By Tom Condardo
The Pioneers said their formal goodbyes to this year's senior class Friday night (although there is still more left to the season) and it was a well earned tribute. You couldn't ask for more from this group. The numbers are quite eye popping.
As impressive as those numbers are, I want to take a closer look at their undefeated league record in the past four years. Not only have they won every game, but they outscored their league opponents 735-82 - nearly a factor of ten for points scored vs allowed. They also posted shutouts in half (10) of those games.
One might question this dominance and ask 'who have they played?" Well they played their schedule. And if you think this is a case of the big, bad Pioneers beating up on smaller schools, think again. The Pioneers are the SECOND SMALLEST team in the league in terms of male enrollment - the number the MIAA uses to assign divisions. Here are the male enrollments 9-12 of the Baker League and the CAL/NEC 4 (the league Lynnfield was part of during the 2012 season). The numbers are enrollments as of last year according to Danny Ventura of the Boston Herald.
- Manchester-Essex/Rockport - 376
- North Reading - 342 (CAL/NEC 4 2012)
- Amesbury - 328 (CAL Baker, 2013-15)
- Ipswich - 314
- Lynnfield - 305
- Georgetown - 210
This isn't a case of a Masco, Wilmington, or North Andover with double the enrollment of Lynnfield beating up on the Pioneer teams of the mid 1990's. This is a case of Neal Weidman and his coaching staff putting together a superior program that has attracted the maximum number of possible players from their enrollment.
Do the math. There were nearly 70 kids out for football last year. That's almost a quarter of all male students playing football. That's incredible in this day and age and is tribute to the program Weidman has built. In addition to the numbers, the coaches put in an enormous number of hours to put the players in the best position to succeed and the kids have bought in.
Congrats to the players and coaches both. And farewell (after a few more games) to this talented group of seniors: Captains Drew McCarthy, CJ Finn, Drew Balestrieri, Spencer Balian, and Cam DeGeorge; Alex Soden, Esaie Philantrope, Jake McHugh, Max Robert, Evan Battaglia, Ricky Johnson, Patrick Garrity, Dan Bronshvayg Steven Vaccaro, Trevor Caswell, Brenden Rothwell, Paul Foukas, Matt Giannasca, Nick Fiorentino, and Nathaniel Courtney-Sweeney.
DeeFense
The Pioneers were favorites heading into Friday night's game, but when Hamilton-Wenham showed up missing their starting quarterback, best lineman and several other starters, the dismantling of the Generals was fairly predictable. It wasn't what the Pioneers wanted as they looked to tune up for the playoffs against tough opposition.
But alas it wasn't to be and the Pioneers once again dominated on both sides of the ball. Defensively, Lynnfield shut down the General running game holding them to minus 11 yards on the ground until late in the fourth quarter when both JV squads were on the field.
Heading into the playoffs, the Pioneers have allowed only six TD's in their first seven games, and only three, all to Danvers, by the starting defense. Weidman will be hoping that trend continues as the skill level of the opposition ramps up considerably starting this week.
Passing Fancy
From the Department of Nitpicking, a few eyebrows may have been raised when the Generals seemed able to throw the ball with alarming success against the Pioneers. Sophomore quarterback Hunter Wilichoski, tossed into the breach, was quite competent completing 14 of 30 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown. He did throw a pair of interceptions.
Sophomore Cam Peach was particularly explosive, catching seven passes for 135 yards and a TD.
That was by far the most success any team has had against the Pioneers exceeding the 118 put up by Danvers. In fact the 186 is more than half of the total allowed in the first seven games.
"They were trying to throw it down the field, and they got a few." Weidman told me after the game. "The one on the sideline was good coverage but the ball was under thrown and the kid came back to make the catch. They hit a couple of posts. We went away from a few of our rules to try and stop one particular thing. Then we just went back to how we normally do it and that kind of fixed itself a little bit after we did that."
High Points
The 49 points the Pioneers put up were the most in a game since 1985 when the Pioneers whitewashed Masco 55-0. It was the 10th highest scoring game in LHS history and most ever scored against Hamilton-Wenham, topping the 35 scored in a 1998 shutout of the Generals.
It was the highest point total in the Weidman Era besting the 47 put up against Manchester-Essex in 2012.
Speaking of the numbers, through seven games, the Pioneers have posted remarkably similar statistics as the 2013 and 2014 teams. Offensive, the Pioneers have scored 243 points compared to 253 last year, and 248 in 2013.
On the defensive side, through seven games the Pioneers have allowed 43 points compared to 20 last season and 48 in 2013. They've allowed 671 rushing yards and 313 passing yards for a total of 984 this season. That compares to 673/462/1135 last year and 805/515/1320 in 2013.
Moving On Up
Congrats to Tom Waisnor, the Voice of Pioneer Stadium, who announced his first college game at Merrimack last Saturday. I asked him how many times he slipped and said "Pioneers" instead of "Warriors."
"None!" he told me. "It was easy for me. I'm a former Wakefield Warrior."
It was Senior Day there Saturday, so he had two ceremonies in a row. As an added bonus, he got to announce Warrior senior and former Pioneer Jon Roberto who plays for Merrimack.
That's it for now. Check back Tuesday night when I'll wrap up the Baker League regular season and talk about the upcoming Division Four North Playoffs. The Pioneers will be hosting Watertown Friday night in a first round game. Much more on that later in the week.
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