by Tom Condardo
Talking to Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman before the season, he commented on the importance of having a big senior class like he has this year (19) and had last year (18).
The more I cover high school football, the more I see how true that is. Look at any successful team and you're likely to find a preponderance of seniors on the roster. It's not necessarily a mystery why this is so. Any parent knows there is a huge difference in physical size and emotional maturity between a 14-15 year old sophomore and a 17-18 year old senior. Add in the fact that the senior has played for two or three years and understands the system and also that they realize that for many of them, their senior year will be the last time they every play organized football. So a large number of seniors working together provides a powerful force for a football team.
The impact of senior leadership was on full display Friday night in Manchester in the game between the Pioneers and the Hornets. Let's start with the home team.
The Hornets (3-2) are enjoying a resurgence under new head coach Jeff Dutton and came into this game tied with the Pioneers with a chance to take over first place in the CAL Baker. Glancing at the two teams in warmups, you saw a 30 man M/E squad on one side and the 54 man Pioneers on the other. It would be easy to dismiss the game to come as a mismatch.
But anyone who thought that would be overlooking the "senior factor." The Hornets may have only suited up 30 players, but 12 of them were seniors, and that made a difference.
Compare Friday night's game to the previous week against an Ipswich team that had only seven seniors. In both games, the Pioneers stuffed the opponents' offense out of the gate then came down and scored twice. In the Ipswich game, the Pioneers powered from there with two more first half touchdowns essentially ending the contest by halftime.
That wasn't the case against the Hornets. Despite the two early scores, M/E - led by their seniors, were determined to make a game out of it. They started when senior Jake Rich blocked Dan Bronshvayg's PAT try on the first TD and then sacked Jake McHugh on the the two point try after the second. Instead of trailing 14-0 the score was 12-0 and the Hornets were able to celebrate a couple of small successes.
The Pioneers smothered the Hornet offense for the rest of the first half, but the M/E defense scrapped and battled and held the Pioneers scoreless the rest of the half. This was a ball game at half time with the Pioneers holding a 12-0 lead. Sophomore Nick Kinnon's second half TD kickoff return gave Lynnfield some breathing room, and eventually the deeper Pioneers wore down the Hornets, scoring two more times to account for the deceptive-looking lopsided score.
Weidman admitted after the game that the Hornets' aggressive play - and some self inflicted Pioneer mistakes - flustered his squad. "We lost our composure there for a bit and it took us a while to get it back," he said.
And the seniors realized it. After the handshake line following the game, the seniors gathered for an impromptu meeting right on the field. I asked Weidman what that was about.
"They wanted to talk about composing themselves better," the coach told me. "We got an unsportsmanlike penalty at the end for taunting according to the official. They know stuff like that can't happen. so they wanted to talk about that. They talked about no finger pointing and handling things better."
I commented that it must be great to have such senior leadership.
"Absolutely," the coach responded.
Lesson Learned
While we're on the theme, there was a perfect example of senior leadership late in the game. The Hornets faced a third and 12 from their own 33. The snap from center sailed over quarterback Charlie Otterbein's head and he raced back and covered it at the eight yard line. As several Pioneer lineman approached the prone quarterback, captain Cam DeGeorge was waving his arms and screaming "Don't touch him!" The Pioneers dutifully pulled off and the officials blew the play dead.
The Hornet were forced to punt and Ricky Johnson returned the short kick to the M/E 26. Four plays later captain Drew Balestrieri plowed in for the score to make it 25-0.
DeGeorge no doubt learned a valuable lesson from a similar situation in the Danvers game. A snap eluded Falcon quarterback Matt Andreas and he covered it at his own one yard line. Unfortunately he was hit by a Pioneer lineman who felt the ball was still loose. The officials didn't agree and the roughing penalty turned what should have been a third and 19 from the one into a first and 10 at the 16 and a lost golden opportunity for the Pioneers.
DeGeorge made sure that didn't happen again. Perfect illustration of senior leadership.
Anger Management
Speaking of that turn of events, the drive that followed that series was a furious four straight plays of Balestrieri ferociously blowing through the Hornet line - the final one for the score. The Pioneers ran the exact same play and were not going to be denied. It was clearly a message drive for the Pioneers who had been struggling somewhat against the pesky Hornet defense.
"That was out of a little frustration," Weidman said when asked about the play selection. "(Balestrieri) gives us a little different look out of the backfield."
Suffice to say, the Hornets didn't enjoy it.
McCarthy Still Out
Captain Drew McCarthy missed his second straight game with a balky ankle and the void was once again filled by senior Alex Soden and sophomores Andrew DePalma and Kinnon. Soden had 51 yards and a pair of TD's on 8 carries. Kinnon had 44 yards and a score on five carries while DePalma continued his tough running with 35 yards on six carries. Even without McCarthy, the Pioneers averaged 6.6 yards per carry rushing a total of 179 yards.
Even still, Weidman is looking forward to getting his captain back as soon as possible.
"He's a different type of runner," Weidman said.
Different Look
Everyone knows about the proficiency of Bronshvayg's kicking - obvious since he now holds every placekicking record in Pioneer history. But Friday night he showed off another talent. The senior was the Pioneers' leading receiver with five catches for 44 yards. He is now the team's second leading receiver for the year with 10 receptions for 88 yards. Louise Ellis leads all receivers with 16 catches for 264 yards.
No Rush
The Pioneer defense has continued to impress, notching its third straight shutout. Lynnfield has been particularly difficult to run against as evidenced again Friday night. Of the Hornets 39 rushing attempts, they were thrown for a loss or held to no gain on 12 of them. In all they managed only 92 yards on the ground, a 2.4 per carry average.
Streaking
After losing three of the first four meetings with the Hornets, the Pioneers have now reeled off four straight wins to take a 5-3 edge in the series. Lynnfield has outscored M/E 163-20 in that stretch.
Thirty-something
The Pioneer scoring machine has been in full force for several years now but the numbers are truly staggering. In the 28 games since the start of the 2013 season including playoffs, the Pioneers have topped the 30 point mark in 23 of them. Putting that into perspective, in the 20 year period between 1988 and 2008 the Pioneers played 219 game. They scored 30 or more points only six times.
That's it for now. Check back Tuesday when I'll take a look at Baker League action and a review of the D4 North playoff race.
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