Manchester-Essex Game Preview: Saluting the Seniors

We'll get to the preview of the game shortly, but before that, I wanted to note the other significance of Saturday's game.

This is the final game of the year that will be played at the Middle School Field, so as is the custom, serves as the centerpiece for Senior Day. The 13 graduating seniors and their parents will be honored before the game against Manchester Essex in a ceremony that marks a milestone in all their lives.

2000 Co-captain
Kevin "Speedy" Condardo
and your Faithful Chronicler
(Hey it's my blog!)

As a parent of a former Pioneer senior captain, I know well the emotions the senior parents will be going through as they march with their sons onto the field. The first is denial: "Wasn't it just yesterday those 10 year olds were strapping on oversized helmets and shoulder pads and heading to after supper practice for the "C" team?"

Yep, it goes that fast. And from personal experience, I can tell you that it doesn't slow down from here. It's hard to believe, but it's been 11 seasons since my son played his last home game for the Pioneers. The time does fly.

The second emotion is pride. The pride that results from knowing the sacrifices each of their sons has made to get to this point in their high school football careers.

On Saturday, tri-captains John Gaff, Mike Thomas and Jonathan Roberto will lead senior teammates Nico Varano, Jared Owen, Dan Ashwell, Tyler Shaffer, Joe Mehr, Cameron Weeks and Steven Yobaccio on to their home field for the last time. Injured seniors Michael Doherty, Frank Coburn and Jonathan Rogers won't be playing but they will be there to take their rightful place as members of this senior class which has enjoyed one of the winningest three year stretches in LHS history.

With one more win this season, this group of seniors will have won 25 games, a three year mark matched only by the seniors on the 1987 team. Two wins would make them the winningest seniors in school history over a three year period.

Former Pioner assistant and head coach Scott Brennan said something to me once which still resonates. And this is not to denigrate any of the other important high school sports but only to show what kind of commitment and dedication is required to be part of a high school football program.

"You PLAY baseball, soccer or basketball," Brennan said. "But you ARE a football player."

That description aptly fits all former Pioneers who have made it through the football program. And it appropriately describes the 2011 seniors that will be honored on Saturday in their final home game. They ARE football players.

Congratulations to you all.

Now on to the game.

Once all the photos have been taken, flowers given out and hugs shared, the Pioneers will have to step onto the field with the hopes of sending the seniors off with a final home win. To do that, they will have to get past a hungry Manchester Essex team that is itching for its first win as a member of the CAL/NEC 4. They have 10 seniors on the squad which also will make them a formidable opponent.

The Hornets - yes the Pioneers will be playing their final two games of the season against the Hornets - come into the game with a 3-6 record suffering through a three game losing streak. But to be fair, they have lost to three good teams - Hamilton Wenham 35-6, North Reading 14-0 and Ipswich 39-20.

Clearly they have struggled offensively which is no surprise seeing as HW and NR have a couple of the best defenses in the league. They also fell behind Ipswich 26-0 before scoring two early second half touchdowns to make the game look closer than it really was.

In addition to the Generals and Hornets, M-E lost to Amesbury 28-7, the other opponent common to the Pioneers.

The Hornets run a spread offense much like the Pioneers. Quarterback Corey Burnham has either one or two running backs in the backfield with him. They have a good sized offensive line with six returning starters, but they could get very little going in the running game against H-W or NR. Burnham was able to pick up some yardage against Ipswich in the second half. Besides Burham, the prime M-E backs are Jake Fitzgerald and Chris Dumont.

Burham is not afraid to throw the ball and when he does he looks for John Beardsley and Joe Burgess.

Defensively, the Hornets can be tough. They basically shut down the rugged North Reading running game inside and NR was able to escape with a 14-0 win after getting some running room outside.

Ipswich was shut down in the middle of the line for the most part, but again was able to gain some yardage to the outside and through the passing of Nick Andreas.

Although the line has been one of the key strengths of the Pioneers' this season, they may have to attack the Hornets at the edges and through the air to put some points on the board. Needless to say, the battle in the trenches will be very interesting.

This will be the fourth meeting between the schools. The Hornets won the first two including the heartbreaking 21-14 overtime win in 2007 when they came back from a 14-0 deficit in the final three minutes of play to tie it then win it in overtime. In 2008, they had to battle to beat the Pioneers 35-21 enroute to a Super Bowl.

The Pioneers finally beat them last year in the inaugural game at Hyland Field in Manchester, winning handily 37-6. It probably won't be that easy this year.

You can be sure, though, that the Pioneers will be up for this one. They do not want their seniors to leave their home field for the final time on a sour note.

Game time is 11 am.

Check back Saturday afternoon for my post game thoughts.

The 1986 Super Pioneers: The Comeback in South Hamilton

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the only Pioneer team to make it to the Super Bowl, I am taking a week by week look back at the Super 1986 season.

