Amesbury Leftovers

by Tom Condardo

You can forgive the folks in Amesbury if they woke up Saturday morning wondering how they didn't win the game Friday night.

They held advantages in rushing yards (209-71), total yards (278-218), first downs (15-7) time of possession (25:54 - 18:06), and had fewer penalty yards (25-70). They drove into the red zone four times.

So what happened? Two things. Turnovers and Big plays.

Most football experts will tell you the team that wins the turnover battle usually wins the game. The Pioneers didn't only win the turnover battle, they won it in a rout.

Two picks from Peter Look, a fumble recovery from Anthony Murphy, and recovered on side kick by Nathan Drislane gave the Pioneers four turnovers. They also held Amesbury on three fourth down plays which are often considered turnovers as well. That's a total of seven turnovers.

The Pioneers, on the other hand, turned it over....zero times. In a pouring rain with a slippery football that's a pretty solid performance. A 7-0 edge in takeaways will usually lead to victory most days.
And add in these four BIG PLAYS:

• Captain Louis Ellis strip sack and Murphy fumble recovery on the second play of the game
• The 27 yard Matt Mortellite to Jason Ndansi bubble pass for a touchdown
• The 41 yard Mortellite to captain Kyle Hawes TD pass
• Look's interception in the endzone to seal the win

So despite mounting injuries and Amesbury's churning running game in the second half, turnovers and big plays made the difference. It may have gotten ugly at times, but it was still a win, one the Pioneers desperately needed. And they came up big when they needed to in order to get it.

Flag Day Redux
There were definitely some red flags - and lots of yellow ones as well - in the win. The Pioneers were flagged seven times for 70 yards, returning to their Newburyport game ways. Lynnfield has now been called for 18 penalties for 172 yards in three games - a disturbing trend.

"We're still doing silly things," said Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman. "It's immaturity. We have to stop hurting ourselves. We're not good enough to come back from second and fifteen or second and twenty. And we're not good enough to give the other team's offense 15 free yards either."

Running Wild
And for the second week in a row, the Pioneers allowed a running back to gash them for big yardage. Running mostly up the gut, Amesbury's Zach Prentiss ripped off 161 yards on 25 carries. That follows the performance last week of Matt Andreas who had 162 yards on 23 carries.

The Pioneers have given up 688 rushing yards on 149 carries in three games, an average of 4.6 yards per carry.

"It's been a pretty common problem," Weidman told me of the defense's difficulty stopping the straight ahead run. "We have to get better and a little more stout."

It's Good
After a block and miss in the opening game against Newburyport, freshman placekicker Liam Fabbri has turned things around nicely. He has now hit five straight PAT's against Danvers and Amesbury, three of those in difficult conditions last Friday night at Landry Stadium. And all of them have been hit with authority. They're still looking for one he booted into the woods in Amesbury.

Toeing the line
And speaking of kicking in tough conditions, kudos to captain Mike Stellato who not only did yeoman's work on both sides of the line but also handled the punting duties Friday night. He and Cooper Marengi split the punting duties in preseason but Marengi has been the primary punter. But with Marengi sidelined, Stellato had to pick himself out of the muddy trenches five times to punt. He did an outstanding job, averaging over 28 yards per kick.

He saved his most impressive effort for last, pinning the Indians at their own five yard line with a 39 yard boomer with three minutes to play. They meant Amesbury had to travel 95 yards for the tying score. The way things worked out, the Pioneers needed every one of the yards gained on that punt.

Time Management
The Pioneers lost the time of possession battle by almost eight minutes, but some of that was due to their efficiency. Two of their touchdowns came on one play drives. The Mortelitte to Ndansi TD took nine seconds. The Mortellite to Hawes score took eight seconds.

Flip of the Coin
The Pioneers have now lost all three coin tosses so far this year, calling heads each time. Time to switch it up?

That's it for now. Check back Tuesday night when I'll take a look around the league and the division.