The Lynnfield football team has taken its lumps in recent years. But this year, it’s been the Pioneers who have been dishing out the punishment.There is a buzz back around the Pioneer program for the first time in recent times as the Pioneers sit at 5-1 overall, set to open their Cape Ann League/Small schedule on Saturday (2) at home against Amesbury.”We are certainly glad to be where we are at,” Lynnfield coach Neal Weidman said. “Being a year older from last year has certainly helped us out at times.”The Pioneers already had one of the program’s best wins in recent memory when they beat Danvers two weeks ago on the road. But last week, Lynnfield got a 22-yard field goal from Steve Ullian in the final seconds to knock Triton from the undefeated ranks, 21-19.”Hopefully we really can gain a lot of confidence from last week,” Weidman said. “We have played some good teams so far this year and hopefully that helps us going into the league.”Quarterback Gino Cohee continued to have a stellar season in the win over the Vikings. The dual-threat quarterback completed 11-of-19 passes for 176 yards and a touchdown while also carrying 23 times for 67 yards.”Gino has really been playing well for us this season,” Weidman said. “And the guys around him have been playing well. We have some good weapons around him.”One of those weapons is wide receiver/quarterback Chris Grassi. Grassi started his career calling the signals for the Pioneers but moved outside midway through last season and was still named as an all-league receiver by the league’s coaches.”Chris has been having an outstanding year, and he is one of those guys that is really respected by the other coaches in the league,” Weidman said.Another reason for Lynnfield’s success this season has been the maturation of the Pioneer defense. It’s a unit that has allowed over 20 points once (in a 28-7 loss at Wilmington) and held explosive Triton running back Brendan O’Neil to just 107 yards last week.”The defense really has done a better job of tackling this season,” Weidman said. “The kids have worked hard and they are bigger and stronger this season.”The Pioneers open the CAL Small against the back-to-back champion Indians. And despite Amesbury’s 1-4 record, Weidman knows his team has to be ready to go on Saturday.”They’re coming off back-to-back Super Bowls and have a good program,” Weidman said. “They have played some tough teams, too, and you have to beat the champs if you want to be the champs.”Danvers at SwampscottAt Blocksidge Field (12), the Falcons (4-2, 1-0 NEC South) will look to keep the momentum of last week’s upset win over Beverly while the Big Blue (4-2) will look to open their conference schedule in style.The Falcon defense was simply brilliant in the 21-3 win last week, intercepting Beverly quarterback Mark Hannable three times while holding the tough Panther running game to 56 yards in total.The Danvers offense also took advantage of those opportunities as Eric Burgos, Clinton Lutz and John McInnis each had a touchdown.Swampscott will look to rebound from a 37-35 loss at Lynn English last week. The Big Blue got 173 yards rushing from Kyle Shonio and four touchdowns (two rushing, two passing) from Matt Barbuzzi.Three times, Swampscott was able to fight back from a double-digit deficit but saw the comeback come up short when Shonio was stopped on a 2-point conversion attempt with 1:55 left in regulation.Austin Prep at St. Mary’sAt Manning Field (2), the Spartans (4-2, 0-1 Catholic Central League/Large) played perhaps one of their best games of the season last week in a heartbreaking 12-6 loss at home to defending Super Bowl champion Arlington Catholic.St. Mary’s opened the scoring when Nick Day caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from Cam Mulvey. But Cougar running back Charlie Bates tied the game moments later with a 69-yard touchdown run.The two teams would play to a near stalemate for the next 32-plus minutes and it looked like overtime was going to be needed. But the Cougar