many.

The coaches, players, and parents of those teams worked just as hard but in many ways the deck was stacked against them. And the results were not pretty.

Of those 21 seasons, the Pioneers won more games than they lost in only three of them - 1991, 1996, and 2003. During that span, there were two seasons in which the Pioneers did not win a single game. Three years they won just once and five years they managed only a pair of victories. The Pioneers' overall record during that period was 62-156-1, a .283 winning percentage.

Now obviously the sufferings of those gutsy 21 squads doesn't really have much to do with this year's team and it probably doesn't make yesterday's loss any easier to take. But it's our job here at the department to illustrate that there are much worse situations than having a team that's 8-1 and made it to the semi-finals of the division playoffs.

And if you're looking for a more recent example, we give you the 2013 Bishop Feehan squad. Our records show they defeated your Pioneers 21-7 in last year's aforementioned Super Bowl. Since Pioneer Nation has understandably been absorbed with the Pioneers winning streak and playoff run up to now, you may not have noticed how the Shamrocks have performed the year after their Division 3A championship.

Well the Shamrocks haven't fared that well. They ended the regular season 2-4 and finished 9th in the 12 team Division Three Southwest with a 7.17 power ranking and failed to make the playoffs. They then split their two non-qualifying games and sit at 3-5 for the year.

Again, their misfortune is presented simply as a comparison to the great success your Pioneers have had this season. And the year is not yet complete. Our records show that at 8-1 and with two more games to play, your Pioneers have a chance to become only the second team in LHS history to win 10 games. The 2009 team is the only squad to accomplish that feat in the 55 year history of the program.

So in closing, our condolences on your loss yesterday. I'll leave you and Pioneer Nation with something one of our favorites here at the Department of Perspective, Oscar Wilde, once said:

"The optimist sees the donut; the pessimist sees the hole."

Regards
B. Positive
Director, Department of Perspective

Muff v Fumble
Many of you at the game may have been perplexed on the ruling in the second quarter when Bedford's Michael Hayes fielded a punt than apparently attempted to lateral it to a teammate. Jonathan Knee happened to be right there and picked off the ball returning it for an apparent score. The officials huddled and then placed the ball back at the spot of the turnover and the Pioneers had to punch it in from there for their only score of the day.

According to Weidman, the officials ruled that Hayes did not catch the punt and then try to lateral it. They said Hayes attempted to catch it, never got a handle on it, and it popped from his grasp into Knee's hands. That actually makes more sense since it had to be clear to Hayes that Matthew Timperio, the potential recipient of the lateral, was in the act of blocking Knee and wasn't even looking at him.

That made it a muff, not a fumble. In high school football, you can advance a fumble but you can't advance a muff, hence the touchdown was called back.

Killer B's
The seven points the Pioneers' scored against Bedford represents only the third time in the past two years the Pioneers have been held to less than double digit scoring. The other two were in the 21-7 loss to Bishop Feehan and a 14-7 loss to Bishop Fenwick last season.

In the 66 games of the Weidman era, the Pioneers have been held to single digits only 10 times and three of those happened in the coach's first season in 2008.

40 Year Losing Streak
The Pioneers have now lost three in a row to Bedford. In their last two meetings in the Dual County League, the Bucs beat Lynnfield 14-0 in 1972 and 6-0 in 1971. They still hold an overall 8-5-1 edge.

Big Block
One of the best blocks of the year occurred in the final quarter. On a third and 14 from the Lynnfield 40, the Pioneers executed a perfect screen pass. Quarterback Danny Sullivan hit Adam Buchanan in the left flat with a platoon of blockers in front of him. Alex Ganter and captain Dom Costa combined to blow up Timperio who was rushing to make the tackle. The hit sent the sophomore sprawling cleats over hip pads and paved the way for a 15 yard gain and a... (let's hear it Mr. Waisnor) PIONEER FIRST DOWN.

Giving Ground
One of the more disconcerting things in the game was how totally Bedford contained the Pioneer offense. Lynnfield fans have become accustomed to watching the Pioneers move effortlessly down the field almost at will. That was certainly not the case on Saturday.

One of the biggest indicators was the Bucs' ability to create negative plays. Of the Pioneers' 50 plays, Bedford threw the Pioneers for a loss or no gain on 15 of them. When you do that to an offense on 30% of their plays, chances are you'll have success as a defense.

3rd and 4th Downs
Usually in a game like this, the team that is able to sustain drives with third and fourth down conversions usually wins out. Ironically, the Pioneers did well in those situations. Offensively, the Pioneers were 8/14 on third down (57%) with no fourth down attempts. Defensively, they were solid in those situations in the first three quarters holding Bedford to 2/8 on third down (25%) and 2/4 (50%) on fourth down.

The problem came in the fourth quarter. The Bucs were 2/3 (67%) on third down and 1/1 (100%) on fourth down.

Perspective
Finishing up where we started, I asked Weidman what he would have said at the beginning of the year if someone had told him he would make it to the division semi-finals.

"I would have said we'd done well," the coach replied. "We lost a lot of players last year and we're playing some young guys. Obviously now I wouldn't say it but back then I would have."

So what did he tell his squad following the game?

"You have to tell them they have to keep their heads up," Weidman replied. "They've done a great job this year and we still have games to play so we're going to have to find a way to get it turned around and get back up and ready to play next week."

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