LYNNFIELD — It all came down to a defensive stand on fourth-and-three with less than 30 seconds to play for the Lynnfield football team, and the Pioneers made the stop to secure a hard-fought 13-7 win over Cape Ann League foe Newburyport at home Saturday afternoon.
In a much different type of game than Week 1’s 46-21 win over Triton, the Lynnfield offense had trouble getting into a true rhythm for much of the game. Trailing 7-0 with less than three minutes to play in the third quarter, the Pioneers turned on the afterburners in the fourth quarter to race ahead.
Receiver Jack Ford had a big game for the second week in row, hauling in six passes for 150 yards and both of Lynnfield’s touchdowns. Quarterback Austin Sutera completed 13-of-25 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns, while DJ Capachietti led the ground attack with nine carries for 59 yards.
Newburyport scored on a touchdown run from Jacob Buontempo in the first quarter to jump ahead 7-0, and the score remained there until the final seconds of the third quarter.
It was at that point that the Lynnfield offense woke up a bit, as Sutera connected with Ford on a 52-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds to play in the third to tie the game at 7-7. After a couple of stops on defense, the Pioneers went back to that same well one more time as Sutera once again found Ford alone behind the defense — this time for a 39-yard score to put Lynnfield ahead 13-7 with just over five minutes to play.
An interception by Bakari Mitchell with 4:29 to play nearly sealed the deal for the Pioneers, but Lynnfield couldn’t quite run out the clock and had to kick it back to Newburyport. The Clippers proceeded to drive down the field and get into the red zone, eventually getting forced into a fourth-and-three situation with less than 30 seconds to play.
When Newburyport snapped the ball on that fourth down play, the Lynnfield defensive line broke through and forced an errant pass to force a turnover on downs and seal the victory.
Lynnfield (2-0) hosts Pentucket Friday evening (5:30).
