by Tom Condardo
Wayland Leftovers
Endgame Rewind
For those in attendance, you know what an exciting game the Pioneers and Warriors played Friday night. For those who weren't there, you missed out on truly outstanding high school football game.
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THUMBS UP for Pioneer captain Anthony Murphy
after scoring the tying and winning points against Wayland
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To set the stage, the Pioneers had built a 20-6 halftime lead but were clearly on the ropes in the second half. The bigger Warriors had begun to wear down the Lynnfield defense who were on the field FOREVER. The numbers show just how long they were out there.
The Pioneers had one offensive series in the third period. Wayland also only had one but theirs lasted for 6:45 of the 11 minute quarter. The fourth quarter was worse. The Warriors controlled the ball for 7:53 of the final quarter. In total in the second half, Wayland had possession for 13:38 compared to 7:22 for Lynnfield. They held the edge in plays 35-20.
Things started to go sideways for the Pioneers at the end of their first drive of the second half. They took the kick and marched to the Wayland four yard line where they looked to be in good shape to take a three touchdown lead. Unfortunately, on third and goal, the aggressive Wayland defense blew up a Tyler Murphy run for a nine yard loss. On fourth and goal from the 13, Matt Mortellite sprinted out to the right but his receivers were covered so he took off for the end zone. He came up a yard short.
Wayland took over on the one yard line and were promptly flagged for motion putting the ball on their own half yard line. Fourteen plays later - on the last play of the third quarter, Warrior quarterback Mason Bolivar got loose down the left sideline and sprinted all the way for a 46 yard score to cut the lead to 20-13.
The Pioneer came thisclose to answering on their first play of the fourth quarter when Mortellite hit captain Nick Kinnon down that same left sideline. Kinnon is not usually caught when behind the defense but Joey Lydon had the angle - and the speed - to run him down at the Wayland 20. The Pioneers picked up five more yards but turned the ball over on downs.
Wayland then embarked on another mind-numbing 80 yard, 14 play march with Wellington Pereira plowing in from the one for the touchdown. Andy Brogan nailed the PAT and the game was tied with 1:58 left in the game.
Then things got really interesting.
A three yard gain from Anthony Murphy, a motion penalty, and three incomplete passes gave the Pioneers a fourth and 12 from their own 30 with 1:23 to play. Captain Cooper Marengi set up in punt formation but the snap went to the up man Sal Marotta who threw a pass in the left flat. Wayland defensed it perfectly and the pass fell incomplete. With 1:17 left in regulation, the Warriors were now 30 yards away from taking the lead.
"I thought they were going to try and block it," said head coach Neal Weidman of the fake punt attempt. "They lined up like they were coming but the two guys on the wing dropped back after the snap."
The thing that saved the Pioneers was that Wayland had used up all five of their time outs. The clock was as big a nemesis as the Pioneers. Pereira carried twice to pick up the first down at the 16. With only 57 seconds remaining, Bolivar spiked the ball on first down to stop the clock.
On second down, Manny Oliver knifed to the Lynnfield 11 yard line, but the Warriors were flagged for holding bringing the ball back to the 26. Bolivar picked up five yards on two carries but then spiked the ball on fourth down ending the threat.
"You would have expected him to just throw it up into the end zone but it gets hectic at the end," Weidman said. "He had spiked one earlier and you forget about those. He probably thinks its third down because he forgot about the spike on first down."
Mortellite took a knee, and we were headed for overtime.
I've always wondered about the overtime rules because they seem to be different at different times. Weidman shed some light on that when he explained the meeting between him, Wayland coach Scott Parseghian and the referee.
"The rules vary," said Weidman. "Both teams have to agree on them. They said no extra points so you have to go for two. They didn't give us much of a choice. You could choose to have a tie but we both wanted to have a winner. The referee just said we're going for two only because the OT can go forever if you have two guys that can kick."
Weidman won the toss and elected to let Wayland have the first possession from the ten yard line.
"If we go first you have to decide to kick the field goal or try to go for it," he explained. "If you're on defense first and they kick a field goal then you know what you have to do. If they score a touchdown, you have no choice but to go for the touchdown. If you stop them, you can be more conservative and try to kick the field goal. You always try to defer and play defense first to see what their score is so you know what you have to do."
Wayland wasted little time getting into the endzone. Bolivar picked up two yards on first down. On second down, Periera took the hand off and was hit at the six yard line. He then literally carried seven Pioneers all six yards and into the endzone.
"He is gigantic," said Weidman about the inability of the defense to stop him. "He outweighs most of our guys by 30 pounds, including our defensive linemen."
