by Tom Condardo
You can pretty much count on two hands the number of times the Pioneers have really been tested in the past three years. Holliston last year. North Reading, Watertown, Bedford, and Newburyport in 2013. Bishop Feehan, North Reading, Bishop Fenwick, Amesbury, and Newburyport in 2012. You can throw in Winthrop last season, as well as Hamilton Wenham and Pentucket in 2012 if you want to make it an even baker's dozen. Lynnfield is 7-6 in those games.
I bring that up because the Pioneers are looking at one of those games this week. The starters better have some extra Wheaties because I don't think they'll be getting any time off in this one.
Danvers is the real deal - experienced, fast, and athletic. They opened the season last week by demolishing Winthrop 43-0.
semifinalist Tewksbury.
Marquee Matchup
This will be a big, early season test on where the Pioneers stand this season. They are stepping up one division and will be facing a team with high ambitions and a ton of talent.
The Herald has the Pioneers rated as the top team in Division 4 North with the Falcons listed at #5 in Division 3 Northeast. This should be one of the feature match ups on the North Shore this weekend.
Formidable Falcons
The Falcons run the Spread under second year coach Shawn Theriault, a change from the double wing they ran when the Pioneers played them several years ago. (More on that later). Danvers piled up 440 yards of offense - 290 on the ground and 150 in the air - in the win over Winthrop.Junior Dean Borders, playing his first game as the starting quarterback, was 12 for 16 for 136 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a 13 yard TD. Junior Danny Lynch ran for 101 yards on only nine carries. Anders Salmonsen picked up 77 yards and a score on seven carries. Matt Andreas ran for 36 yards and caught seven passes for 69 yards. Six different players scored for the Falcons who dominated the trenches against the Vikings.
The defense was even more impressive. They return seven players from a unit that allowed 17.2 points per game last year. Senior captain linebacker Sam Vitale and safety Danny Lynch lead the aggressive group. They don't have a lot of size, but they are quick to the ball and obviously know how to play the spread facing it every day in practice.
The Falcons are looking to make some noise in a tough Northeastern Conference North division against Beverly, Marblehead, Peabody, Lynn English and Lynn Classical. They'll be ready for the Pioneers since they want to go into their tough league schedule with a head of steam.
Buckle up your chinstraps. Should be quite a game.
Familiar Foe
This will be the first time since 2012 that the Pioneers have been playing up a division. The opponent that time was....Danvers. The two teams met four times between 2009 and 2012 with the Pioneers taking three of the four contests.
In 2009, Lynnfield won a game that may have been the turning point in the program. They came into the game 3-1 but their wins were against clearly inferior opponents. The game in Danvers in a steady rain was their first real test. They stunned the Falcons in the first half building a 14-0 lead with Gino Cohee running wild for 183 yards as the offensive line of Eric Inglese, Jon Leyden, Doug Ullian, and Evan Panzero ripped through the Falcons.
The offense sputtered in the second half and with two minutes left in the game, Danvers got the ball at midfield and marched down the field in five plays to punch in a score with 1:07 left. Michael Pescione blocked the PAT and the Pioneer lead was down to 14-6. After a Falcon onside kick went out of bounds at midfield, the Pioneers only had to run out the clock to seal the win but the Falcons recovered a fumble at the Lynnfield 45 with 58 seconds to play. Three incomplete passes set up a fourth down and A. J. Roberto picked off a pass to end it.
The rest, as they say, is history, as the Pioneers ripped off six straight to finish the season 10-1 and make it to the postseason for the first time since 1986. The Pioneers lost a heartbreaker to Austin Prep 26-20 but the turnaround dated from that Danvers game. Lynnfield is 50-15 since that win with four league titles, four playoff appearance, a division championship, and a trip to the Super Bowl.
The Pioneers pounded the Falcons 40-18 in their run of seven straight wins to open the 2010 season.
Defense took a holiday in Danvers in 2011 when the two teams engaged in a shootout with the Falcons taking an exciting 42-35 win. Both teams rolled for over 400 yards of offense with a combined total of 893 yards.
Lynnfield fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter but sophomore Kyle McGah stepped in for injured captain Mike Thomas to help lead the comeback. He scored the first TD right before the half to make it 14-6. Mike Karavetsos tied the game with a 53 yard run and two point conversion rush early in the third quarter. They took a 21-14 lead when Karavetsos hit a wide open Steven Yobaccio with a 56 yd TD pass. Alex Roper nailed the PAT and the Pioneers led 21-14.
Danvers roared back with three scores to take a 35-21 lead midway in the fourth. Karavetsos hit Nico Varano to cut the lead to 35-28 but the Falcons scored on a long run to make it 42-28. McGah's second TD got the Pioneers to within one score at 42-35 with a minute to play but the Falcons recovered the onside kick to sew up the win.
The Pioneers shut out the Falcons 21-0 on the way to the Super Bowl in 2012.
Those have been the only four meetings between the schools and something tells me this week will provide another exciting chapter in the rivalry.
Game time at Bishop Fenwick is 7 pm.
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