Something to prove

NATICK -- Sitting on a small set of movable bleachers behind Memorial Field, where his troops were engaging in the final day of conditioning last month, Natick football coach Tom Lamb talked about his expectations for the 2007 season before being interrupted by a couple of bees buzzing about.

"You allergic to bees?" he stopped to ask a reporter. Told no, Lamb, who seemed the least concerned of the pair, announced that there had been a bee's nest beneath the bench and that, sooner or later, someone might get stung. Later, as his team approached to get water, Lamb asked his players the same question to ensure there were no medical emergencies on this day.

It's symbolism at its finest. Natick is the proverbial bee's nest this fall and its opponents can thank Burlington for giving that roost a big ol' kick last December.

Before that, Natick might have been a bit complacent. The Redmen strolled into the 2006 playoffs with a state-best 26-game winning streak, having not loss since the 2004 season, and seemed poised to defend their Division 2 Super Bowl title.

Natick even opened a 9-0 lead against Burlington over the first 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the game before watching the Red Devils scored seven times (six touchdowns, one field goal) en route to a 45-9 thrashing.

Suddenly, these bees were angry. A rage they probably hadn't felt in a while.

"It's the last game that stays with you and that was our last game," said Lamb, the 21st-year coach who has compiled a 219-59-2 mark during his time at Natick and Norwood. "I think maybe we feel like we have something to prove now."

To recap: A team that has won 26 of its last 27 games, including one Super Bowl title, has something to prove. Asked if that sounds a little funny to him, Lamb replied, "I guess it does. But we all use things like that as a motivator. Without a doubt, we've had some great moments the past two seasons going 13-0 and 11-1. But as competitors, you are embarrassed by that last game and you want to do something about it."

Natick begins its quest for redemption by bringing back nine starters and a 35-member senior class, most of whom got game experience a year ago. There are offensive and defensive lines to rebuild, but the Redmen boast the best lot of individual talent in the Bay State Herget and the goal of getting back to the playoffs is more than reasonable.

Ask the veteran leaders of the squad what went wrong during last year's playoff loss and they can't pinpoint specifics. They wonder if the team got a bit complacent after jumping out to an early lead and then simply couldn't stop the bleeding once Burlington responded. It doesn't matter, last year's loss is nothing they harp upon.

"We just use it as motivation now," said senior lineman Doug DeMaio, one of five captains on this year's squad along with Mike Zambarano, Bill Crisafulli, Thad McCummings, and Mike Russo.

"We know there's a lot to work on, but we also recognize that there's still a lot of stuff going right. We just have to build off of the good things we did last year.... After winning a Super Bowl (in 2005) and to lose the next year, we know how good we had it and how bad it was last year. There's definitely motivation there."

Which Russo, a safety and the team's kicker, confirms.

"Absolutely, we have something to prove," he said. "The ultimate goal around here is to win the Super Bowl. An undefeated regular season was great, but we want to get back to the playoffs and get back to that Super Bowl."

Natick is admittedly taking baby steps in that process. This was an important preseason for the Redmen as the return of a very athletic group left Lamb and Co., with the task of putting together a positional puzzle.

Incumbent quarterback, senior Theo McCummings, did a phenomenal job under center last season, but with talented young arms like those belonging to Brett Flutie (familiar last name, eh?) and McCummings' younger brother, Scott, both of whom are sophomores, there's thought of shuffling the deck a bit.

One plan of attack could be an all-McCummings backfield with Scott taking snaps (he played nearly the entire second half of the playoff loss to Burlington), Thad at fullback (9 touchdowns last year), and Theo at tailback. Or Lamb might decide it's unreasonable to mess with success and keep Theo (7 touchdown passes last year) taking snaps. It's a nice problem to have.

"On one hand it's a bit a confusing at times, because we don't exactly know where everyone is going to end up," said DeMaio. "But it's way better than not having enough guys. This gives us a lot of options."

Early in the preseason, Lamb wasn't tipping his hand.

"If you're looking at it from the outside, it's nice that we've got some talented kids," he said. "Who will (the quarterback) be? Maybe we'll take a page from Bill Belichick in the NFL and say we don't know. We really don't. We'll see what happens."

With an opening-week matchup with Carey champion Weymouth, a little bit of posturing could be expected. With a monster Herget battle with rival Walpole the following week, we wouldn't be surprised to see the Redmen completely change their game plan from one week to the next.

Regardless, Natick believes a couple early challenges is exactly what this squad needs to get back on the bike.

"With a team like this, to jump right in and get a challenge, that's perfect," said DeMaio. "This won't allow us to take it easy. You don't want to play 10 games and fall into that lull or get a false sense of security. This way we have to be ready for every game."

Chris Forsberg can be reached at cforsberg@boston.com