Pentucket Leftovers

By Tom Condardo

The past two weeks have probably taught the Pioneers a valuable lesson: against good teams, you have to play two halves. They took leads into halftime in both games, 17-12 over Watertown and 21-0 over Pentucket only to see those leads slip away in the final two quarters.

There's a reason Watertown is heading for the Division Four North final next week and Pentucket won the Kinney Division and is 8-1: they're both really good teams. And when you have a team down, you have to step on their throats and keep them down. The Pioneers weren't able to do that and as a result were outscored 41-7 combined in the two games in the second half.

Of course you might say it's understandable for them to struggle in the final two quarters since in six of their nine games the Pioneer starters have basically only played the first half. Standing on the sidelines for blowout wins didn't do much to help teach the Pioneers how to close out games.

Head coach Neal Weidman doesn't necessarily buy that.

"I don't think today (against Pentucket) was an issue," Weidman told me after the game. "It might have been an issue last week. I don't think it was an issue this week because there weren't a lot of plays run. It was a fast game. The third quarter was over in a flash."

Weidman pointed to a few key plays that led to the Pentucket second half surge.

"We missed a couple of tackles (on the second half kick return) and gave them a short field and they got a big chunk on the second (touchdown drive) which gave them momentum," the coach said. "The bad snap on the extra point (that kept the score at 27-20) hurt but what are you going to do."

In the disappointment of the heartbreaking loss, it's easy to dismiss the final, furious drive by the Pioneers that almost pulled out the win. All the momentum was going the Sachems' way after they took a 28-27 lead with 3:28 left. It would have been easy for the Pioneers to pack it in but instead they put together their best drive of the second half moving 65 yards in 10 plays. They showed a lot of heart on the march and the fact that Dan Bronshvayg's 24 yard kick from a bad angle was wide left doesn't take away from that.

Yipes Stripes
You never want to blame the officials for a loss and I'm not about to do that. However, there were a number of head scratching decisions in that second half, and most of them went against the Pioneers. As a coach, player, or fan all you really want is consistency. For the teams on the field, once they can determine how a particular group of officials is going to call a game, they can adjust. The problem with the game on Saturday is that this group was pretty inconsistent. To wit:

Slow whistle/quick whistle? - During the runback on the key second half kick, Robert Porter appeared to be down around midfield but no whistle was heard. He smartly just got up and kept running and got the ball down to the Lynnfield 36 yard line. Okay, the officials are going to let the boys play. Fast forward to Pentucket's second possession in the third period. Second and nine from the Lynnfield 21. Liam Sheehy pounds into the line and the Pioneers almost immediately strip him and recover the fumble. But wait. The play was whistled dead. On the next play Finn Graham hit Sheehy with a waggle pass and he ran it in to cut the lead to 21-14.

Horse collar/No Horse collar? - On Pentucket's go ahead touchdown drive, Kiernan Haley broke loose on a 60 yard run. Esaie Philantrope ran him down and tackled him at the one yard line. During the tackle, Philantrope appeared to grab for the back of Haley's shoulder pad then his hand slipped down onto his jersey just above the number 9 which is how he was eventually taken down. Flag. Horse collar tackle. Ball moved from the one yard line to the half yard line. Okay, we're going to be calling horse collar tackles pretty closely. Sheehy pounded in from the there to make it 27-26 and then the Sachems converted the two pointer to give them the 28-27 lead.

Fast forward to the Pioneers' last ditch drive. Drew McCarthy broke loose on a 25 yard run heading for the endzone. Travis Bounsy ran him down at the nine yard line, grabbed him by the back of his shoulder pad, and threw him down roundup style. No flag. Instead of a half the distance penalty that would have given the Pioneers a first down at the four yard line, they were back at the nine. As the clock was melting away, those five yards were huge.

Old School
I have to tell you I really miss Saturday afternoon games. A big reason is I can take much better pictures for my Villager articles. But there is something about a crisp, fall afternoon that screams high school football.

What I don't miss is natural "grass" fields that are more dirt than grass. I don't want to sound like a "turf field snob" but the field at Pentucket High School was a joke. It looked like the old LHS field that was worn to a nub in the middle and quickly resembled a dust bowl. I thought the Pioneers lost McCarthy early in the game after his face was pounded - literally - into the ground at midfield. My guess is he got a nice mouthful of dirt for his effort. He had to come out of the game for a play to clear his esophagus.

The field conditions also didn't do Bronshvayg any favors. He appeared to slip on the dirt on the first missed PAT and the final field goal attempt was from the dirt as well. Weidman didn't go there when I suggested the condition of the field played into the troubles in the kicking game.

"Both teams had to kick on it," he told me.

Even Steven
A look at the statistics shows how really close this one was and not just because of the one point scoring differential.  In the running game, Lynnfield had 32 carries for 226 yard and 2 TDs. Pentucket carried 32 times for 222 yards and 2 TDs. Each team had one sack. The Pioneers won the time of possession battle by 18 seconds 22:09-21:51.

On the other side of the ledger, there were two big discrepancies. In the passing game, Jake McHugh was 18/25 for 199 yards and two TD's. Finn Graham was 6/9 for 59 yards and two TDs. And once again, the Pioneers came out on the short end of the penalty tally getting flagged nine times for 65 yards. The Sachems were called for four penalties for 35 yards.

Efficiency
Everyone knows that Pentucket is a Wing T run heavy offense, but they throw the ball just enough to keep the defense off balance. Such was the case Saturday. Graham threw the ball only ten times, completing six. He was 1 for 4 for four yards in the first half. But he was selective and surgical in the second half going 5 for 5 and getting a pass interference call on his sixth throw of the half. And he made his completions count. Two went for touchdowns, two were third down conversions, and one was the winning two point conversion.

One Is the Loneliest Number
The one point loss was the first for the Pioneers since a 7-6 setback to Newburyport in 2012. Overall Lynnfield is 10-16 in one point games, 2-5 in the Weidman era.

Rare Conversion
McHugh's two point conversion on the Pioneers' second touchdown was Lynnfield's first two point rush since last season when Jake Rourke pounded one in against Amesbury in game three. It was only the seventh time the Pioneers have tallied a rushing two point conversion following the 331 touchdowns scored in the Weidman era.

Name Game
I enjoy perusing opponent rosters for interesting or unusual first names. In reading down the roster for Pentucket, you get the feeling the Pioneers were playing Dublin High School. Here is a sampling of Sachem first names with Irish roots: Brennan, Kiernan, Finn, Brendan, Liam, and Conner.

That's it for now. Check back Thursday night for my preview of the Pioneers' final home game of the season against Triton.