On the two point conversion, Bolivar stepped back to pass. Warrior captain Sean Devlin lined up as the tight end on the right side. He blocked down briefly, released and the defense lost him in the wash. He cut to the left into the end zone and was wide open. Bolivar's pass hit him right in the numbers. I was standing right next to him and as the ball floated toward him, I looked down to write the note that the two point conversion was good. When I looked up, I saw the ref waving the pass incomplete and Devlin holding his head with both hands.
The score was now 26-20 with the Pioneers about to get the ball.
A swing pass from Mortellite to Anthony Murphy picked up three yards. His next two passes were incomplete forcing a fourth and goal from the seven. Kinnon got behind the defender in the left corner of the end zone but the Warrior defender clearly ran him over in an obvious pass interference. Two refs threw their flags.
"I give them a lot of credit for calling it," Weidman said. "A lot of times they'll bury the flags but he definitely interfered."
That gave the Pioneers new life and a first down at the 3.5 yard line. Anthony Murphy bulldozed to the one and then blasted in to tie the score at 26-26. They only needed the two point conversion to win.
Kinnon came in motion left to right and Mortellite and Anthony Murphy sprinted to the left on a read option run. The defensive end took the quarterback and Mortellite pitched to Murphy who dashed through the linebacker, who was late to the play, and into the end zone for the win.
"It's a read play," Weidman explained. "It all depends on what they do. When they ran with Kinnon on the motion, that took him out of the equation. If they didn't go with Kinnon, Mort would have handed to him. Once they ran with him, it turns into a front side read with the running back and the quarterback and Mort made the right read.
I asked Murphy after the game if he was going to be denied getting into the end zone on the play.
"Oh, no, definitely not," he replied. "I had it in my mind that I was getting in and there was no one that was going to stop me."
The captain was quick to praise Mortellite on the play.
"Mort is one of the smartest high school quarterbacks I've ever seen in my life," he said. "Every single play he does he does it with the smartest mindset you could possibly have. It's amazing."
Ultimately, the whole game was amazing.
Overtime Flashbacks
There have only been three other overtime games in the 29 years I've been covering the Pioneers. The most recent occurred in 2009 in a playoff game that would have sent the Pioneers to the Super Bowl. Lynnfield faced Austin Prep in their first post season game in 24 years. Ironically that game also ended 20-20 in regulation.
The Cougars had the first possession and the Pioneers held on the first three downs. On fourth down Austin's quarterback fumbled the snap but the officials ruled he recovered in the end zone for the score. The pass for two failed and the Pioneers had their shot trailing 26-20.
Two runs by Gino Cohee sandwiched around a rush by captain George Hennessey got the Pioneers to the one and a half yard line. Cohee was stopped on fourth down on a play that would have been called back for an illegal formation penalty. Austin Prep went on to the Super Bowl and Lynnfield's Cinderella season came to an end.
The Pioneers played an overtime two years before that in 2007 in Gloucester against Manchester Essex. Lynnfield was in control with a 14-0 lead but the Hornets exploded for two scores in the final 2:28 to tie it up at 14-14. The Hornets scored on the second play of overtime to go up 21-14.
On the Pioneers' first play in overtime, Chris Grassi hit (now assistant coach) Pat Lamusta for a short gain, but the running back was stripped (sorry Pat) and M-E recovered for the win.
The other overtime game was played in 1991 against Hamilton Wenham. It was the fourth game of the season and the defending champion Generals and the Pioneers came into the game undefeated. The Generals took a 7-0 lead but the Pioneers tied it up midway in the second when Greg Fellows picked off a pass, returned it 38 yards for the score, and David Picard nailed the extra point. The score would remain 7-7 until overtime.
The Pioneers scored on the first play of overtime on a 10 yard naked reverse by quarterback Chris Sutera. The PAT was no good and the Pioneers led 13-7. General running back Mike McGowan fumbled on H-W's first play of overtime, but the General's recovered on the one foot line. Two plays later McGowan blasted in for the score to tie the game.
McGowan was nearly automatic as a placekicker, so the crowd at the Middle School Field fully expected the Generals to walk away with a one point win. However McGowan's kick sailed wide right preserving the tie. In those days, the teams only had one set of downs in overtime to settle the score, so the game finished in a 13-13 tie.
The Pioneers finished the season 9-1-1 and the tie likely cost Bill Adams' squad a shot at a Super Bowl berth. But on that day, the tie seemed more like a win.
So in the the past three decades, the Pioneers' win Friday night is Lynnfield's only overtime win.
Quick Start
The Pioneers are now 2-0, the fourth time Lynnfield has won their first two games in the Weidman Era. They did it in 2014 (Newburyport, Pentucket), 2013 (Newburyport, Saugus), 2010 (Manchester, Georgetown), and 2009 (Matignon, Georgetown). In three of those seasons ( 2009, 2013, 2014) they went on to win the league championship and made the playoffs.
Cleanup Crew
After getting buried under a hail of penalty flags in week one, the Pioneers did much better against Wayland. They were called for three penalties for 20 yards.
