by Tom Condardo
They certainly got a battle last week against Bedford. Last night in Watertown, the expected hangover kept them groggy for most of the first half. But the chirpy Raiders, whoopin' and hollerin' during and after every play, were the best medicine to get them straight. The 14-0 slap to the helmet shook them out of their doldrums and propelled them to a very impressive win over a dangerous team.
Not that there was any lack of effort on the part of the Pioneers in either game, but the simple fact is that racking up wins is not as easy as the Pioneers made it look for most of this season. It's actually a good lesson to learn and one which will help on Thanksgiving, and also going forward for the underclassmen.
As for the Watertown game, head coach Neal Weidman acknowledged a down week of practice, but he didn't attribute the first half performance strictly to a letdown.
"I think we were trying to play hard," the coach told me after the game citing field position and turnovers as the biggest culprit to the poor first half.
"We turned the ball over twice so we had short drives there," he continued. "Then they held the ball for most of the half (16:39 to 7:21 time of possession advantage for Watertown). That was part of it. In any game though you can't turn the ball over like that."
"We didn't have good field possession in the first half and we were able to flip it on them in the second half," he went on. "Unfortunately, they flipped it back on us at the end. It would have been a little easier had we kept it but we didn't. That's why you have to battle."
The Pioneers' average starting field position in the first half was their own 24 including starts at their own 10 and 13.
The bottom line is that the Pioneers were able to regroup at halftime, take control of the game in the second half, then hold off a determined Watertown team to pick up a hard fought road win.
Only time will tell how successfully the Pioneers absorbed the lessons of the seminar, but based on the Watertown game, I would say they passed their first test.
Unsung Big Play
No doubt there were several huge plays in the win over the Raiders. The Danny Sullivan to Jon Knee touchdown at the end of the first half; the Jake Rourke to Knee option pass then the Dan Bronshvayg to Austin Caswell two point conversion for the lead; the Matt Kramich kickoff return; Cam Rondeau's pick in the fourth quarter; the great fourth down stop by Alex Ganter coming from the other side to catch Mike Petrillo from behind; and the huge 24 yard run by Kyle McGah on third down to seal the win with a big first down at the end.
All big plays.
But to me, an equally important play that may not get much press (although it will in the Villager!) came on the Pioneers' one minute scoring drive at the end of the first half. After a two yard run and an incomplete pass, the Pioneers were faced with a third and eight from their own 27 yard line.
On third down, Sullivan sprinted to the right and hit Knee coming back for the pass. Knee caught it at the 33 and need to get to the 35 for the first down. He made a sweet move on the Raider defensive back and slipped by him for a 20 yard gain and the first down. If the Pioneers don't pick up the first down there, they would have punted and likely gone in at the half down 14-0.
As it turned out, three plays later, Knee torched the same defender on a first and ten from the Raider 30. Knee blew by the defensive back, who grabbed him at the 20. Knee shook off the hold, got separation and gathered in a perfectly lofted Sullivan pass in the corner of the endzone.
That sequence obviously turned the game around.
Center of Attention
Watertown offered a buffet of offensive formations in this one sometimes coming out in the Power I, sometimes the spread, and a few times in the Wing. The one constant was quarterback Nick Giordano, who was clearly the best signal caller the Pioneers have faced all season.
The junior was 16 for 32 for 228 yards and two touchdowns (and two interceptions). He also carried/scrambled 15 times for 93 times. In all, Giordano was directly involved in 47 of the Raiders' 59 plays (80%). More impressively, he accounted either throwing or running for 321 of Watertown's 334 yards of offense (93%).
And he'll be back next year so pencil Watertown in as one of the Division Four North preseason favorites.
Time Is of the Essence
Extra strain was put on the coaches from both teams when the scoreboard, including the clock, took the second half off. The Pioneer coaches had to get verbal time updates from the officials on the field which was just another task in a close game.
This came into play particularly at the end of the game. After the Pioneers stopped Watertown on fourth down, they obviously hoped to bleed the clock and end the game. After two running plays gained five yards, the Pioneers were faced with a third and five with 54 seconds left. Since you can use 25 seconds per play, if the Pioneers took two knees, the Raiders would have gotten the ball back deep in Lynnfield territory with four seconds left. Not an option. If the Pioneers couldn't convert on third down they would have had to punt. Not ideal.
McGah made the point moot when he burst threw the line for 24 yards and a first down to ice it. It just goes to show that these games can come down to seconds. And not being able to see how many, makes it that much tougher on the coaches.
Closing In
And speaking of McGah, the senior captain was kept out of the end zone for the second time this year leaving him 16 points shy of the 51 year old LHS scoring record. He now has 246 career points and Frank Berardino tallied 262 from 1958-61. McGah has only the Thanksgiving Day game to catch the all time leader.
Groundless
McGah wasn't the only running back not to make it into the endzone. In fact, no running backs from either team were able to break the plane. In an interesting oddity, none of the 41 total points scored in the game were the result of a run. There were five touchdown passes (three by Watertown and two by Lynnfield), a kickoff return, three total extra points, and a two point passing conversion.
Strength of Schedule
There have been rumblings about the Pioneers playing a softer schedule than some of the other playoff teams. However, interestingly, Lynnfield has now faced six playoff teams in their 10 games and have won five of them (Newburyport, Hamilton-Wenham, Stoneham, Watertown, and Manchester Essex.) Their only loss was to Bedford. The Pioneers finish up with a tough customer in North Reading so the skeptics may want to reevaluate the Pioneers strength of schedule.
Milestones
The win gives the Pioneers nine wins on the season, the ninth LHS team to win at least that many. Three of them have come under Weidman in the last five years. The Pioneers have a chance to be only the second team to win 10 games in a season (only the 2009 10-2 team has been able to do it).
The 21 points also lifted the Pioneers over the 300 point mark for the year. Their 310 points this year makes them only the third team all-time to break that mark. The 2010 team scored 336 and the 1960 squad rolled for 410 in nine games.
The one point win was the first for the Pioneers since 2006 when they defeated Hull 8-7. Stephen Palladino hit Chris Costa for a touchdown and Daniel Canty threw a two point conversion pass to Pat Lamusta for the Pioneer points that day.
That's it for now. Check back next week for my North Reading game preview.
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