LYNNFIELD — For four years now, the Lynnfield and Peabody football teams have kicked off their seasons scrimmaging each other.
While the schools couldn’t be further apart in terms of size (Peabody is Division 1; Lynnfield is Division 6), both head coaches view the annual meeting as extremely beneficial.
“As long as coach (Mark) Bettencourt and I can come to agreement on the number of reps we want and, being a much smaller team, I think I can field that number of reps and he is happy with what he is getting with our younger guys squaring off in another scrimmage, it works,” said Lynnfield coach Pat Lamusta. “Eighty snaps is just perfect; 40 reps on offense and 40 reps on defense for each team. It’s been great and it’s been competitive, and I like how it gets our guys exposed to more sizable players than they are used to.”
Conversely, Bettencourt said the benefit to the Tanners is about exposing his players to a more pass-heavy style of play – and quickness.
“It definitely makes them a better team, going up against a bigger school,” Bettencourt said. “For us, it’s a benefit because Lynnfield throws the ball a lot. We play teams like Marblehead, Lynn Classical, and Swampscott that throw the ball. You want to get a good read on where your defensive backfield is and Lynnfield provides that for us.”
“Also, their defensive line is usually quicker than ours, so it’s a good opportunity for our offensive line to get an idea of their speed. You can do anything you want with drills, but drills aren’t real. When you go up against another team, you see the game speed and the quickness of the defensive line, especially. They’ll use gaps and slants. Our offensive line has to make that adjustment.”
Neither team had much luck moving the ball early on. Bettencourt described the scrimmage as a “lot of fights between the 40s.”
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once we settled in, we started to move the ball a lot,” Lamusta said. “On defense, we were getting a lot of helmets to the ball, so that was very encouraging. And with the younger kids playing the JV scrimmage, everyone got plenty of time on the field.”
Lamusta highlighted a few plays, starting with Cape Ann League Offensive Player of the Year and Daily Item All-Star Tyler Adamo’s screen pass to Luke DiSilvio.
“That was the first big play of more than 10 yards. Jesse Dorman had a couple of nice catches and Jared Bernabei (TD) made a couple of good rushes throughout the first set of snaps,” Lamusta said. “We were able to spread things out and get the ball to different people on our first drive, and that’s what we want our offense to be.”
Lamusta gave a “special shoutout” to senior rookie Alex Fleming and Maximus Nastari.
“Alex is a basketball star and decided to come out for football, and he did a really nice job on the offensive line,” Lamusta said. “And Maximus, who has been with us for four years now, made a position change to the O-line and did a nice job. So, you have two guys there who are so committed and really stepped up and filled a role on the offensive line that we really needed.”
Other players who impressed Lamusta included junior Dan Lemieux, who Lamusta said will likely be starting at wide receiver and safety, as well as junior Luke Silvio, who will also play wide receiver and safety.
“Dan has great hands and great athletic ability, so watch out for him – and also watch out for Luke as well,” Lamusta said.
Bettencourt highlighted several players he thought impressed, starting with sophomore running backs Caio Santos and Gabe Casiano.
“They both looked pretty good,” Bettencourt said. “Also, Dave Faziano and Andrew Anthony-Santos also looked good. These are all new guys because the other guys are all gone. It’s different because you have the equipment on. It’s not 7v7s. You have to get your reads. It’s a different animal and I think they both got a lot out of the scrimmage in terms of feeling the pressure and game speed, and making sure you are getting your checkdowns.”
Bettencourt said Jimmy Festa, Matt Mastrocola, Anthony Silva, and Jayden Betts played well defensively and Tyler Rappold and Aneudy Medrano played well offensively. He added he wasn’t concerned that Lynnfield scored the only touchdown of the game.
“We’re here to learn what we need to get better at – not to win on the scoreboard – which wasn’t even turned on,” he said. “We’re not trying to win. We have 10 scripted plays. We know there were 35 adjustments we could have made, but that’s not the point of what we are trying to do. We’ll do that in our first game against Melrose. It was important that we not lose sight of what we’re here for.”
Lamusta said both he and Bettencourt know the first scrimmage of the year “is always ugly” with many kids in new roles playing in pressure situations.
“They’re going to make mistakes. It’s more about having a great opportunity to see what you have and what you need to do,” Lamusta said. “You can see how kids react under pressure situations and look at kids all across the board.”
The Pioneers are back in action Friday with a scrimmage against Melrose at home, while Peabody also returns Friday night with a home scrimmage against Framingham at 6:30 p.m.
