LYNNFIELD — On senior night, about all you can say about last night’s game between visiting Hamilton-Wenham and host Lynnfield was nobody saw this one coming.
The Generals, losers of their last five games against the Pioneers, had their way with Lynnfield, winning in a 35-7 rout to finish the regular season 7-0 and claim the top seed in the North Division 6 playoffs.
Simply put, the Generals out-toughed the Pioneers on both sides of the line of scrimmage, turning a 7-7 halftime stalemate into a runaway win with 28 unanswered points in the second half to stun the Pioneers, who came into the game also undefeated (6-0) as the top seed in the Division 5 playoffs. “Right off the bat we shot ourselves in the foot with too many mistakes, too many dropped passes and those lost fumbles,” said Lynnfield coach Neal Weidman. “We just didn’t have enough possessions to survive turning the ball over the way we did. We just never got anything going and couldn’t hold the ball on offense.”
In the first half alone, Lynnfield turned the ball over on downs at the Hamilton-Wenham 20- and 24-yard lines, fumbled the ball away on the Generals’ 48, and couldn’t punch it in from the 12-yard line as time ran out in the half.
The Pioneers’ defense did its job in the first half, forcing the Generals to punt on their first drive and also forcing two turnovers (interceptions by Jason Ndansi), but the offense failed to capitalize.
The second half was even more painful. Lynnfield had only three possessions. The Pioneers fumbled the ball away on a muffed snap at their own 45, then went 3-and-out and punted, then finally, turned the ball over downs at the Generals’ 34 with about five minutes to play in the game.
The game started as a defensive battle.
Hamilton-Wenham struck first at the 6:19 mark of the second quarter on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Billy Whelan to Jake Lanciani following a Lynnfield fumble at the Generals’ 48. After Lanciani tacked on the extra point, the Generals led 7-0.
Lynnfield matched the score with an efficient 7-play 71-yard drive on its next possession on a Matt Mortellite pass to Nick Kinnon from 23-yards out, to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:49 left in the first half.
The Generals took the lead for good on the first drive of the second half, capped by a Whelan 3-yard rush and Lanciani extra point, then added three more scores on its next three possessions to put the game away.
“Last year, they physically really handed it to us, but this year the difference was we were the more physical team,” said Hamilton-Wenham coach Jim Pugh. “We knew each team had some really good playmakers in both quarterbacks. Our offensive and defensive lines were more physical than theirs, it came down to that”
Weidman said the Pioneers have just two choices.
“We can either dwell on it or get ready for the playoffs,” he said. “The season’s not over yet. We have to tackle better and have to play more physical.”
Anthony Murphy (12 carries, 39 yards), Ty Murphy (5 carries, 38 yards) and Peter Look (4 catches, 87 yards) led the offense in the first half, but were pretty much shut out in the second half, while Mortellite completed nine of 17 passes for 137 yards.
