Stoneham Leftovers

By Tom Condardo

Those of us who watch the Pioneers on a regular basis take for granted one of their key weapons: the hurry up offense. This came to mind in particular this past week as the Pioneers prepared to play Stoneham. Or more accurately as Stoneham prepped for Lynnfield.

Regular CAL opponents know what they're in for when they face the Pioneers, but what about a team like the Spartans? They haven't faced Lynnfield in years so have no face to face experience. I'm sure they had game tape, but if any of you have ever seen those videos, you know that it's not like watching the NFL on Sunday. The tape shows one play, then cuts to the next. You couldn't tell from watching those tapes that the Pioneers have virtually no time between plays.

How much of a factor the hurry up was in Saturday's win is debatable, but it had to be disconcerting for the Spartans to realize there is no let up in the Pioneer attack.

I decided to go back find out exactly how much quicker the Pioneer offense is compared to their opponents.

Let's start with time of possession. In their eight games, the Pioneers have had the ball for 148 minutes and their opponents have had it for 204 minutes. That's an average of 18.5 minutes per game for Lynnfield and 25.5 minutes per game for their opponents. Looking at it another way, Pioneer opponents have had the ball for 38% more game time than Lynnfield.

What have they both done with that time?

Pioneer opponents have run 380 plays or an average of one play every 32 seconds (47 plays per game average). Lynnfield has run 369 plays - almost the same amount of plays in nearly 40% less time (46 plays per game average). The Pioneers are running a play every 24 seconds of game time.

Now what they both do with the time is the big difference. The Pioneer have scored 282 points so they're scoring a point every 32 seconds of game time. Their opponents have scored only 60 points, which is a point every 204 seconds. With those numbers in mind, the results have been predictable.

"It's tough to prepare for," Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman told me after the game. "It's just difficult to simulate in practice."

The Hurry-Up will be no surprise to Bedford when they meet in the division semi-finals. Bucs head coach Jack Belcher was up in the stands Saturday and got a first hand look of how lethal the Pioneer offense can be. However Belcher has been head man at Bedford for 10 years so will no doubt try to come up with something to slow down the Pioneers.

Passing Fancy
I mentioned last week how impressive quarterback Danny Sullivan's season has been. Well he took it to another level Saturday against Stoneham. With teams committing to controlling the running game (which they still haven't been able to do as Lynnfield's 244 rushing yards against Stoneham will attest) the Pioneers have begun to make defenses pay with the passing game.

Sullivan surpassed his season total of two TD passes by tossing three on Saturday. He was 8 for 11, for 133 yards. I again plugged those numbers into the NFL quarterback rating calculator and Sullivan posted an unheard of 152.7 rating. Putting it another way, if he had completed one more pass for five more yards, he would have registered a perfect 158.3 rating. He also continued to make the right reads in the running game and tossed in 68 yards rushing for good measure. The game raised his season QB rating to 115.4.

"He's got a lot of football savy," said Weidman. "He continues to improve."

The Future is Now
While on the passing game, it's interesting to note that the recipients of two of Sullivan's TD's are sophomores. C. J. Finn got the Pioneers on the board in the first quarter on a nifty 24 yard catch and run for his first ever varsity score. Then Adam Buchanan scored the next TD when Sullivan dropped one perfectly to him rumbling down the sideline for a 30 yard strike. Old timer captain Matt Kramich cracked the Kiddie Corps for the third TD reception.

Speaking of Buchanan, he continues to be Mr. Efficiency. Offensively, he touched the ball twice. The first on the TD reception and the second when he came in to run the Wildcat at the end of the half and barreled in from the four for a touchdown.

That's making the most of your opportunities.

The Discomfort Zone
Getting an opponent out of what they like to do best is the first step in beating them. The Pioneers did a great job of that Saturday. Despite spotting the Spartans a TD on their first drive, it became quickly apparent that the Pioneers were going to be able to put points on the board and that a methodical run heavy offense was probably not going to keep up.

The first hint that Stonehan realized this came on the first play of the second period after the Pioneers answered to go up 7-6. Spartan quarterback Dylan Owens threw an incomplete pass after featuring only one pass (another incompletion) in the first quarter.

After Ryan Battaglia scored on the fumble recovery to make it 21-6, the Spartans gave up any pretense of staying with the run-only offense and switched quarterbacks. Senior captain Matt Lowe came in at QB and Owens, a gifted athlete, moved to receiver. The Spartans ended up attempting eight passes, very unlike them, completing two (both by Lowe) for 14 yards.

"We thought that might happen," Weidman told me. "We were ready for that."

Equal Attention
The Pioneers showed no favoritism in slowing down the Stoneham three headed running game. Darius McPherson carried 18 times for 62 yards (3.4 yards per carry average), Aaron Louis was 15 for 55 (3.7) and Owens carried 4 times for 14 yards (3.5). Overall, Stoneham had 37 rushes for 148 yards.

Still Unbeaten
The Pioneer win keeps them undefeated in the series with Stoneham which was interrupted by half a century gap. Lynnfield is 3-0-1 in the four games. The first three were played in 1962, 63, 64.

Scoop and Score
Battaglia's fumble recovery and touchdown, caused by captain Anthony Costa and David Adams, was the Pioneers' first scoop and score since game two last year against Amesbury when Alex Pascucci did the honors. It was the 18th time in school history that the Pioneers have scored in that fashion.

Economy of Scale
I talked about the Hurry Up offense earlier, and it was in full evidence on the Pioneers four first half scoring drives. The first drive consumed 1:28, the second 50 seconds, the third 5 seconds (Battaglia's scoop and score), and the fourth 66 seconds.

The final drive in the fourth quarter that culminated with the Kramich catch took a leisurely 3:29. Of course that was by design as the Pioneers were trying to bleed the clock.

That's it for now. Check back tomorrow and I'll take a look around the Division Four playoffs.