The Newburyport Nightmare: 13 Trips to Nowhere

By Tom Condardo

"I was 11 years old."

The quote from head coach Neal Weidman just hung there in the humidity at Pentucket high school last Saturday after the Sachem win. I had just informed him that the last time the Pioneers won in Newburyport was 1986. Now that's a depressing thought.

Another is that this is my 26th year covering the Pioneers, and I've never left War Memorial Stadium after after a Lynnfield win. Nope. Not one time. 0 for 12. The dirty dozen.

Kyle McGah after 2012 loss

The Pioneers are 6-15 at home against the Clippers after last year's 21-13 win, but they are 3-17 in Newburyport. Lynnfield and Newburyport entered the Cape Ann League together in 1973 and have met 41 times. The Pioneers' record in those games is 9-32, by far the worst record against any of their long time CAL rivals. And it's not even close.

So being a glutton for punishment, I thought I'd take you for a ride down Memory's Sewer for the unlucky 13 straight losses up north. Think of this as a purge. Maybe if we get them out in the open, all the poison can drain out once and for all.

Before we get into the streak, let's recap the last win in Newburyport, just to remind everyone it actually can be done.

1986
The 1986 team opened their CAL season by traveling to Newburyport, one of the preseason favorites to win it all. Making the task even tougher for Bill Adams' squad was the fact that the Pioneers would be playing without standout running back Todd Coviello. The senior co-captain hurt his knee against Wayland and was unavailable in this game.

Outstanding tackle and fellow co-captain Darrell Carty picked up the slack on defense to lead the Pioneers to victory. When the dust had settled, Carty had 13 solo tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. He led a tenacious Lynnfield defense that kept Newburyport out of the endzone until the last play of the game. For his efforts, Carty was named the Division 3 Defensive Star of the Week by the Boston Globe.

Dave Frontero tossed a 48 yard touchdown pass to Mark Guido in the second quarter to put the Pioneers up 6-0. Mark Sutera scored on a nine yard draw play, Frontero booted the extra point and the Pioneers led 13-0. The Pioneers scored again on a fake field goal on a fourth and goal from the nine late in the first half. Backup quarterback and holder Steve Bucci drilled one to Jason Mochi to give Lynnfield a 19-0 lead at the break and it was clear the Clippers would not be coming back in this one.  Newburyport got their lone TD on the final play of the game on a 16 yard pass.

The Pioneers would go on to finish 9-1, take the CAL crown, and advance to the Division 3 Super Bowl where they fell to Lincoln Sudbury 19-0.

That would be it for W's in Newburyport. The agony of defeats follows:

1988
36-14. Eric Kellar ran for a pair of scores and Steve Walsh hit Tim Doyle for the two point conversion in the loss.

1990
35-7. Todd Guido's kickoff return and David Picard's PAT was all Lynnfield could manage on this night.

1992
19-7. Opportunity lost here as the Pioneers had nearly 300 yards of offense and dominated the line of scrimmage but still came up empty. Greg Sawin opened the scoring for Lynnfield with a 10 yard run. Kevin Hanegan banged home the PAT and the Pioneers led 7-0. Despite dominating the game, they wouldn't score again. Lynnfield thought they had another TD when Billy Adams, Jr. scooped up a fumble and ran it into the endzone, but a fumble can't be advanced in high school. The Pioneers squandered that opportunity and came up empty. The Clippers tied it late in the half, went up 13-7 late in the third and nailed it down with a fourth quarter TD.

An interesting side note on the 1992 team. This was the only Pioneer squad with a female player. Daryl Jamison was a defensive back who actually got in on a couple of plays during the year.

1994
27-6. Sophomore Jason Caggiano hit Joel McManus with a TD pass for the only Pioneer points.

1996
22-14. Another heartbreaker. Even when the Clippers were in a rare down year, they managed to upend the Pioneers. Lynnfield came into the game 4-2 and Newburyport was 2-4 having been outscored 98-33. The Pioneers were hobbled with injuries losing linemen Lance Brown and Jon Growitz early in the game. They also lost end Justin Haskell who suffered an ankle injury early. The Pioneers scored on their opening drive with Caggiano hitting Haskell - pre injury - with a 5 yard TD pass. Caggiano ran for the two points to give the Pioneers an 8-0 lead. The Clippers tied it and the teams went into the half 8-8. The Clippers scored on the opening drive of the third quarter to take a 15-8 lead. The Pioneers answered right back with Caggiano sneaking in from the one to make it 15-14. But with Brown and Haskell both out of action, the Pioneers had no placekickers and Caggiano was sacked on the point after try to keep them one down. Newburyport scored again to seal the deal.

