Football Focus: Solutions for a bounceback following a Week 1 setback

Sep. 15—High school football teams in these parts have nine-plus months to prepare for their season opener.

They then have six or seven days to implement changes, right some wrongs and get ready for Week 2.

Five football programs covered by The Salem News — Beverly, Danvers, Ipswich, Masconomet, and Swampscott — began the 2022 season on the wrong side of the win/loss ledger and will try to rectify that this weekend.

"It's actually nice to get back to a normal practice week and a routine, rather than prepping all offseason for a team," head coach Zack Lamkin of Ipswich said as his Tigers get set to host Lowell Catholic Friday at 6:30 p.m. "You never truly know, based off their roster turnover, how a team is from seeing their scrimmage film."

Danvers boss Ryan Nolan, whose team is back in action Thursday night at Deering Stadium against Haverhill (6:30 p.m.), said it's a mater of working to get better on both sides of the ball.

"We're making a conscious decision to not put too much in and (instead) master the foundation of what we want to do," said Nolan. "We want to concentrate on improving ourselves first and foremost from a fundamental level."

One setback is nothing that's going to send any team into panic mode. While disappointing, breaking down actual game film of both their own miscues and what their upcoming foe does well can be cathartic.

"I think we'll definitely benefit from seeing those mistakes on film," agreed Beverly head coach Jeff Hutton, whose Orange-and-Black hope to rebound in their home opener this Saturday (11 a.m.) against North Andover at Hurd Stadium. "We need to continue to practice 'situational football' so our guys can easily recognize the opponents formations, what and why they are doing it.

"We've had a good few days of practice and expect to get better week to week," added Masconomet head coach Gavin Monagle. His Chieftains will hit the road for the first time this season when they travel to Central Mass. to square off against Grafton, a team that went 11-1 a year ago and lost only in the Division 4 state semifinals. "They're a big challenge, but our kids are looking forward to getting back out on the field."

Complicating matters somewhat is that four of the five teams our locals are going up against won their openers; only Lynn English, which hosts Swampscott Friday in the first game of a doubleheader at Manning Field (5 p.m.), also lost.

Building depth, confidence

As you might imagine, it's essentially a 50/50 chance a football team that drops its opener comes back to prevail in Week 2.

Over the last decade, there have been 56 instances in which one of 13 programs covered by The Salem News have lost on opening day/night. The following weekend produced 26 wins and 29 losses.

There have been good years (the squads that qualified under this scenario went a combined 5-1 in Week 2 of 2016); others have gone just as poorly the following week (the seven teams that dropped their Week 1 contest in 2014 lost five of seven games the next week).

Five such teams have bounced back with Week 2 shutouts; four have been shut out. Three Week 2 games went to overtime (with Swampscott winning in double overtime over Lynn Classical in 2015, and Masco toppling Melrose by two in 2014 — before going on to finish 9-2 and win the Cape Ann League title).

Danvers is 1-4 in its last five games following a Week 1 loss; the exception to that rule came in 2013 when, after being blasted by Marblehead (44-0), the Falcons came back to stun Beverly, 33-28.

This time around, adding depth on game night is critical. Look for sophomores such as Brady Tersolo, Kevin Ahern, Michael Albano, and Sam Linderman to be worked into the lineup (along with Greysun Jackson, Aiden Perry, and Joe Baker, who have already seen significant time. New players this season such as Luke Metivier and Billy Butler should also see roles on both sides of the ball and on special teams.

"At the end of the day," said Nolan, "we want to be simple enough to allow "the players to play fast and confident in our matchup with Haverhill."

Swampscott, the defending Division 5 Super Bowl champions, have a lot of new faces this year and stumbled out of the gate against Auburn; look for them to take a similar path as Danvers in helping to simplify things for their young players while looking to their veterans (Jason Codispoti, Elijah Burns, etc.) to raise their own games.

Cleaning up fundamentals is paramount for Masconomet, which played well in its loss to Newburyport (28-20) but not consistently enough. Towards that end, getting captain Owen Barrett (WR/OLB/CB) back on both sides of the ball should help immensely; so should linebacker Luke Kelly joining his teammates back on the turf.

The Chieftains will need to be stout defensively, going up against a Grafton squad that runs and throws the football equally well. The Indians are led by Tyson Thompson, who ran for over 1,000 yards last year and began his 2022 slate with a 167-yard showing on opening night. Quarterback Colin Costello added three deep touchdown passes, meaning he and Masco's multi-threat signal caller, Matt Richardson, should have a great battle-within-the-battle against each other.

Getting up to speed

For both Ipswich and Beverly, it's trying to get their young players up to speed.

The Tigers have a staggering five freshmen starting on defense (and 3 on offense) along with one sophomore, so the varsity speed was a bit overwhelming for them in last week's setback at Manchester Essex. Getting more experience as the campaign goes on and learning to execute properly will mean fewer blown assignments.

"We have an extremely talented group of kids that just need more time together and more need to build more confidence," said Lamkin. "We have another tough matchup this week against some fast, athletic kids, so we need to make sure we control the game offensively and eliminate the big play on defense.

"Giving up the home run has been our Achilles' Heel since the beginning of last year," Lamkin continued. "We have the personal to stop that now but we need to play a full four quarters play by play, not just possession by possession."

It was a similar story for Beverly a week ago, where some miscommunication on defense due to its youth and lack of varsity experience led to some chunk plays against. Other missed assignments when the Panthers had the ball kept them from moving the chains regularly.

So how do they rectify this against a North Andover team that beat them 34-0 a year ago?

Having the starters stay hungry and keep up their intensity all four quarters is a good place to start, even if they aren't necessarily being challenged for their spot in the lineup. Seeing some of their younger teammates perform well against Haverhill, though, could lit a competitive fire under some upperclassmen.

Improving their game savvy and football IQ will only benefit them, said Hutton. "That falls on the coaching staff to keep practicing those high pressure situations that they'll see on game day," he noted.

"I hate to sound cliché, but last year was last year. Sure there's familiarity, but they graduated just about their whole offense so they're very different offensively than last year," Hutton continued. "Defensively they're fast and athletic. That killed us last year. Their ability to get penetration on offense killed our run game, too. We'll have to do a much better job this season if we want to compete."

Contact Phil Stacey

@PhilStacey_SN

Contact Phil Stacey

@PhilStacey_SN