by Tom Condardo
Who said you can never go home again? Sometimes you can. At least for a visit.
That's what Triton head coach Pat Sheehan will be doing this Friday night when he brings his Vikings to town for a clash with the Pioneers. A Lynnfield native, Sheehan captained the 1999 Pioneers and then cut his coaching teeth under Neal Weidman from 2005-2009. He was the offensive coordinator on the historic 2009 staff that won a league title and ended a 23 year championship drought. He left the next season to take the head coaching job in Triton, where he is also a math teacher.Friday night will be the first matchup between mentor and student but the two have stayed close.
"Neal and I know each other very well," Sheehan told me. "We talk two or three times a week. He knows what we do and we know what they do. We do a lot of exchanging of films so we're very familiar with each other's teams. It was inevitable that we'd eventually meet both being in Division Four and both in the Cape Ann League and it finally happened six years into it."
The two have never scheduled a game with each other and it is only first round playoff losses to Stoneham (Triton) and Watertown (Pioneers) that put the two on a collision course.
How does the former Pioneer feel about returning to his old stomping grounds?
"Well it's a different field and a different location," Sheehan joked. "We're not playing at the middle school which is also a beautiful setting. It'll be fun. My parents and family go to every single game and my guess is that they'll be a lot of Sheehan's in attendance."
But who will they be rooting for?
"I would imagine their baby Patrick," he said with a wink.
Looks like the Sheehan's can't lose either way.
Scrappy Vikings
Triton (4-5) comes into the game as decided underdogs, a position they've been in all year. The Vikes graduated everyone from last year's 7-4 squad, returning only one starter. Their 34 man roster includes only seven seniors so this was expected to be a rebuilding year for Sheehan.
"It's a seniors game," Sheehan said. "(Former Triton head coach) Mike Carey, who I talk to a lot and has been a good friend, told me you can mark it down on your calendar - for every sophomore you start, that's a loss. And I told him we're starting nine sophomores. So we've already beaten the odds."
Sheehan and his staff have done a tremendous job with the young squad, guiding them to a 4-3 regular season record, good enough for the fourth seed in the D4N playoffs.
They began the year with a wild 31-28 comeback win over Amesbury and followed that with another close 24-21 victory over Lynn Tech. The lost a tight one to eventual Kinney Division champ Pentucket 13-10 in week three, giving the Sachems their closest battle in an undefeated regular season.
The next week, in an act of near self immolation, the Vikings hosted Division One New Jersey powerhouse Northern Valley and fell 42-6. The Golden Knights are currently 9-0 having scored 40 or more points in eight of their games and head into this week's playoffs with the number one seed in Group 4 of Division 1in Northern New Jersey.
The Vikes bounced back with a solid 30-20 win over Newburyport then lost a tough 14-7 game to North Reading to fall to 3-3. They needed a win over Masco to make the playoffs and squeaked out an impressive 27-26 victory.
Hobbled by injuries, Triton fell to eventual D4N finalist Stoneham 35-14 in the first round of the playoffs. Last week they lost 21-20 in a bizarre contest with Ipswich that featured 13 turnovers - six by the Vikes. The two quarterbacks combined for 10 interceptions and no touchdowns. Triton had three TD's called back on penalties and were still in a position to win when quarterback Lewi L'heureux was forced out of bounds at the Tiger 15 as the game ended.
Attrition had taken a toll on the Vikings, who will come into Pioneer Stadium a shell of the team that started the season.
"I haven't totaled it but we're probably down seven two-way starters at this point," said Sheehan. "That's 14 positions that are being replaced by people that aren't starters. They're fighting just like the kids have all year long and I expect them to fight on Friday night regardless of the score and regardless of who they're going up against. I expect our team to come out and fight and try to execute and play tough, tough football. We'll see what happens."
Triton's key player on both sides of the ball is Lewi L'Heureux.
"We had him last year and actually we knew his athleticism," Sheehan told me. "We knew he was going to be on the field somewhere, some way. There was a real good quarterback battle at the beginning of the season between him and Tommy Lapham who was one of our starting wide receivers until he got hurt. L'Heureux has far exceeded our expectations at the quarterback position.
"We knew he was going to be a special athlete because he can do a lot with his feet," Sheehan continued. "He's done a good job throwing the ball and he's just going to get better. His decision making has improved week in and week and week out. That's the name of the game at that position. His athleticism is going to come out and you can't coach that. You're born with that. But his decision making is the key to our success. He's leading our league in passing and he's up there in rushing. He's over 700 yards rushing and over a 1000 yards passing."
One thing you won't see Friday night is a huddle. Neither team bothers with one as they both run the up tempo spread offense that Sheehan learned under Weidman. He has made some changes over the years.
