First look live

Salem CC takes early lead, but falls in its first-ever football scrimmage, Accorsi ‘pleasantly surprised’ at what he observed

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

MONTCLAIR – For the first time sending his team against somebody in a different colored uniform, Salem CC football coach Jay Accorsi was impressed. And so was the opposing coach.

The Mighty Oaks didn’t win the first scrimmage in program history, falling at NCAA Division III Montclair State 24-8 Friday night, but they did “much better” than the coach’s expectation and even scored their first touchdown to take an early lead in the game.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” Accorsi said. “At the end of the first quarter it’s 8-0 so I’m like ‘wow, we’re competing.’ We had our first Mighty Oaks touchdown, went for the two-point play and got it, and we’re up 8-0.

“You take it for what it’s worth, but I was pleasantly surprised. We competed all the way through, three quarters. The fourth quarter was a running clock. We were able to get everybody in. We had our first Mighty Oaks turnover, first Mighty Oaks tackle, first Mighty Oaks everything. It was fun and I was pleasantly surprised, I really was. We did much better than my expectation.”

Of course, all the official “firsts” take place next Saturday in their inaugural game against Hudson Valley CC at Pennsville High School, but, still, everything that took place Sprague Field was memorable.

Montclair coach Mike Palazzo spoke to the Mighty Oaks at the end of the exercise to pitch what his four-year program had to offer and even he was very impressed how well the first-year program competed.

The Mighty Oaks hit the Red Hawks early. Malakhai McKenzie connected with Darion Joyner on a long pass play that got knocked out near the goal line. Brian Pritchett scored the program’s first touchdown on a short run and Robert Daly caught the two-point conversion pass to make it 8-0. Later in the game, Stephen Little got their first takeaway with an interception.

“It was good to see the first Mighty Oaks touchdown,” Accorsi said.

All three quarterbacks played and did “pretty well” while the coaches mixed and matched a lot of linemen, running backs and receivers.

“I wanted to make sure we got lot of players on film so we could evaluate them and see where we’re at and then start to make some depth chart decisions,” Accorsi said. “It’s still going to be a work-in-progress for us. I think it’s going to be more which players play in which situation and how many reps.

“With a new program and an eight-game season and for everyone doing it for the first time I think we need to really play a lot of players and look at the long run and long haul of the program. I just think that’s going to be the nature of who we are. We’re going to have rely on a lot of players in a lot of different spots.”

Top photo: Screenshot of Brian Pritchett bursting into the end zone for Salem CC’s first ever touchdown and the early lead in its scrimmage at Montclair State.