NORTH READING — It may be cliché to talk about the next man up, but in the case of Lynnfield’s team yesterday, that pretty much sums up reality for the Pioneers. Lynnfield gave its all Thanksgiving Day only to come up on the short end of a 27-13 loss to Cape Ann League archrival North Reading at Arthur Kenney Field.
The Pioneers knew going in they were already without senior captain Anthony Murphy, the team’s leading rusher, who broke his leg late in the fourth quarter in the North Division 5 finale against Watertown. Murphy ran for 535 yards on 110 carries in 10 games and tied for the team lead with 10 rushing touchdowns. He also had 59 yards on four catches, was a defensive force at linebacker for the Pioneers and finished the season second on the team in tackles.
“Losing Anthony was really tough as he’s the other half of my defense, our No. 2 tackler on defense, and it’s tough losing a guy with such a big role,” said senior linebacker and tight end Cooper Marengi. “But we told the guys before the game to just be confident in what they were doing and that we trusted them to step up and they did.”
About a week ago, the Pioneers learned they would also be without two more two-way starters for undisclosed violations of team rules.
The result was a new-look Pioneers team with several players being thrust into unfamiliar territory and new roles.
One was senior captain Nate Drislane, who started the game at running back.
“The kids were asked to step up today and they played well, and the kids who have played all year long played hard,” said Lynnfield coach Neal Weidman. “We were definitely up against it, but we talk about adversity all the time and they know all you do is try to put your best forward and I think these kids did that today. You have kids like Nate, who is just one of the those kids we have asked to do a thousand things the last couple of years. He’s just one of those special kids and you saw that today.”
For his part, Drislane downplayed his role and said that he learned Monday at practice that he was going to play an expanded role for the Pioneers on offense.
“It wasn’t just today, it has been the whole year that we have had to deal with adversity, but we made it our theme as the year progressed. But then our quarterback (Matt Mortellite) went down, so that was pretty tough,” he said. “All you can do is put up a good fight and we did that today. I am not happy to lose the game, but I am proud of what we did today with so many things working against us.”
The Pioneers were on the verge of erasing a 14-6 deficit with under a minute to play in the first half, having driven to the Hornets’ 3-yard line, but Mortellite went down in a heap after being sacked and was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Mortellite put up impressive numbers in his second season as quarterback, completing 99 of 149 passes with 16 touchdown passes. He also ran for five scores and 358 yards at a 7.2 yards per carry clip on 50 carries. He set a record for touchdown passes and was looking to add to those numbers before getting his bell rung.
Losing a player of his caliber, however, never fazed Weidman or Marengi.
“These kids who stepped in today, guys like Brett Cohee who came in for Matt, I have said it all year, that they have been just one play away from taking on a bigger role this year, so we had confidence in them,” said Weidman. “While I wish we could have won today, adversity is a part of life and I like the way these kids accepted the challenges they faced today. Yes, we made some mistakes, but that’s life. We definitely had our chances to win this game, so they got the job done and showed what they could do.”
Marengi said while the team did not win, the Pioneers had nothing to hang their heads about.
“We got all these young guys to step up today and they will be back next year, so I think they will have a season next year,” he said. “For them to step up and play such huge roles in probably the biggest game of our careers as seniors was just great to see.”
