LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield football team has had a busy summer preparing for its fall campaign with weight room workouts, 7v7 leagues and tournaments, as well as conditioning routines.
With less than three weeks until the official start of the preseason, the team is looking to fill some serious holes on both sides of the ball, having lost a talented senior class, one of the best that Pat Lamusta has ever coached since he took over as head coach in 2018.
Proof of that was the Pioneers’ dominance regarding postseason Cape Ann League All-Star accolades, sweeping every major award including the Most Valuable Player (Tyler Adamo), Offensive Player of the Year (Madux Iovinelli), Defensive Players of the Year (Jared Bernabei), and Special Teams Player of the Year (Jesse Dorman). The team also set a boatload of new program records in all phases of the game.
The loss of so many starters on both sides of the ball has left the team with what Lamusta said are “plenty of opportunities” for returning and new players alike to win positions and minutes come fall.
Lamusta had a day-long opportunity to assess that talent Saturday at the annual Northeast 7v7 East Regional Tournament at Bishop Fenwick High School. The Pioneers defeated Wilmington, 14-8, in the first round of pool play in the small school division, then fell to eventual champion St. Mary’s, 22-12. They rebounded with a 26-16 win over Salem in game No. 3, then closed with a 12-6 loss to Falmouth to finish 2-2 and earn the No. 2 spot in the playoffs
Despite going out in the first round by eventual runner-up Greater Lowell, 20-16, tri-captains Matt Tracy, Ben Gazit and Luke DiSilvio liked what they saw.
“We had a chance to win that last game, which obviously we wanted to do, but, overall, I thought our team played well together,” Tracy said. “Our receivers played great. Dan Lemieux just scored three touchdowns in a game, so that was nice. Luke played great and Lucas Deraps also scored two touchdowns. We definitely wanted to go further. We have a lot of depth on our team and I think our guys really showed up to play today.”
Tracy said he knows he is stepping into some “pretty big shoes” at quarterback left by Adamo.
“Ty had a great season last year and I’m just trying to pick up where the team left off last year,” he said. “We were pretty successful last year. We had a pretty good offense and defense, so we’re just trying to fill some shoes on offense. Today, the team played really well and fought hard.There were a lot of bright spots and we showed a lot of depth.”
DiSilvio said he knows the Pioneers will be ready when preseason starts on Aug. 15.
“The last pool play game (Salem), we really picked up the offense and we’ve been looking good. We played with a lot of energy today and still have a lot of football left this summer,” he said. “I feel we will enter the season with a lot of momentum. We have a lot of new guys, but we are filling the shoes left by some really talented players from last year’s team really well.”
“It went pretty well today. We’re communicating better than we had been in the past,” Gazit, a linebacker, said. “If we keep that up, we’ll be looking pretty good going into the season.”
The Pioneers were also back in action this week at the 7v7 Passing League in Lynnfield playoffs. Area teams included Woburn, Essex Tech, Peabody, Triton and Beverly.
Lamusta said there are many benefits to playing 7v7 ball.
“Playing 7v7 is a great opportunity for the players to build camaraderie and chemistry,” he said. “Individually, players can work on their field awareness, man-to-man-coverage and catching, among other things.”
The 2024 Pioneers were undefeated in the Cape Ann League, winning the Baker title with a record of 4-0, giving the Pioneers a second straight league title and undefeated season. They’ve dominated the CAL for over a decade with league titles in nine of the last 12 seasons.
Last year ended with a heartbreaking 36-34 loss to Fairhaven in the quarterfinals of the Division 6 state tournament.
“The goal is to get back to where we were and do at least one better than that,” Gazit said. “I believe we have the talent to do that.”
