by Tom Condardo
It's only been a week and a half, but so far the Pioneers have picked up right where they left off last year. After rampaging through their schedule last season winning 11 games by an average of four touchdowns, they've come out firing again in the preseason beating up two division three teams in impressive fashion.
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| Sophomore Nick Kinnon runs for a big gain against Salem |
Against Salem on Tuesday afternoon, they were just as explosive. They opened the scrimmage with a Jake McHugh to Louis Ellis 50 yard bomb and then scored again in the 10 play set when captain Drew McCarthy sprinted in from the two yard line. In all they scored six times in 50 plays and added a couple of two point conversions for good measure.
McHugh, who has looked sharp so far with five TD passes in two scrimmages, threw two other TD's, a 21 yarder to Cooper Marengi and a 19 yarder to Dan Bronshvayg. Alex Soden ran one in from 11 yards out and sophomore Nick Kinnon scored on a one yard run. (Just a caveat: I think I have all the scoring right but if not my apologies. The boys aren't wearing numbers so I have to rely on input from the guys on the sideline for identification. If I got any wrong, let me know.)
The defense was stingy again allowing only one touchdown by the Witches - on a drive in which the Pioneer coaches had liberally sprinkled in some backups. In all, Salem managed only 105 yards of offense, 50 coming on that one scoring drive. Thus far the Pioneer defense has allowed 201 yards on 95 plays, a 2.1 per play average.
It was a mixed bag in terms of level of competition. Salem was winless last season losing all 11 games in the Northeast Conference South. They brought a thin 35 man roster to Pioneer Stadium including 10 freshmen so chances are they could be in a for a struggle again this year.
Masco is another story. The Chieftains - a perennial power - won the CAL Kinney last year and made it to the Division 3 playoff semifinals before losing to Tewksbury. Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald has them ranked number three in D3 this year which makes the Pioneer's performance even more impressive.
The Pioneers wrap up their preseason schedule with a game-like scrimmage against Northeast Metro Tech on Friday at 4:30 at Pioneer Stadium.
Preseason News and Notes:
Danvers, the Pioneers' second opponent this season, reported a turnout of 52 players. They return seven starters on defense and six on offense from the squad that went 6-5 last year. Danny V has them ranked sixth in D3 going into the season.
There'll be a new look for Manchester Essex this season. New coach Jeff Hutton- long time Beverly assistant - has scrapped the spread offense the Hornets have been featuring for years and is installing the Panther wing T offense. Looks like the Pioneers will have to dust off some old Ipswich films to prepare for that one.
Former Lynnfield offensive coordinator and captain Pat Sheehan will have his hands full this season at Triton, returning only one starter from a Vikings team that went 7-4 and notched an opening round playoff win. He had a healthy 51 player turnout and rumor has it he's roaming the halls at Triton dragging some upper classmen back onto the field to bolster the troops. He also lost one of his coaches - brother Ryan - who has returned to the Lynnfield fold to work on the Pioneer staff.
Finally, it was interesting that the Salem scrimmage began with sets of five punts. CJ Finn and Alex Soden alternated booting for the Pioneers and it was probably a good idea. The Pioneers had very little practice with it last season. They punted only eight times in their eight non-playoff games and another 10 in the four playoff games for a total of 18 for the year. There were three games (Amesbury, Ipswich, and Saugus) where they never punted at all.
That's it for now. Check back later for more.
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