Lynnfield handles Ipswich

IPSWICH ? Lynnfield’s football team took another step towards securing the Cape Ann League Small title, as it manhandled Ipswich 20-3 in a sloppy game on Ipswich’s senior night.”We moved the ball very well out there,” Pioneers coach Neal Weidman said. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot, though.”The Pioneers (8-1, 4-0) lost 85 yards of field position due to penalties. There was no bigger penalty than when a block-in-the-back call nullified what would have been a 46-yard touchdown pass from Gino Cohee to Chris Grassi. On the very next play, Cohee tried to hit Freddy Shove in the end zone; however, the ball was intercepted on what would be the lone blemish to Cohee’s game.On the very first play of the game, Cohee set the pace. He took a bootleg to the right 51 yards all the way down to the Tigers’ 25-yard line. Four plays later, he slammed the ball into the end zone from two yards out for the first of his two rushing touchdowns. Cohee ran for 126 yards on nine carries.Cohee’s efforts weren’t restrained to just the ground game. The junior quarterback also delivered through the air. He went five-for-11 for 133 yards. He hooked up with senior Tyler Surette on a 41-yard touchdown pass.Despite the fact that they did not score a touchdown, the Tigers’ Wing-T offense did have some success moving the ball. Their first drive of the game lasted over five minutes and covered 54 yards. Dan O’Flynn hit a 24-yard field goal to cap off the drive, giving the Pioneers a tense moment.”(Ipswich) played very well today,” said Weidman. “They are a team that plays hard. You have to be very aggressive to stop them.”The Pioneers’ defense stepped up to the plate for the rest of the game, playing a bend-but-don’t-break style of football.Junior Dante Padovani had an outstanding game defensively. He made several huge tackles, two of which came on fourth down to force turnovers on downs.It was the sixth time this season that the Pioneer defense held an opponent to 10 points or less. In fact, Lynnfield has outscored its opponents 203-100 so far this season.On the other side of the coin, Ipswich has now lost 29 consecutive games since making a Super Bowl appearance in 2006.”They definitely don’t play like a team (that has lost 29 straight games),” said Weidman.