Lynnfield 11-29

NOVEMBER 29, 2018
WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 11
Frigid Thanksgiving results in a loss
By Anne Marie Tobin
LYNNFIELD — On one of the coldest
Thanksgiving Days ever, the Lynnfield
Pioneers football team’s hopes to close
out the season with a victory were gone
with the wind at frigid Pioneer Stadium
Thursday as visiting North Reading
handed the Pioneers their worst loss of
the season, 32-0.
Truth be told, the only thing colder
than the temperature and wind chill was
the Pioneer offense, which made only
two trips into North Reading territory the
entire game and struggled all day to find
any rhythm.
“North Reading has a very, very sound
defense and it was tough for us to get
any kind of offensive drives going,” said
first-year Lynnfield coach Pat Lamusta.
“We needed a few big plays, but the
bottom line it was tough for us throwing
the ball, running the ball and catching
the ball today. We kept telling the kids
to block out the cold, but we just didn’t
have it today. At the end of the day, you
have to win the battle of the trenches and
we just gave them too much room to run
and with two solid running backs who
run hard, we just had our hands full and
couldn’t stop them.”
The two backs referred to by Lamusta
were senior captain Alex D’Ambrosio
and junior Jack Keller who combined
for nearly 200 yards of rushing yardage.
D’Ambrosio was a one-man show in the
first half, picking up 118 yards on 14 carries
in the first half before finishing with
a total of 139 yards on 23 carries. Keller
was a two-way threat, picking up 57
yards on seven carries and also caught
two passes for 16 yards.
Keller’s second catch was a gamechanger,
coming with just 10 seconds
left in the half on a hook-and-ladder to
break the game wide open and send the
Hornets into halftime with a 20-0 lead.
Quarterback Matthew Solecki hit Keller
PHOTO | KERRIANNE ALLAIN
Captain Leo Quinn, right, holds off North Reading’s Jack Keller.
near the right sideline about five yards
from the line of scrimmage, then Keller
tossed the ball to senior captain Michael
Sheridan, who sprinted six yards into the
end zone.
“That hook-and-ladder was good execution,”
Lamusta said. “You know when
it comes to Thanksgiving Day games,
there are always going to be trick plays
tossed at you, and we had a couple up our
own sleeves, too, but they just caught us
on that trick play.”
Going into a stiff breeze, the
Pioneers dug a hole for themselves in
the first quarter. A three-and-out on the
opening drive of the game, resulted
in Pioneer short punt that netted only
three yards, handing the ball to North
Reading at the Pioneer 29. Solecki
needed only four plays to find the end
zone on a quarterback keeper from 12
yards out (D’Ambrosio kick) to make
it 7-0.
After another Pioneer punt, North
Reading drove 58 yards in four plays,
capped by a 2-yard sprint by Solecki, to
make it 13-0.
After a scoreless third quarter,
Lynnfield made its deepest trip into
Hornet territory after a 30 yard strike
from Clayton Marengi (4-of-12, 49
yards) to Jack Ford (2 catches, 39 yards)
set the Pioneers up with 1st down at the
Hornet 22 only to turn the ball over on
downs after Marengi’s pass intended for
John Lee (6 carries, 29 yards) in the end
zone was incomplete.
Three plays later Solecki hit Michael
Mikula from 74 yards out to bump the
lead to 26-0 with about 10 minutes to go.
Three minutes later, Keller capped the
scoring with a 46-yard burst.
“I have to give credit to the team for
fighting hard to the end, especially the
seniors who were awesome this year,”
Lamusta said.
“All we can ask is that the younger
players learn from the seniors and remember
this feeling going forward and
use it as fuel next year.”
The senior group has been through
a lot and had their share of adversity
this year, but we have to remember that
while we didn’t win this game, we still
had three good wins this year and we got
better with every game.
Lamusta earned high praise from senior
captains Hunter Allain and Leo
Quinn.
“He’s a young coach, but really was
more like a brother to us,” said Allain.
“He was always energetic and never
called us out after a loss. He just told us
to show up the next day and showed a lot
of pride. He’s a great role model.
“It was tough losing every week at the
beginning of the season, but all coach
told us was just to keep doing our jobs,
like Bill Belichick,” said Quinn. “He just
told us to keep grinding and that success
would come our way, and it did especially
defensively.”
Ted Flaherty has been all around the league
By Anne Marie Tobin
LYNNFIELD — If there is
anyone who knows what it's
like to be a Cape Ann League
Thanksgiving Day football
junkie, it's Lynnfield line coach
Ted Flaherty.
Yesterday, at the annual
Lynnfield-North Reading
Thanksgiving Day football
game, Flaherty accomplished
an unusual milestone when it
comes to Thanksgiving Day
rivalries.
From Masconomet-North
Andover to Amesbury-
Newburyport to Georgetown-
Manchester Essex to Ipswich-
Hamilton Wenham to
Triton-Pentucket, and, finally,
Lynnfield-North Reading,
Flaherty has seen it all.
He may be the only coach to
lay claim to having experienced
the highs and lows of at least
one of each and every one of the
Cape Ann League Thanksgiving
Day rivalry games.
"I don't know for sure, but I
am told that nobody has ever
done that before," said Flaherty.
"I've now been on the
sidelines for at least one
Thanksgiving rivalry game involving
every league team,"
Flaherty said. "The only rivalry
game I had not coached was
Lynnfield-North Reading, that
is until today, so it completes
the cycle. It was just last week
when Pat (Lamusta) and I were
talking Thanksgiving traditions
starting with what Jim Pugh
did at Masco, then some of the
other teams I was a part of and
I realized that Lynnfield-North
Reading was the only rivalry I
had not experienced."
Since 1991, Flaherty has been
the wild rover in the league,
serving as an assistant coach
or head coach of five different
Cape Ann League football
teams for all but two seasons.
He started at Masconomet as
an assistant in 1991.
From there, Flaherty moved
on in 1994 to Amesbury as an
assistant from 1994-2001 and
head coach from 1995- 2001,
earning CAL Coach of the Year
honors in 1998.
Flaherty spent 2002 as an
assistant at Georgetown, then
defected to the Northeastern
Conference at Beverly for two
years as defensive coordinator.
He returned to Ipswich in
2005 as head coach through
2012. He struck lightning in a
bottle his second year, leading
Ipswich to a Division 3A Super
Bowl title in 2006.
Flaherty's next stop was at
Triton as a defensive coordinator
under head coach and
Lynnfield native and resident,
Pat Sheehan, who currently is
an assistant at Reading.
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As far as his favorite
Thanksgiving Day game
memory goes, Flaherty says
there are two.
"As funny as it may sound,
my junior year at Ipswich High
we were playing Triton and we
had a huge ice storm and the
field was a skating rink," said
Flaherty. "We couldn't wear
our cleats and we were all sent
up into the stands to borrow
boots, so we played in snow
boots.
"But as a coach at Ipswich,
the 2009 Thanksgiving game
against Hamilton-Wenham is
right up there," Flaherty said.
"We won a Super Bowl in
2006 and then lost 33 straight
games. We ended up winning
14-13, thanks to a late defensive
stand on a two-point
conversion and a recovery
of an onside kick, then took
three straight knees. Our kids
had never taken a knee before.
That moment when the
game ended was the happiest
moment, even better than the
feeling we had after winning
the Super Bowl."
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