Looking for the magic

Salem shut out by Willingboro in Carr’s first game as Rams’ head coach; Chimeras win first opener in 13 years

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SALEM – It was about a half-hour after the game had ended. Kemp Carr had finished talking to his players after a disappointing season-opening loss and there was still a lot about it he didn’t like.

But as the new Salem coach walked back to his office, his youngest grandson Nathaniel raced across the field and jumped into his arms. Carr held him tight and in that moment all was right with the world.

“You’ve got to separate the two, right?” he explained. “You’ve got to know how, you’ve got to know when, even though you’re an emotional human being, right. We go through it, we’ve got to process some joys in life. You’ve got to take the ups with the ups and the downs with the downs.

“That was my youngest grandson. That’s the future. Anytime you see the future running up and it’s part of your DNA, your bloodline, you get excited about that, right.”

But soon after that interaction it was back to what the day was all about. And that would be Salem’s 35-0 loss to Willingboro in Carr’s first game back as a head coach in six years and what the Rams were going to do about it going forward.

While there were some things the coach found to his liking, there were a lot of others things the Rams need to correct to be the team Carr knows it can be.

They gave up two short-field touchdowns early in the game because of turnovers to fall behind 14-0. The running game, which was expected to be a strong suit, had too many carries of negative or zero yards. They didn’t come close to scoring, although they looked headed that way in the fourth quarter until the running clock caught up to them.

“It’s all about that magical box,” Carr said. “We weren’t able to establish the run, which is always going to be an issue if you can’t do that. They beat us in the TBR – tackle, block, run. If we can’t do the TBR against teams you’re going to have a hard time beating them. Your special teams better be real special in order to win games if you can’t TBR. We didn’t TBR well.

“We thought we were built for this. I thought we had a great pre-game. I thought we looked like, before we out there, we had that mojo, that ‘it’ factor, and it just never showed up on the field, but I promise you it will. This ain’t no 2-7 football team.”

Willingboro’s James Pemberton scored two touchdowns and had an interception on a tipped ball. Mekhi Cottle did some “purposeful” running and scored a touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter. Jamier Harper and quarterback Sean Taylor also found the end zone. Taylor threw three touchdown passes.

For the Chimeras, it was their first Week Zero or season opening victory since 2011 (Cinnaminson).

“This team is gritty, they’re hard working, they show up and bust their humps every day,” Willingboro coach Kenny Scott said. “We just wanted to make a statement. They haven’t won a Week Zero game in over a decade, so they earned that one.” 

On the positive side for Salem, Carr was happy with the active and disruptive play of defensive ends Michael Green and Antwan Rogers and the running of sophomore Jamaal Shockley, who had two nice runs in the fourth quarter when the Rams’ offense finally seemed comfortable.

“I think if he’s willing to learn I think he’ll be decent player here,” Carr said of Shockley. “He’s fast, he’s strong, he’s active. Once he starts to understand his development, once Pop (DaviYonn Jackson) is gone, who’s it? The job’s open right. So those guys should be fighting and clawing. I’m looking for the next guys and he showed some bright signs that he can be it.”

Willingboro (1-0)	7	7	14	7-	35
Salem (0-1)	0	0	0	0-	0

SCORING SUMMARY
W-Brandon Cox pass from Sean Taylor (James Pemberton kick)
W-James Pemberton pass from Sean Taylor (James Pemberton kick)
W-James Pemberton pass from Sean Taylor (James Pemberton kick)
W-Mekhi Cottle run (James Pemberton kick), 0:48 3Q
W-Sean Taylor 1 run (James Pemberton kick), 2:41 4Q