Host Saugus in opening playoff game Saturday night
By TOM CONDARDO
CRUNCH TIME. Pioneers Nick Contardo (34) and Spencer Balian (76) converge on Ipswich running back Charlie Gillis. The Tigers’ standout back was held to 39 yards rushing in the game. (Tom Condardo Photo)
LYNNFIELD — Seems like there’s always a party at the Pioneers’ new digs.
Two weeks ago it was the field opening celebration with speeches and a 42-0 pasting of Georgetown. Last Friday it was Senior Night with cameras flashing and a 41-0 beat down of the Ipswich Tigers as the football team finished the regular season portion of the schedule 5-0 in Cape Ann League Baker Division play and 7-0 overall.
It was the team’s third straight shutout and fourth whitewash of the year. The Pioneers will look to keep the good times rolling when they host Saugus in the opening game of the playoffs Saturday night at 6 p.m. at LHS Stadium (see separate story).
“They’re a good group of football players and good players win games,” head coach Neal Weidman said of his squad. “They’ve had to work at it. We’ve gotten off to fast starts but you can’t just show up and win. You need to prepare and they have.”
The Pioneers trotted out a familiar blueprint in this one: Start fast and never look back. They scored on the second play of the game and four of the first five possessions to build a big halftime lead and cruise home from there.
Lynnfield has outscored their opponents 253-20 and 190 of those points have come in the first two quarters. It was the Pioneers’ 15th straight league win stretching back to the beginning of 2012.
The Pioneers wasted no time starting the senior celebration. Quarterback captain Danny Sullivan (3 for 4, 117 yards, 1 TD) hit fellow captain Jon Knee with a pass in the flat on the second play of the game and Knee took it 74 yards for the score. Dan Bronshvayg booted the first of five PATs to make it 7-0. The junior placekicker has now hit 22 straight PATs in the last four games.
GREETINGS. Ipswich quarterback Vinny Martineau is about to meet up with the center of the Pioneer defensive line in Cam DeGeorge (72) and Steven White (77). Both linemen had sacks in the game. (Tom Condardo Photo)
Captain Cam Rondeau added to the lead on the Tigers’ next possession, picking off a Vinny Martineau pass at the Lynnfield 38 and returning it 62 yards for the score. Jake Rourke (9 carries, 112 yards, 2 TDs) finished off the first-half senior parade with a pair of touchdown runs (52 yards and 1 yard) to put the Pioneers up 28-0 at the half.
Junior Drew McCarthy (7 carries, 146 yards, 2 TDs) capped the evening’s festivities on Lynnfield’s first two possessions of the second half, showing tremendous speed on TD runs of 42 and 67 yards. He also had a 62-yarder called back on a penalty. The Pioneers rolled for 429 total yards on the night, 299 on the ground.
The defense, which has yet to allow anyone to sully the opponent end zone at Pioneer Stadium with a point, continues to be impenetrable. They held the Tigers to 132 yards and only 11 yards rushing in the first half. Ipswich had some success with a series of bubble passes that allowed Martineau to complete 13 of 22 for 99 yards but the Tigers never got any closer than the Pioneer 31 yard line. Cam DeGeorge and Steven White had sacks.
“That is a special team,” summed up Ipswich head coach Greg Brotherton after the game. “When you have that kind of skill, size and speed, it’s tough to match up. We did the best we could but they just out-muscled us and wore us down.”
Now it’s on to the playoffs.