The Clippers would only win one more game to finish 4-6. The Pioneers finished 6-4, the only Lynnfield winning record from 1992 to 2002.

1998
46-6. Kris Borkowski to Charlie Shove for the lone Pioneer score.

2000
28-6. Dan Venoit's TD run was all the Pioneer's could muster in the rain.

2002
36-19. Two TD's and a PAT from Jamie Solomon (a run and a kickoff return) and a Lou Navarro to Steve Schedin TD pass accounted for all the Pioneer scoring.

2004
21-20. A true heartbreaker. Late in the fourth quarter, the 0-6 Pioneers mounted a late game comeback against the 1-6 Clippers. With time running out, Newburyport running back Joe Pace coughed up the football and Pioneer defensive back Rick Parziale pounced on it at the Lynnfield 11 yard line. With 2:09 left, Lynnfield had 89 yards to go to reach the endzone.

Pioneer quarterback Tony DiCesare connected on five of six passes to three different receivers in an amazing drive downfield. A 27 yarder to Jesse Bruinsma and two short completions to Tino Cohee got the ball to the Clipper 42 with 1:12 left. DiCesare then hit Parziale on a 23 yarder to get to the Clipper 19 with 64 seconds left. Another 13 yard sideline pass to Bruinsma put the ball at the Newburyport six yard line. Fullback Jared Provost plowed in from there on an inside trap and the Pioneers had cut the lead to 21-20 with 37 seconds to play.

Faced with the decision to kick the extra point and send the game into overtime or going for the immediate win, head coach Bill Adams opted to go for the victory right there. The Pioneers called the same trap that had succeeded three times already in the game but unfortunately, DiCesare and Provost could not connect on the handoff and the the loose ball was pounced on by a pile of Pioneers and Clippers just short of the goal line.

"You can second guess us, but we went for the win," Adams told me after the game. "We actually had decided before the game that if it came down to the end we would go for the win. We reconfirmed it at halftime and during the second half. We were going to take the chance to win."

2006
42-7. Dan O'Donnell's run was the only Pioneer TD. Dan Canty booted the PAT

2008
24-14. Another frustrating night. Chris Grassi threw a pick 6 on the first play of the game and the Clippers went on to build a 17-0 lead. Grassi made up for it quickly scoring on a 6 yard run then hitting Tyler Surette on a 3 yard TD, then running in for the two points to get the Pioneers back to 17-14 at the half. The Clippers ate up the third quarter and scored to make it 24-14 then Tstifled the Pioneers the rest of the way.

2010
24-7. This one stung particularly hard.

The defending CAL Small champion Pioneers roared into Newburyport on fire. They were 7-0 having outscored the opposition 252-58. Their smallest point total in those games was 28 and they reached 40 points three times. They were riding a school record 15 straight wins dating back to the championship year. They had won 10 straight league games and seven straight on the road.

The Clippers appeared to be struggling coming into the game 3-4, but that was deceptive as they were coming off a hellacious non league schedule against all the CAL Large teams.

It was a circus atmosphere that night with Fox 25 having picked the game as their High School game of the week. They broadcast their 6 pm newscast from the field at the stadium and ran highlights at the 10 pm edition. Unfortunately, the Pioneers wilted under bright lights as the Clippers rolled to lopsided advantages in rushing yards (244-23), total yards (339-111), first downs (12-2), time of possession (26:44 to 13:16) and ultimately the final score which was 24-7.

"We got outplayed right from the start," Weidman told me after the game. "It obviously wasn't our best game."

Gino Cohee hit Pete Foustoukos for the Pioneer's only TD and Steve Ullian kicked the PAT.

2012
7-6. One more heartbreaker. The Pioneer line, led by D. J. DeGeorge and Andrew Kibarian, dominated

Danny Sullivan (2) and Andrew Kibarian (64) after 2012 defeat

but the Pioneers were killed by five turnovers and key penalties. The Clippers scored on their opening drive to take a 7-0 lead. The Pioneers scored late in the third when Mike Karavetsos ran one in. But on a humid night that cause a lot of players to cramp up, the Pioneers were down to their third long snapper. The snap was bad and the kick was blocked. The Pioneers could never get the go-ahead score.

2014?
Who knows? Is it the end of the streak or more continued frustration?

Check back tomorrow for my game preview.