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Saturday night’s contest between the Manchester Essex and Lynnfield football teams was a tale of two games.

The Hornets had struggled to mount any offense for the first 40 minutes and found themselves trailing Lynnfield 14-0, with just four minutes to go in the game. It looked as if the Pioneers were going to cruise to a shutout victory.

CHELSEA | Victory seemed to be slipping away from the Manchester Essex football team.

The Hornets had all but lost a 27-14 halftime lead, by allowing Pope John to get within one point (27-26) with just over one minute to play in the game. All that stood in the way from victory or defeat for the Hornets was a 3-yard two-point conversion try.

After the way the last three years have gone for the Manchester Essex football team, head coach Mike Athanas knows he can't let his team get too high or too low. Thus, Athanas' formula for success in 2007 is simple, execute from week to week and take it one game at a time. The Hornets enter this fall as the defending Commonwealth Small League Champions. Manchester Essex made the Division 3A playoffs last season, where it lost in the first round to Ipswich 34-0.

MANCHESTER | Rome wasn't built in a day, and the same could be said for any successful football team.

It's a fact that fourth-year Manchester Essex football coach Mike Athanas knows all too well, and one that was probably his inspiration when his team was mired in a 17-game losing streak in 2004 and 2005.