Amesbury Game Preview: Drive for Five

by Tom Condardo

It's been like jogging with ankle weights. Or swinging a weighted bat.

Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman knew coming in to the season that he had a young, inexperienced team. But instead of going easy on them, he threw some extra weight on the bar in the form of a rigorous preseason and opening schedule.

Let's start with the preseason scrimmages. He had his D3A Pioneers jump three divisions to face Masco (now 1-1 with their only loss to Melrose) a week after practice started. He followed that up with a matchup against D2A Salem (now 1-1) and D2A Melrose (now 1-1).

The Pioneers then began the regular season against D3 Newburyport and then jumped two divisions again to take on D2A Danvers.

If you notice a pattern, you are correct. In five contests, the Pioneers have yet to face an opponent from their own division. And that won't happen this week either since although Amesbury is in the CAL Baker, for post season play they are in D3.

But divisions don't matter this week for the Pioneers, since it will be the Baker League opener and the start of the Drive for Five: a fifth straight league championship. The labels have changed over the years, but a league championship by any name smells just as sweet.

In 2012 it was the CAL/NEC 4. In 2013, 2014, and 2015 it was the CAL Baker. It didn't matter. Twenty league games and a perfect 20-0 record. Impressive stuff.

No matter what, the Pioneers won't go 5-0 this season since there are only four league games. The sledding appears to be tougher this year thanks to the Pioneers' youth and the growing strength of the other teams in the league.

Ipswich appears to be the team to beat since they gave a tough North Reading team a battle and are coming off a win over the same Newburyport team that defeated the Pioneers on opening night. Manchester Essex is undefeated at 2-0 while Hamilton Wenham under new coach Jim Pugh is 0-2 but played two strong teams in Bishop Fenwick and North Reading.

Amesbury Awaits
Which brings us to this week's opener against Amesbury. The Indians also come into the game at 0-2 after losing big to Norwell (who by the way has won their first two games by the combined score of 81-6) and battling Pentucket before falling 27-12 last week.

The Indians were dealt a tough blow losing starting quarterback Garret Collins on the third play from scrimmage in their opening game. They've been scrambling to find a replacement and last week Zach Levarity and Blake Bennet split the signal calling duties. The Indians have scored only two offensive touchdowns so far. Their third score was on a returned fumbled punt.

Although the offense has sputtered, the defense improved last week against Pentucket. The run-first Sachems actually pulled away in the second half with two TD passes, so the Pioneers may be looking to the air to generate offense tomorrow night.

The Indians are strong up the middle with d-linemen Elijah Huynh and Charles Wright and linebackers Nolan Gouin and Scott Franco which had the Sachems looking to get to the edge. With the Pioneers' speed, they may employ the same type of attack.

In a familiar refrain, the Pioneers will be facing a much more experienced team as Amesbury will trot out almost 20 seniors.

Streaking
History will be on Lynnfield's side as they carry an eight game win streak against the Indians into the game including beating them twice in 2012 - once in the regular season and again in the playoffs enroute to the Super Bowl. The last win for Amesbury in the series was a 13-12 nailbiter in 2008 when the current Pioneer seniors were prowling elementary school halls as fourth graders.

Of course none of that means anything when the teams kick it if off tomorrow night. Game time is at 7 pm at Landry Stadium, one of the best high school venues around.

That's it for now. Check back Sunday night for my Leftovers post.