Ipswich Leftovers

by Tom Condardo

First off, sorry for the delay. I'm sure you've all been waiting patiently for the post, but I've been kinda busy - sorting out the playoffs and all. I also had to write a couple of stories for this week's Villager - one on the game and another previewing the upcoming battle with Saugus.

Which reminds me, for those of you out of towners who've been yearning to read my Villager articles, your wait is over! The Villager is now on line. Check it out at lynnfieldvillager.com and catch all the local news and sports and me.

Back to the task at hand.

So it was a successful Senior Night enjoyed by players and their parents and all the fans who got to see another dominating performance by the Pioneers. We'll get into the Ipswich game in a bit but first I want to talk a little about the power rankings.

First of all, let me say I think the new playoff system is awesome. The Twittersphere was going nuts Saturday and I personally spent WAY too much time calculating playoff matchup possibilities. The only real flaw in the playoff system, and one that can be easily corrected, is the automatic bid for second place teams. That almost kept a quality team like Saugus out, but ultimately it all worked out for the best.

And even for those complaining about Swampscott and Hamilton Wenham, the seventh and eighth seeds, not being worthy, take a look at the ratings. The only team higher is Arlington Catholic, whose 82 points were only slightly higher than Swampscott at 77 and HW at 74. And AC was only 4-3, the same as the Generals and only a game better than the Big Blue at 3-4. For the most part, the right teams are in.

But the question of the day is, how could the Pioneers at 7-0 be so far off from a top two seed? Their 115 points were 21 less than Watertown and 31 less than Winthrop. The obvious answer is the futility of the Pioneer opponents, which is partly true, but it's actually more than that. For a deeper look, let's look at the math (because that's what I do.)

It turns out there are ways that scheduling can work in your favor. It's probably not worth it for schools to spend a lot of time on it, but there are ramifications to the way games are scheduled.

As an example, let's compare the Pioneers to Winthrop, the top seed in Division 4. It turns out that it  would have been nearly impossible for Lynnfield to overtake the Vikings for the number one spot. The reason is that they started with a 22 point deficit even before the first kickoff. Let me explain.

As you all know by now, there are two ways to get points. One is by a team's own performance and the other is by the performance of the opponents a team has beaten. Let's look at own points first.

Winthrop plays in the Northeast Conference which is a predominantly a Division Three league. The only other team in Division 4 is Swampscott. All the teams in the South Division are Division 3 teams. The rule is you get 10 points for wins against teams in your own division, 12 for teams in a higher division and 8 for wins in a lower division (unless they are in your league).

The Vikings ran the table in their league going 5-0 against all Division 3 teams, thus they picked up 60 points in their league. They beat two Division 4 teams in Saugus and Swampscott so their own point value was 80 points.

On to the opponents.

Since they swept a 6 team league, the Vikings were guaranteed 3 points for every game played between league teams. That's 20 games, 10 winners equals 30 more potential points.

Taking it another step, none of the Vikings opponents played each other giving Winthrop the opportunity to cash in on every win by one of their opponents. That turned out to be 22 games or a potential point total of 66. So that gave Winthrop a potential maximum point total of 176 points.

The Pioneers on the other hand played a full Division 4 schedule, so their 7 wins gave them 70 points. So right off the bat the Pioneers were 10 points behind.

They earned the same number of league points since they also swept their 6 team league giving them 30 points there.

But here is where  the big difference comes in. The Pioneer opponents played a total of 21 games (Newburyport played only 6 games costing the Pioneers another potential 3 points.) Added to that was that there were three games between teams the Pioneers beat, preventing them from picking up  another 9 points.

Bottom line is that the maximum potential point total for Lynnfield was 154 (70+30+54). So before they even began they were behind the eight ball in points.

Well it turns out Winthrop's opponents went 12-10 giving them 36 points on top of the 110 they earned for their own wins and their automatic league wins giving them a total of 146.

