Published May 27, 2020

By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI

THE LHS girls’ lacrosse program raised over $1,300 for the National MS Society during last year’s alumni game. Now that the spring season has been cancelled, many Pioneer teams are hoping to organize an alumni game in the summer so that this year’s seniors have a chance to play as a group one more time. (File Photo)

LYNNFIELD — This spring season was slated to be the final one for one of Lynnfield High’s biggest rivals, Masconomet, in the Cape Ann League. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, that will not be the case as the season was canceled.

In September, Masconomet will be moving to the Northeastern Conference. Masconomet was in discussions with the NEC for six months and back in October the league principals officially extended the invitation.

Masco, which has dominated the league in most sports, has the CAL’s largest student enrollment of 1,145 students, which is 391 more than the second largest school and more than double half the schools in the league.

Masco’s enrollment, heading into this past fall, would be the fifth largest enrollment in a 12-team NEC so it seemed a natural fit.

The school was trying to get into the NEC back in 2009 but that fell through.

Two years ago, the NEC picked up the four Greater Boston League schools, Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville. That addition only lasted two years as the four schools went back to reform the GBL and they took Revere with them.

With the loss of Revere, the door opened for Masco to take its place as they will be the 12th team to balance the league.

Lynnfield’s teams will now have to try to pick up either one or two non-league games to fill out their schedules.

“They (Masco) are looking for a more competitive situation,” said Lynnfield softball coach Peter Marinelli.

The Pioneers finished one game ahead of the Chieftains last year in the standings as they went 9-7 while Masco was 8-8.

“I would still want to play against them in a home-and-home next year,” said Marinelli, as that would fill the two open dates. “They are geographically so close to us.”

Marinelli would also like to see the CAL try to recruit a school to replace the Chieftains.

The Lynnfield girls’ lacrosse team only played Masco once a year since the Pioneers are in the Baker division while Masco is in the Kinney division.

“For us it is very much the same,” said Pioneers head coach Ethan Blanchette. “They are always one of the most skilled and strongest teams that we play and we have not had a lot of success against them. The one thing I will say about Masco is that I have a lot of respect for their program.”

Blanchette has only one game to make up for to fill out his schedule next spring.

“I don’t mind playing them, but I would not actively try to get them on the schedule,” he said about scheduling them in a non-league game next season. “I don’t have any strong opinions on another team taking their place, but it would be nice for symmetry seeing as the CAL now has 11 teams which means unbalanced Baker/Kinney divisions and perhaps a tougher time generating a schedule.”

Lynnfield boys’ tennis has won the Kinney division the past two years as Masco came in second place last season.

“I will miss the competition against them,” acknowledged Pioneer head coach Joe Dunn, whose team played the Chieftains twice. “They have a pretty strong team.”

Dunn will reach out to play them twice again next year in non-league matches.

“Their coach is a great guy so I would love to play them twice next year,” he said.

Dunn, who is in his fifth year at the helm, would also like the CAL to get a replacement team to add to the league.

“I would like to see the league get another team but I am not sure who it would be,” he said.