"I've definitely tweaked how we call it," Sheehan said as he watched the Pioneers play against Pentucket Saturday. "I've changed a lot but I'm watching here and hearing the calls that Lynnfield's making and there's definitely some similarities. I imagine we'll come up with something whether it's dummy signals on the sidelines or maybe we'll go Chip Kelly and put up some card pictures or something like that. We'll definitely tweak our communication to the field a little bit. But there's a lot of times when we play teams that huddle that we know what play's coming. You still have to stop it. High school teams only run so many offensive concepts and offensive plays. It comes down to the players making the plays and stopping it."
How does he view the Pioneers?
"Lynnfield is big and physical," he replied. "Lynnfield can run. Lynnfield can throw. I'm looking at them live for the first time and I don't see a weakness on this field. It's going to be a tall task for the Vikes."
Three's The Charm
Triton's final game win to gain a playoff berth makes then only one of three teams in the 16 team D4N to make the playoffs all three years in the current format. The other two? Lynnfield and Watertown. That's pretty good company.
"We had a real good team last year and a big line and those kids played two years in a row," Sheehan said. "If you want to run the spread offense it starts at the quarterback position. We've been blessed in my six years to have some pretty good quarterbacks between the Whitman brothers, Cashman who was Player of the Year last year and now L'Herueux.
Remembering '09
The Vikings and the Pioneers have a long history as both joined the Cape Ann League in 1973 and played 33 straight years until 2005 when the league split into large and small division. They renewed battle for two years in non league games in 2008 and 2009. It's been a close rivalry with the Pioneers holding a 18-17 edge.
One of the most memorable games in the series was played the last time these two teams met in 2009. Sheehan was on the Pioneer sidelines calling plays for Lynnfield when the 5-0 Vikings came to town to take on the 4-1 Pioneers. It was a crucial game for Lynnfield looking to establish itself in a final non-league game heading into its CAL Small schedule.
Triton broke on top early with a TD on their opening drive on a Statue of Liberty play. The PAT was no good but the Vikings led 6-0. The Pioneers took the lead on a 48 yard TD pass from Gino Cohee to Chris Grassi. Steve Ullian (remember that name) booted the PAT and Lynnfield led 7-6. Ullian added a 27 yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter to stretch the Pioneer lead to 10-6.
However Triton stunned the Pioneers in the final seconds of the half when star running back Brendan O'Neill returned a punt 66 yards for the score. Michael Pescione intercepted the two point conversion but the Vikes took a 12-10 lead into halftime.
It stayed that way until early in the fourth quarter when Cohee scored on a 4 yard run. He then hit Tyler Surrette for the two point conversion and Lynnfield led once again 18-12. But Triton answered back when O'Neill capped a long drive with a 15 yard run. They added the PAT and the Vikings led 19-18 with 3:41 left.
Starting from their own 39, Cohee led the Pioneers to the Viking five yard line where the drive stalled. With nine second left, Ullian trotted out and calmly booted a 22 yard field goal to put the Pioneers up for good 21-19. Pescione picked off a final Hail Mary and the Pioneers had their well earned victory.
It was a watershed win for the Pioneers who were looking for some confidence as Weidman was turning the program around. They would go on to run the table in the CAL Small, finishing 5-0 to take the league crown and earn their first post season berth since 1986. They would lose in OT to Austin Prep 26-20, but the win was an important start to the turnaround.
Party Like It's 1999
I often mention that Sheehan was a Pioneer captain in 1999 so I thought I'd go back and dig up some stats on the receiver, defensive back, and long snapper. He had two touchdown catches his senior year which doesn't sound like much until you realize that was 66% of the Pioneer TD receptions that year.
That's right, the Pioneers completed only three TD passes the entire season - two from Jimmy Motzkin and one from backup Luke Kimball. Motzkin ATTEMPTED only 11 passes the first four games that year. Head coach Scott Brennan - now the Assistant Principal and Freshman coach at Triton - opened up the offense later in the year and Motzkin finished the season 34/93 for 387 yards.
Sheehan caught both of his passes in a 28-20 loss to Hamilton Wenham. He finished the season with 12 catches for 184 yards, two off team leader running back Dan Veinot who had 12 for 186 yards. Sheehan was also 0 for 1 passing, attempting an option pass in the Amesbury win.
On defense, he had one interception and a fumble recovery.
The Pioneers went 2-9 that year playing a full monster CAL schedule. Despite the record, they were competitive in many games. They beat Chelsea 12-6 and Amesbury 19-16. They lost to North Andover 20-14, Newburyport 8-0, Triton 16-0, and North Reading 28-12.
Just to show how different the times were, the Pioneers scored only 97 points that season
That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for some Leftovers.
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