LHS Football Wayback Machine

November 8, 1986

Coming off a game in which they blew a 14-0 lead and suffered their first loss of the season 20-14 to Amesbury, the Pioneers were still not right and head coach Bill Adams knew it.

"We came into that game deflated from the Amesbury loss," Adams told me last week. "Our bubble had been burst."

At 6-1, they had to gear it back up to face a tough Hamilton-Wenham team on the road. The Generals had just beaten defending co-champion North Andover 7-6 and were flying. They entered the game with the identical record as the Pioneers.

Almost predictably, the Pioneers stumbled out of the gate on a rainy day in South Hamilton. According to the game story by David Angelini in the Villager, General receiver Raimie Reader took the opening kick and returned it 73 yards to take an early lead.

The Pioneers' looked flummoxed when they got the ball on their first possession and fumbled with the Generals' recovering.

"If I remember there was some miscommunication in the first series," recalled Pioneer standout running back Jason Mochi. "It was a pitch pass to me with (Mark) Sutera leading. We went to one side and the ball went to the other. I think that was a turnover that led to their second score."

General fullback Dan Pereira took advantage and pounded into the endzone to give H-W a two touchdown lead. The fired up home team continued to pound the listless Pioneers in the first quarter and Pereira scored again to give the Generals what looked like an insurmountable 19-0 lead after just one quarter of play.

Counting the second half of the Amesbury game, the lackluster Pioneers had given up 39 straight unanswered points. As the rain began to fall harder, things looked bleak for Lynnfield.

Then came "The Speech."

Anyone connected with the '86 team remembers "The Speech."

In speaking to Adams just this past weekend and mentioning this game, the first thing he recalled was "The Speech."

"The first quarter ended and it began to rain harder," Adams remembers. He gathered his team around him and in the pouring rain, he unloaded on them. 

"I gave the most emotional speech of my life," Adams said. "I got very, very emotional. I really got a little vicious. It was one of the few times I used fear. It is a motivator and it needed to be done at that time. After that game, I didn't want to use it again, but it had to be done there."

"His speech was pretty awesome," Mochi recalls, 25 years later. "We still make reference to it! I'm not sure it's fit to print, but it was an amazing and very motivating speech. It got everyone fired up."

Whatever Adams said that day, it certainly had the desired affect. It was a different Pioneer team that started the second quarter. They regrouped, stemmed the General momentum and mounted a scoring drive of their own behind quarterback Dave Frontero. 

With a minute to play in the half, Frontero rolled out and slid into the endzone for a 12 yard touchdown. He added the extra point and the Pioneers were on the board and went in at halftime trailing 19-7.

"That was an important touchdown for us," Adams told Angelini after the game. "It gave us momentum we needed going into the locker room."

The Pioneers picked up where they left off to start the third quarter. A nifty move on a fake pitch rollout by Frontero got Lynnfield to the General four yard line. Co-captain Todd Coviello then drove into the endzone for the score. Frontero nailed the PAT and the Pioneers had cut the lead to 19-14 with a quarter and a half to go.

Meanwhile, the Pioneer defense woke up as well. Led by co-captain Darrell Carty and Chris Loomos, Lynnfield stopped the General offense cold. H-W never got past the 50 yard line in the second half.

The Pioneers got the break they needed with time running out in the third quarter.

General quarterback Chris Schrock fumbled at his own 15 and the Pioneers recovered. Coviello only needed two carries to get into the endzone and give the Pioneers a 20-19 lead.

The two teams plodded through the mud through most of the final quarter, but with a minute to go, Mochi picked off a Schrock pass at midfield and splashed 47 yards for the touchdown to seal the amazing comeback. According to Angelini, Mochi "shook off five General tacklers on the play" which made it 27-19 Lynnfield.

"I remember covering the flat and being at the right place at the right time," Mochi told me. "I caught the ball right next to our sideline and our assistant coach (Paul) Harrington was yelling at me to run it in, so I did."

Coviello was immense in the game carrying 18 times for 118 yards, scoring two touchdowns, making nine tackles on defense, recovering a fumble and getting a half sack.

Once the game was over the party was just beginning for the jubiliant Pioneers. Angelini reported that the "entire team (including the coach) swan dived into a nearby mud bath and slopped around for 15 minutes of triumph."

"After the game we were all pretty pumped up," Mochi confirmed. "We loaded on the bus and I think someone yelled out 'mudslides' and we all piled out of the bus and dove through this massive puddle. Then we got on the bus again. It was a pretty awesome day."

However, the season was far from over for the Pioneers. They would have to return home the following week to face the once beaten Ipswich Tigers in a de facto CAL championship game.

Next: Taking on the Tigers in a battle for first place.

If you played on or were involved with the 1986 team and would like to share a memory, please pass it on to me at tcondardo@gmail.com