RallyNorth.net

Salem obliterates Astros in showdown

Saturday, September, 26 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

SALEM, N.H. - Back in August, folks around the Granite State chuckled at the thought of Salem High in Division 1.
Nobody's laughing now, especially the folks up Route 28 in Derry.
Before a boisterous homecoming crowd of about 1,000, Salem High decimated Pinkerton Academy, 24-7, to remain unbeaten at 4-0 and send a deafening message to any remaining doubters.
"This is different, this is worse (than the season-opening rout by Bishop Guertin)," lamented a shell-shocked Brian O'Reilly after the undersized Devils tore the heart out of the Astros by winning the ground battle, 284-112. "This one, they dominated us. Whether it was Eric (Guinto) or anyone else, there were no holes to run through. Defensively, we were driven off the ball."
The victory was only the second in 20 tries for Salem against Pinkerton Academy under O'Reilly, and it was extra special for coach Jack Gati, who posted win No. 100 at Salem.
"Everyone underestimated us," said Salem sophomore Jerickson Fedrick. "They thought we were the same team from the past. They thought they were going to run over us. The past few years they've been beating us. We wanted it to be different this year."
Salem pretty much called all the shots from the opening kick, shredding the Astros in pretty much every way to build a 17-0 halftime lead which went to 24-0 after three.
Junior Max Jacques shouldered the bulk of the work with 27 carries for 145 yards, but anytime the Astros got too focused on Salem "5," the Fedrick (10 carries, 70 yards) and fullback Alex Sobrado (10-64) were more than willing to inflict a little pain.
Rounding out the attack was solid QB play out of junior Matt Cannone, who clicking on 5 of 9 completions - including four chain-movers to reliable Kyle Henrick - for 53 yards.
"(This shows) that we're the best team in our division," said Jacques, who pushed his area-leading rushing total to 560 yards on 83 carries. "We have a good offensive line, everyone works hard and we run the ball a lot. That's what we do."

While Salem ran like a new Mercedes tune the tune of 5.8 yards a snap, Pinkerton sputtered mightily. The Astros gained 14 yards in the first quarter and managed just 48 yards in the second.
  By that time, Salem led 17-0 on a pair of Fedrick scoring runs plus Chris Saulnier's first career field goal, an upright-splitter from 30 yards out.
"It's simple to me that they dominated the line of scrimmage, and that wasn't supposed to happen as far as our kids were concerned," said O'Reilly. "That doesn't bode well,when you get dominated up front ... I don't know why that  happened but it did."
Each team would net a second-half score - Sobrado punched in a one-yarder for Salem and Ryan Simpson found Luke Somers for a 48-yard bomb - but this outcome wasn't in doubt from the opening snap.
"The score was not indicative," said O'Reilly. "It was even worse."