2016 squad ties for 5th in AC 7v7 Shootout

Published in the June 22, 2016 edition

By TOM CONDARDO

LYNNFIELD — The spring sports action has just wrapped up, but there’s one last piece of business to conclude the 2015–16 high school sports season.

Four recently graduated Pioneers will play in the 55th annual Harry Agganis All-Star game on Thursday, June 30 at 7 p.m. at Lynn’s Manning Field.

The team’s 2015 captains, Drew McCarthy, Drew Balestrieri, C.J. Finn and all-time leading Pioneer placekicker Dan Bronshvayg, will suit up for the last time for a high school game when they play for the North squad.

The football contest is one of seven Agganis All-Star games in various sports conducted to raise money for the Agganis Foundation, which provides college scholarships to deserving student–athletes throughout the region.

Even as the cap is being put on the sports year, the 2016 football season is already underway.

The four–time defending champion Pioneers got off on the right foot on June 12 with an impressive performance in a 20-team 7v7 passing tournament at Assumption College.

In round robin play, the 2016 Pioneers defeated Holliston, Killingly (Conn.) and Bishop Guertin (N.H.), and lost to Worcester Academy, a postgraduate school. Six teams advanced to the playoffs and the Pioneers missed making it to the final four when they fell to Londonderry (N.H.).

“They did pretty well,” said head coach Neal Weidman said of the team’s effort in the tournament. “We’re just trying to get guys in the right position and figure out who can do what because we have a number of new guys trying to fill a lot of open positions.”

Summer schedule set

The Pioneers will be busy this summer preparing to fight for an unprecedented fifth straight league title. Beginning Monday, June 27, the squad members will be participating in conditioning workouts three days a week through mid–August.

Lynnfield will again play in the Bishop Fenwick 7v7 passing league on five consecutive Tuesdays beginning July 5. The Pioneers have also signed up for the 40–team Under Armour Northeast 7v7 tournament at Bishop Fenwick on Saturday, July 23.

In their final activity before preseason practices begin, Lynnfield, along with teams from Reading, Melrose, Billerica, and Triton, will take part in a Spread Offense Team Camp run on Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7 at Pioneer Stadium.

Prime time schedule set

Official preseason practice begins on Friday, August 19 and the Pioneers will hit the road for three scrimmages. They face Masconomet on Saturday, August 27 at 9 a.m. in Topsfield. They’ll travel to Salem on Tuesday, August 30 at 4:30 p.m., followed by a road trip to Melrose on Friday, September 2 at 4 p.m.

Scrimmage vs. Northeast nixed

The Pioneers will not be playing in their annual Labor Day weekend scrimmage against Northeast Metro Tech, a tradition stretching back to the late 1980s. Because of division realignment, Lynnfield and Northeast are both in Division 3A and could potentially meet in post-season play.

Season opener Sept. 9

Lynnfield’s regular season kicks off on the brand new turf field at refurbished War Memorial Stadium in Newburyport on Friday, September 9 at 7 p.m., followed by the home opener against Danvers on Friday, September 16 at 7 p.m.

The Pioneers travel to Amesbury on Friday, September 23 to open up their Cape Ann League (CAL) title defense against the Indians. They return for home games against Ipswich on Friday, September 30 and Manchester-Essex on Friday, October 7.

Georgetown has left the CAL and will be playing an independent schedule so the Pioneers have a bye the weekend of October 15–16.

“We looked for someone to fill that date,” said Weidman, heading into his ninth season leading the Lynnfield football program, “but then I figured we are going to be a young team so being able to practice for a week without preparing specifically for another team would be helpful. It will be like a second week of preseason.”

The Pioneers will wrap up their CAL Baker Division schedule on the road against Hamilton–Wenham on Saturday, October 22 in their only day game of the regular season.

Depending on the results of those first six games, the Pioneers will either move on to the Division 3A North Playoffs or have their remaining schedule filled with three games against other non-playoff teams.

Barring a trip to the Super Bowl, the Pioneers will wrap up the 2016 season at home on Thanksgiving Day, November 24 at 10:30 a.m. against North Reading.