Northeast Playoff Game Preview: Knight Night

By Tom Condardo

Ever since I began covering the Pioneers in 1989 (yikes), the preseason would end with a Labor Day scrimmage against Northeast Metro Tech (or as it was known in the early days, Northeast Voke).

Playing the Golden Knights right before the season started always offered a good gauge of where the Pioneers stood in their preparation. Northeast was always a tough, hard nosed team and if Lynnfield was able to hold their own or dominate, they were usually in for a strong season. If the Knights pushed them around, the Pioneers were likely in for a long season.

For the first time in probably three decades, that scrimmage didn't take place this year. Northeast head coach Don Heres felt that since realignment placed the Pioneers and Knights in the same division, it might be better to skip the annual practice game. Pioneer head coach Neal Weidman agreed and the scrimmage was scratched.

"It was Donny more than me," Weidman told me. "He said if we're going to be in the same division, maybe we shouldn't scrimmage each other."

Well Friday night promises to be a little (a lot?) colder than the first weekend in September, but the

traditional rivalry will continue...just with a lot more at stake. And instead of wearing practice jerseys with no numbers (specifically to confound me I suspect), the Pioneers will be in full uniform since this is Round 1 of the Division 3A playoffs.

"This will be different," Weidman said. "We've always had a friendly relationship as far scrimmaging and trying to make each other better. We stay in contact throughout the year. It'll definitely be different playing them in a real game."

And other than a two month delay, not much else has changed. The Knights are still big and tough and come in to Pioneer stadium with a 5-2 mark.

All the years of scrimmaging doesn't necessarily give the Pioneers much of an advantage.

"Offensively they do some of the same things they've always done," said Weidman.

But defensively they have a different look thanks to their new defensive coordinator - LHS head lacrosse coach Joe Papagni. Papagni is a former Pioneer coordinator and was on the same staff with Weidman under Bill Adams. He'll be coaching against some of his lacrosse charges which should make for some interesting interplay.

The two teams finished in a near photo finish in the playoff rankings, with the Pioneers gaining the home field thanks to a single point out of the 83 they collected. You can thank Newburport for its upset of Masco earlier in the year for the one point that put the game here Friday night instead of in Wakefield on Saturday afternoon. Lynnfield finished with a 13.83 rating to a 13.71 rating for Northeast. It can't get any closer than that.

The game will feature a clash of styles when the wide open Pioneer offense faces off against the run-heavy, ground and pound, run game of the Knights.

The Knights run a wing T with some variations.

"They are probably more like an Amesbury than a Pentucket," Weidman said referring to a pair of CAL teams than run the Wing T. "They've got some big bruisers and try to keep pounding it. They're pretty big and their backs (Scott Peary and Austin Perrin) are big too. They have good sized linemen. Size wise probably similar to us."

"Tough to tell who they compare to just watching them on film," Weidman continued. "They'd be right there with Cape Ann Small teams."

The Knights opened the season with a 21-12 loss to Manchester Essex, a team the Pioneers beat 47-14. But don't let that score fool you. This is a different Northeast team than the one that played in that game.

"That was early in the year and they shot themselves in the foot a little fumbling inside the five once or twice," Weidman said. "They had a couple of opportunities that they missed out on."

Northeast bounced back with a huge 52-12 beating of Chelsea and followed that with wins over North Quincy 14-8 and Greater Lawrence 36-20. GL finished ahead of both Lynnfield and Northeast and come into the playoffs as the third seed in the division.

The Knights fell hard to Shawsheen, the second seed in the division, 34-8, but finished the year strong with wins over Whittier 42-8 and Lynn Tech 36-26.

"It's the playoffs now and we're going to have to step our game up," the coach summed up. "We have to be motivated to play and play with some emotion. That's what everyone is going to be doing now."

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