Around the CAL Baker: Week 5

by Tom Condardo

The Pioneers sit alone atop the Baker League standings thanks to their win over Manchester-Essex last week and they have a chance to clinch their fourth straight league title with a victory over Georgetown this Friday. The Division Four Playoff race is also coming into focus and we'll review that along with last week's Baker action. First, the updated standings.



The Pioneers need a win in one of their last two games to clinch the league title since they now own the head to head tiebreaker with both Ipswich and Man-Essex - the only remaining one loss teams in the league.

There is also a battle for second place - and an automatic bid in the playoffs - and Ipswich took a big step forward in that one with a 10-7 win over Amesbury last week. The Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 10 yard TD run by Jake Long. They added a 22 yard field goal from Adam Fyrer to make it 10-0 at the half.

That would be it for the Tiger offense who turned it over to the defense to seal the win.  Alex Morris intercepted an Adam Incontri pass to snuff out one Indian drive that led to the field goal. The Indians made a game of it by blocking a Tiger punt in the fourth quarter and recovering at the Ipswich 21. Incontri hit Dan Welch for a TD pass that cut the lead to 10-7.

The Tigers ended a last minute Amesbury drive with another interception to nail down the win.

The Tiger win sets up a big game with Manchester-Essex this Friday night in Ipswich. Both teams are 2-1 in league play and the winner would have the inside track on second place and the automatic playoff bid should the Pioneers clinch first place.

Amesbury will try to bounce back when they host Hamilton Wenham on Friday night.

Hamilton-Wenham picked up their first win by rolling over winless Georgetown 34-7. The Generals rushed for 280 yards and four TD's against an undermanned Royals squad. CJ Cooper led H/W with 116 yards and two TD's. The Generals led 7-0 after one quarter and 20-0 at the half. The Royals scored their only TD on a 65 yard fumble recovery return by Ryan Sherman.

The Generals will try to make it two in a row when they travel to Amesbury Friday night while Georgetown comes to town Friday night to take on the Pioneers.

Division Four North



Pentucket cemented its hold on the top seed with an impressive 28-6 win over North Reading on Saturday. I was at the game and the Sachems are the real deal. They shut down the Hornets' running game and forced North Reading to pass - something they're not comfortable doing. This is the biggest Pentucket team - sizewise - I've seen in years with a large, active defensive line and a two dangerous running backs in Liam Sheehy and Kiernan Haley.

The Sachems have a big game with D3 Masco this week. It's Pentucket's last game of the regular season since they are only playing a six game schedule this year. A win over the Chieftains might very well nail down the top seed for Pentucket.

Losses by three of the top four teams in the division last week coupled with the Pioneers' win over three-win Manchester Essex vaulted the Pioneers into the number two seed this week. Stoneham, North Reading and Watertown all lost which provided the opening for the Pioneers.

Things could change significantly this weekend since Stoneham has an opportunity to pick up 27 points if they can upset D3 Melrose (5-0). Watertown can earn 18 points with a win over D3 Wilmington (2-3). North Reading can get 19 points with a victory over 3-2 Triton, but the Vikings can scoop up 22 points with a victory over the four-win Hornets. The Pioneers, meanwhile, would only get 10 points for a victory over winless Georgetown and Bedford can only pick up 12 points by beating winless Medford.

We'll know a lot more after this week as we head down the home stretch.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday for my Georgetown game preview.