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Salem rebounds with defense

Saturday, September, 27 By Jeff Hamrick

SALEM — For the second consecutive week, Salem saw a huge possession die by downs at the 1-yard line.

Unlike last week, when their drive ended 20 seconds shy of upending a title-contender, the Blue Devils still had clock to play with yesterday.

And they made the most of their time as a safety and interception return helped the Devils score 17 points in fewer than 5 fourth-quarter minutes, powering a 24-21 victory over Timberlane that kept Salem in the playoff chase.

"There were a lot mixed emotions (this past week)," Salem quarterback John Cerretani said about recovering from the tough 7-point loss to Pinkerton the week before. "We were a yard short of beating the No. 1 team in the state. So we had to keep our heads up and work even harder to come back and win our homecoming."

Yesterday nearly was a case of deja vu, however, when Salem's nine-play possession that spanned the final two quarters came to a crashing end when Timberlane's Brian Lonergan delivered the first of several hits that shut down Charles Sibanda's fourth-down run feet shy of success.

Three plays later, though, nose tackle Connor Mullins took the offense off the hook with an end zone tackle of Kyle Foucher that cut Timberlane's lead to 14-9.

Following the free kick, Cerretani capped a six-play drive with a 31-yard scoring pass to Nick Shumski. And when Cerretani found Corey Ortiz for the conversion pass, Salem had it's first lead since Sibanda scored the game's initial touchdown midway through the first.

"Last week was in the back of my mind (after faltering at the 1)," Cerretani said. "But we put our heads back together and came out and ... put some points on the board."

Linebacker Johnny Bartose continued the defensive hits on Timberlane's ensuing possession, returning an interception 11 yards for the clinching score at 24-14 with 4:48 left.
"It was very important to make a stop there," said Bartose, who also had 56 yards on seven carries in his second consecutive strong outing at fullback. "Defensively we were strong, but offensively we had to stay together and get things going. This feels very good."

In contrast to its opponent, Timberlane had a positive week after rallying big to snap a 10-game losing streak against Bishop Guertin. And the Owls appeared to have another rally in the works when freshman Jacob Post scored his third touchdown of the day on a 25-yard pass from Jason Hughes, capping a 65-yard drive that needed a mere 70 seconds. But Timberlane was unable to advance past its own 25 on two final possessions.

Playing on a Saturday afternoon when several coaches were able to scout, Post had a coming out party, putting up 104 total yards and a pair of second-quarter scoring runs of 16 and 5 yards that provided a 14-7 halftime lead.

"For the second week in a row, our effort was outstanding," Timberlane coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "A play there and a play here and things might have been different. I thought the freshman Post was outstanding. He's a play maker, and I think he might have come of age today."