The Pioneers picked up all their 70 points, the 30 interleague points, and the 9 points from the three games between beaten opponents for a total of 109. So there were only 15 other games by opponents that the Pioneers could have picked up points. Unfortunately, Lynnfield foes went 2-13 in those games giving them only 6 more points and a total of 115. Their opponents would have had to go 13-2 in those games for the Pioneers to catch Winthrop, something that they didn't come close to doing.

Got that?

Bottom line, to maximize their point total, teams should play teams in a higher division (providing they think they can beat them), play teams that play a full 7 game schedule, and schedule non league opponents that don't play each other.

I'm done. That's more information than you wanted but at least you have it.

On to the Ipswich game.

Impressed Opponent
Speaking of opponents, I spoke to Ipswich head coach Greg Brotherton after the game and he was effusive in his praise of the Pioneers.

"That's a special team," he told me. "(Weidman) should be proud of his team. The line play was absolutely amazing. When you have a center (David Adams) pulling out in front on a sweep you know you have some unbelievable talent."

"Outside of Marblehead," Brotherton went on, "They'd beat any team in the Northeast Conference."

To be fair to Ipswich, Brotherton was without starting quarterback Jake Long who hurt his hand against Manchester Essex. He also had seven players going both ways, a death knell for a team playing the Pioneers who unleash waves upon waves of talent against opponents.

Brotherton appears to have turned the Tigers around, and they will return as a force in the league in years to come.

Speed Kills
Kudos to junior Drew McCarthy who picked up a Star of the Week award from the Boston Herald for his 148 yard, two touchdown performance against the Tigers. He could have been 200+ yards with three scores but he had a 62 yarder called back.

He showed amazing acceleration and speed on all three runs. On the second one, assistant coach Gino Fodera turned to me and said "he was gone so fast my line didn't have a chance to block."

Don't Need No Stinkin' First Downs
Despite the blowout, the Pioneers picked up only 5 first downs, only one in the second half. Touchdowns of 74, 62, 51, 51 and 68 yards will do that.

Lucky 13
Cam Rondeau's 13th interception turned out to be the first pick six of his career. It was also the first interception return for a score this year. The last one was by Jake Rourke who did the trick against Manchester Essex last season. It was the 27th pick six in the history of the school.

Sophomore Workload
Thanks to all the blowout wins, sophomore running back Nick Contardo has accumulated quite a workload this year. He tied for the most carries against Ipswich with nine and his 22 carries is the fourth most on the team for the season behind Rourke (71), McCarthy (39) and Danny Sullivan (31). He's picked up 96 yards for a solid 4.4 per carry average.

No Dropoff on D
Speaking of the reserves, the second and third team defenses showed no drop off against Ipswich. They held the first string Tiger offense to 25 yards and no first downs on the final two series of the game.

Goose Eggs
The Pioneers' fourth shutout of the year was the 95th in school history. It ties them with the 2010, 2003, 1983, 1964, and 1959 teams who also posted four shutouts. The record is held by the 1962 team who held opponents scoreless in five of nine games.

The Pioneers have now allowed only 20 points through their first seven games but the '62 team still has them beat allowing only 12 through their first 7.

Familiar Foe
The game with the Tigers was the 46th between the schools and the Pioneers are on the short end of a 20-26 record. Ipswich is the second most faced Lynnfield opponent topped only by North Reading's 56 meetings.

Senior Salute
Finally a tip of the helmet to the 19 seniors who were honored Friday night. They've had a tremendous career and they're not done yet. Congrats to Captains Danny Sullivan, Jon Knee, David Adams, and Cam Rondeau and the rest of the seniors Rob Debonis, Jake Rourke, Marc Budd, Chad Martin, Kevin Lee, Lucas Pascucci, Nick Wilkinson, Steve Kinnon, Matt Albano, Dylan Shaffer, Al McLachlan, Brando Troisi, Edison McIntosh, Steven White and Chris O'Neill.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday for my preview of Saturday night's big playoff game.