AMESBURY —It’s six games and six wins for Lynnfield’s football team, which went on the road and picked up another victory on Friday, defeating host Amesbury 24-14 at Landry Memorial Stadium. The win marked the first time the Pioneers have started 6-0 since 2017.
Lynnfield led 10-0 at the half courtesy of senior captain Joey Cucciniello’s touchdown and a field goal from Massimo LoGrasso, who was a perfect 1-for-1. Cucciniello added another TD in the second half, making it 17-0, and quarterback Tyler Adamo sealed the deal with another with about nine minutes to play. Turnovers played a big role in the game with the Pioneers forcing – and recovering – three fumbles to thwart the Indians’ offensive attack.
“Amesbury is a tough place to play and we needed to prove to ourselves that we can compete against a downhill run team and win the physicality segment of the game,” coach Pat Lamusta said. “Again, we were really impressed with the blocking and tackling in the game with lots of great hits that led to turnovers on defense and special teams. We had lots of physical block destruction, aggressive blocking on offense, and multiple players swarming to the football. (Amesbury) Coach McQueen does a nice job with that offense and his players run it very well, so we knew we had to go after the football and force some turnovers.”
The Pioneers, who held a significant 278-189 edge in total yards, relied on their passing game in this one. Adamo, despite throwing two interceptions, completed 15-of-19 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, outpacing his Indians’ counterpart, who completed only one pass in three attempts for 10 yards.
“Ty did a great job bouncing back from an early interception and leading us the rest of the way. He is a very resilient athlete,” Lamusta said.
Amesbury owned the ground game, rushing for 179 yards while the Pioneers mustered a season-low 66 in just the second game this season they failed to top the 100-yard mark. Niccolo Antidormi had nine carries for 29 yards. Adamo had just one carry, but made it a good one, cashing in on a 24-yard TD carry. Jared Bernabei was the only other Pioneer who got the ground call, picking up 13 yards on four carries.
Six Pioneers caught passes. Senior captain Joey Cucciniello led the way with five catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns, while Antidormi and Zahir Mitchell caught three passes each for 42 yards. Madux Iovinelli caught two passes for 48 yards and both Ethan Francis and Bernabei each caught one pass for 14 yards. LoGrasso, Alex Baldini and George Lambrose had one fumble recovery each.
Lamusta said the defensive line had a “tough” assignment and, “They rose to the challenge. Quinn Hardisty, Anthony Morales, Devin O’Connor, Chris Duprey, Ben Gazit, Oliver Ventolieri and Walter Radulski were awesome at controlling the line of scrimmage. Madux Iovinelli and Landon Verge also played unique roles on defense outside their normal responsibility and rose to the occasion.”
Lamusta had a shout out for Kyle Schmitz, who had 10-plus tackles.
“He has really embodied our goals as a defense and he had an awesome game playing sideline to sideline and always going after the football,” Lamusta said. “He’s not the biggest guy on our defense, but he sets the tone and plays with a ton of heart. I’m very proud of his senior leadership on defense this year.”
Next up for Lynnfield is a non-league match Friday night at 6:30 p.m. against North Attleboro, an unlikely, albeit welcomed opponent according to Pioneers’ coach Pat Lamusta.
“Everyone was going to have one random bye. We ended up with the Week 7 bye which is a super hard bye to fill and we went six or seven months without an opponent,” Lamusta said. “Someone from New York reached out to me and said they wanted to play but it wasn’t feasible. There really were just not a lot of opportunities.”
By July, Lamusta was resigned to having a bye week. North Attleboro coach Michael Strachan, who grew up playing youth football in Lynnfield, reached out to Lamusta in late July and said he was looking for a team and was willing to travel.
“I thought, you know what, they’re from a bigger division and it will be a challenge, but I think our guys would like to play,” Lamusta said. “They look big and athletic like you would expect from the Hockomock League, so this will be a challenge, but we are looking forward to it.”