"We cleaned it up a lot," remarked Weidman. "It was much better this week."
Wayland, on the other hand, killed themselves with penalties. They were flagged 11 times for 75 yards including the huge pass interference call in the endzone in overtime.
Air Defense Force
The Pioneers were tough to throw against again Friday night. Bolivar was 3 for 15 for 37 yards and threw a pair of interceptions. Jason Ndansi picked off the first and Peter Look hauled in the second in the end zone after a tip from Nick Kinnon. Last week they held Newburyport quarterback Owen Bradbury to 7 for 20 for 24 yards.
In total, the Pioneer secondary of Kinnon, Look, Ndansi, Justin Ysalguez, and Tyler Murphy have held opposing quarterback to 10 for 35 (28.5%) for 39 yards and two interceptions. That's an NFL passer rating of 6.7. A perfect score is 153.7.
Around the CAL Baker
The biggest story coming out of the Baker this week was the Hamilton Wenham 28-14 upset of a highly-touted North Reading team. Combined with their 21-0 whitewash of Bishop Fenwick last week, the Generals have made a strong statement that they will be a contender this year.
They have a ton of weapons with experienced Billy Whelan at quarterback and two dangerous receiving threats in Cam Peach and Jake Lanciani. But it could be their defense that makes them such a threat. Shutting down the Crusaders and then holding the Hornets to a pair of touchdowns is truly impressive. They take on Greater Lawrence this weekend.
In other Baker action, Ipswich, Man-Essex, and Amesbury all lost. The Tigers lost a tough one to Newburyport 10-7, M/E was swamped by Nantucket 32-7, and the Indians were nipped by Pentucket 23-20.
Lynnfield and Amesbury have the Baker opening week stage to themselves as the other three squads have non league games.
D5 Update
The Pioneers big win over D4 Wayland earned them 12 points and they picked up another 3 from the Newburyport win over Ipswich giving them a total of 25 points. Their 12.5 rating puts them in a tie with Watertown for the top spot in the division.
Swampscott is also undefeated at 2-0 but they were both 10 point wins. They sit in third place with an 11.5 rating. Newburyport currently holds the fourth home field playoff position with a 1-1 record. Triton, Bedford, Saugus, and Amesbury are all still winless.
Watertown has a big 12 point game this week against Melrose. A win over the Red Raiders would vault them into sole possession of first place.
Week 2 Playoff Ratings
1. Lynnfield - 12.5 (25 points)
1. Watertown - 12.5 rating (25 points)
3. Swampscott - 11.5 (23 points)
4. Newburyport - 7.5 (15 points)
5. Somerville - 7.2 (14.4 points)
6. Weston - 5.5 (11 points)
6. Pentucket - 5.5 (11 points)
8. Triton - 2.2 (4.4 points)
9. Bedford - 1.8 (3.6 points)
10. Saugus - 1.6 (3.2 points)
11. Amesbury - 1.5 (3 points)
Amesbury Preview
The Pioneers begin their quest for a sixth straight CAL title Friday night when they open their CAL Baker schedule by hosting the Amesbury Indians.
The Pioneers will also carry a nine game winning streak against Amesbury into the contest. They have beaten the Indians every year since 2009 including twice in 2012 when they upended Amesbury in a playoff to earn their Super Bowl berth.
That streak nearly ended last year in the muck in Amesbury when a banged up Pioneer squad took a 21-6 lead but needed a clutch interception by Peter Look with 23 seconds left to preserve a 21-14 win.
Amesbury comes into the game 0-2 after losses to Norwell (20-7) and Pentucket (23-20). The Indians are playing for new head coach Colin McQueen, making this the second time in three games the Pioneers will be facing a team under new management. McQueen was the Indians' defensive coordinator for the past two years and prior to that coached at Sanborn Regional in New Hampshire. He is attempting to rebuild a program that has gone 14-30 over the past four seasons after winning the CAL/NEC 3 Title and making the playoffs in 2012.
The Indians are a young team with only eight seniors on their 41 man roster but a 19 man junior class can help fill that void. The returnees they do have bring a lot of experience starting with senior running backs Zach Levarity, Malik Benton, and Elijah Jackman. Junior Logan Burrill rounds out a solid stable of runners.
McQueen uses them all in a throwback full house backfield where three backs line up in a row behind sophomore quarterback Blake Bennett. Needless to say the offense is run heavy. Against Pentucket the Indians ran 31 times for 132 yards and Bennett attempted only seven passes, completing five, but making them count for 114 yards.
The defense is led by captain Connor Whitley who anchors the defensive line. Jackman leads the linebacking corps.
Don't be fooled by their 0-2 record. They lost to a pair of perennially strong programs so may be better than their record indicates.
Game time at Pioneer Stadium is 7 pm.
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