By Anne Marie Tobin
LYNNFIELD — It may have taken a while to get going, but behind a dominant defensive effort, the Lynnfield football team improved to 2-2 Friday night with an important 20-6 league win over Ipswich at Pioneer Stadium.
Despite a significant Pioneer edge in time of possession and total yards, the game was still up for grabs going into the fourth quarter with Lynnfield holding a 6-0 lead on a second-quarter 4-yard touchdown catch by senior captain Kyle Hawes (from junior quarterback Matt Mortellite).
The Pioneers broke the game open early in the final quarter with two scores in a little under three minutes to put the game out of reach. On fourth-and-2 from the Ipswich 22, Mortellite sliced and diced his way into the end zone with 10:48 to go, then hit junior running back Anthony Murphy on a two-point conversion to make it 14-0.
With 7:53 to play in the game, senior captain Alex Boustris scampered home from 26 yards out to cap the scoring. Boustris also had a key interception that set up Mortellite score.
Lynnfield head coach Neal Weidman said it was the Pioneers’ best defensive effort of the season and also praised the performance of the offensive line of junior Kenny Babine, junior Harry Collins, senior Nick Contardo, senior captain Mike Stellato and junior Zachary Huynh and running backs, Anthony Murphy and Tyler Murphy (also a junior) who kept the chains moving.
“The defense really stepped up tonight and they played extremely well,” Weidman said. “I think tonight it was a combination of two things: we matched up well with Ipswich and the kids are really starting to grasp it, they are starting to execute. This is a huge boost for us in terms of confidence.”
Lynnfield won the field position battle, starting three of its first four possessions inside the Ipswich 45.
While the offense struggled to finish drives, Lynnfield’s defense was impenetrable all night long.
Toss in an excellent effort on special teams, and it all added up to trouble for the Tigers, who picked up only one first down in the game.
Ipswich did not cross midfield until the opening play of the second half when Lynnfield attempted an onsides kick and was flagged for interference, giving the Tigers the ball at the the Pioneer 40-yard line.
Ipswich would not enter Pioneer territory again until there were two minutes left in the game when Tyler Starr broke loose and rambled 46 yards to the Lynnfield 25, picking up the Tigers’ only first down of the contest. Two plays later, Pat Gillis broke up the shutout attempt with a 21-yard touchdown run with only 66 seconds left in the game.
Anthony Murphy was a workhorse in the first half, picking up 68 yards on 11 carries and another 14 yards on a catch, while Tyler Murphy took over in the second half, carrying the ball eight times for 37 yards.
Junior Nick Kinnon had a big second half with 49 yards rushing on two carries and also two had catches good for eight yards.
Mortellite connected on 10-of-16 attempts for 91 yards and one touchdown. Several of his misses were drops, with rainy conditions making it extremely difficult to hold onto the ball.
Stellato was a beast on both sides of the ball.
“He had a great game tonight,” Weidman said. “The Murphy boys played great, and we are getting there. We still made some mistakes, but overall, compared to where we were at the start of the season, we are playing much cleaner.