Lunenburg Bengal QB Armanii Jones breaks away from a North Middlesex defender during action in a 13-6 win over North Middlesex in Sixth Grade Pop Warner action on Saturday.

Inset photo, Lunenburg Bengal RB Max Bigelow brushes off a tackle by a North Middlesex defender during Sixth Grade homegame action on Saturday, Aug. 25. The Bengals took the win 13-6 to start their season at 1-0.

Story by Michael James LeClair
Photos by Jeffrey W. Boudreau

Are you ready for some football? The Lunenburg Youth Football and Cheerleading Association certainly are.

    On Saturday the Lunenburg Bengals and its cheerleaders kicked off the 2012 season at home on the turf behind Lunenburg High School.

    The league features six different age groups and all were in action on Saturday.

    “Everything has been fantastic today; we’ve had lot of volunteers and the parents have been very supportive,” said Sixth-Year League President Rick Hill. “The program has really taken off; we’ve doubled in size ... with over 170 players and cheerleaders. The growth has been great. When you’re a Bengal we try to teach a lot more than just football. We try to teach discipline, commitment and respect that will carry over when they come off the field.”

    This will be the eighth year the Bengals organization will be part of the American Youth Football Organization. Prior to changing organizations the Bengals was part of Pop Warner.   

    Beginning in the morning with the youngest age group, the flag football players (kindergarten and first graders), the games went off every two hours. The second and third graders followed and so on until the eighth-grade squad took the field in the afternoon’s final contest.  Scores are not registered for the flag football or the second and third grade teams as the coaches and league officials want to stress playing the game the right way over wins and losses.  

    “Defensively we played outstanding but offensively we need some work. Maynard’s a good team and they played us hard,” said Lunenburg Fourth-Grade Coach Bill Nash after his team’s 14-6 win over Maynard. “They’re a hard working group of kids and many of them play well on both sides of the ball. I’m proud of the boys; they played hard and I wish them along with the rest of the program lot of success this year.”

    The Bengals third, fourth, fifth and eighth-grade teams all played against teams from Maynard while the Bengals sixth-grade squad battled North Middlesex.

    “Our numbers are up; we have 30 kids this year and they’re all really excited to get going and everyone is looking good,” said Bengals Sixth-Grade Head Coach Scott Mackenzie. “One of the biggest strengths of this group is how much they’ve really come together; the chemistry has been amazing. We’ve seen some great stuff during the jamboree with a lot of new faces. The new kids have really stepped up. I’m really excited about this team this year.”

    Each age group, with the exception of the flag football age group, will play a nine-game regular season schedule that began Saturday and will run through Sunday, Oct. 21. The flag footballers will play a five-game schedule over the course of the 2012 season.

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