Fond farewell

Former Salem coach returns with Camden and gets out with a win in the next-to-last game on his former field

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SALEM – Rob Hinson has some nice memories of his one year playing on Walnut Street Field. He made a final one Saturday in the last time he’s going to play on it.

Hinson was the head coach at Salem for only one break-even year (2005) that started with an upset of a defending state champion but was part of the fabric that made the field historic. He coaches Camden now and in the next to last game to be played on the Rams’ longtime off-campus facility, his Panthers came in and gave their coach a 34-0 victory.

“That’s significant, man, because my year here the previous coach, Montrey (Wright), played for me and he’s like a son,” said Hinson, who still lives in Carney’s Point. “When we got the schedule last year I was like it’s going to be great to go back to Salem and coach against Montrey on that field. But obviously it didn’t work out that way.

“Living in Salem County, we would come down here and watch games. I love the people in Salem. They have a lot of passion, very similar to the people in Camden; they love their Rams. So coming here and getting a win regardless of the score is a big deal. It’s pretty good to be here.”

The Panthers (1-1) parlayed three big scoring plays — one in each phase of the game — and Salem’s inability to create offense to win the next last high school game expected to be played at The Nut.

The game originally was scheduled for Wilmington’s Abissinio Stadium as part of the Mid-Atlantic Pigskin Classic, but conflicts at the site forced the teams to pull out. It was Salem’s home game, but they couldn’t play there because the Rams’ on-campus stadium was still under construction. And they couldn’t play at Camden, because the Panthers’ stadium was still undergoing renovations as well.

The Rams had played at Walnut Street for decades and the old-timers can remember times when fans ringed the fences many times deep to watch the game, but they ended that relationship at the end of last season when the bleachers fell into disrepair and they started work on an on-campus stadium. The City of Salem had been working to bring Walnut Street back for the youth teams and earlier this week confirmed to the Rams the venue would be ready with limitations for Saturday’s game.

The field was ready, the bleachers were occupied and the public address system was operational. There was no power to the scoreboard, so the official timing was kept on the field. Beyond that, it was business as usual.

The Rams will use the field one last time in two weeks when they host Penns Grove. Their stadium is expected to be ready for their Oct. 7 game with Paulsboro.

Camden’s Braheem Long will take away fond memories of the field, too. His late father used to live in Salem and the senior defensive back remembers playing on the field growing up. He came back Saturday as a Syracuse commitment to block a punt, return the second half kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown and – his personal favorite – return an interception 40 yards for the game’s final score.

“This is actually the field I grew up on, so I decided to play real hard; I did it for him,” Long said. “It was definitely special. People usually don’t throw my way, so when they threw my way, I made it count.”

It wasn’t such a good experience for the Rams. Salem coach Danny Mendoza said if he could put last week’s offense with this week’s defense they could have something to build on, but they just made too many mistakes.

With the exception of one coverage bust on fourth down that cost them a touchdown in the first half and tiring in the second half, the defense held up its end. They held the Panthers to 38 yards rushing and 126 yards total in the first half and turned them

The offense, however, could never make any headway against Camden’s imposing defensive presence. They barely had over 100 net yards — 71 of it came on two Ramaji Bundy pass completions — and through three quarters they were held to negative rushing yardage.

Their deepest penetration into Camden territory was the 29 (on the first play of the second quarter) and that snap produced an interception. It didn’t help three starters went down in the first quarter. 

Special teams were equally problematic. The Rams (0-2) had two punts blocked, the ones they did get away didn’t go far, and they had that kickoff return by Long.

“You’re not going to win any games with that, no matter how good you play,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board, do some soul searching and change some things offensively and see what’s the best package for us.

“We’ve got have the energy in all three phases of the game. If we can ever get all three phases relatively similar production-wise, I think we’ll be able to pick it up. We’ve got to fix some things.”

Camden 34, Salem 0

CAM (34)		SAL (0)
13	1st Downs	5
27-151	Rushes-yds	26-18
11-24-0	Passes	7-18-2
114	Passing yds	89
0-0	Fumbles-lost	1-0
1-24.0	Punts-avg	7-14.0
9-75	Penalties-avg	5-35

Camden (1-1)	0	7	13	14 –	34
Salem (0-2)	0	0	0	0 –	0

Scoring plays
C – D’hani Cobbs 47 pass from Jaythan Candelario (Jah’Rodd Hamilton kick), 4:14 2Q
C – Braheem Long 89 kickoff return (Jah’Rodd Hamilton kick), 11:38 3Q
C – Judah Anthony 11 run (kick failed), 1:46 3Q
C – Judah Anthony 17 run (Jah’Rodd Hamilton kick), 6:24 4Q
C – Braheem Long 40 interception return (Jah’Rodd Hamilton kick), 4:45 4Q