Salem CC football plays Thaddeus Stevens Saturday at Penns Grove HS in search of its inaugural win
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – Jay Accorsi didn’t expect success for his Salem CC football program to come overnight. With any new program trying to find its way, the road to victory is taken in small, incremental steps.
The Mighty Oaks have gotten closer to the desired result each week to that historic first win, but in each of the first two games fell short of pulling it off.
They fell behind in the opener after staying close early, but made it close with a touchdown on the very last play. Last week they had their first lead and seemed in control of the game for the longest time until buckling under a series of bad penalties and miscues that reached a head in the fourth quarter.
Nothing to do about it now but live and learn. They’ve got another shot at it Saturday against Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology at Penns Grove High School and this time, like every time, they’re looking to complete the deal.
“I know as coaches we talk about teaching everybody how to win,” Accorsi said. “It’s a new program, new coaching staff, so as coaches we talked about it. We talked about with the players. I know the coaches addressed it in all their meetings. We’re trying to learn to do everything and winning is one of those things.
“When you look at the film you’re like what team showed up for the fourth quarter. That’s the part we’re all kind of perplexed about. Maybe we’re tired, maybe we’re not in good enough shape, so we’re looking at that. Maybe we don’t feel confident in ourselves to win games. That was the message we talked about and the part were trying to piece together.
“I knew we weren’t going to get a lot of wins this first year anyway, just being realistic, but we’re much closer than I thought we’d be. Now what do we have to do to get us over the top? That’s kind of what we’re trying to concentrate on. The first game we played around three quarters or less of football. This one we played three and into the fourth quarter of good football. Now what do we need to do to play four quarters of football?
“I was not really going to try to get caught up in the wins and losses (this first year), but now that we’re that close now you kind of have to figure out how to get closer to be able to do it and finish games off.”
After finishing strong against Hudson Valley and having an open week in between to make adjustments, the Mighty Oaks started sharply last week against Nassau CC. They put together an 80-yard drive in their first possession, getting it all on the ground, and finished it off with Demetris Williams’ 13-yard touchdown run for their first lead in a game that counted. (They led throughout the first half in their scrimmage at Montclair).
They were on their way to a second score and a two-touchdown lead that would’ve made it “a different game,” but were hit with one of those ill-timed penalties and never recovered.
Jamar Smith made a great block to free Jahfarri Payne for a 23-yard touchdown, but the score was called back by a block in the back away from the ball and the Mighty Oaks never scored again. It’s been that kind of thing that’s plagued them the first two games. Nassau scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half and never trailed again.
Later in the game second-half starting quarterback Cam Wright slid too soon on a fourth-down run that stopped a drive in Nassau territory, they dropped a wide open touchdown pass in the end zone and in the fourth quarter trying to make something happen Aidan Hill was intercepted twice leading to two Nassau touchdowns that inflated the final margin.
“The score is the score and it never changes, but I think we’re doing things at the end of the game to try to win the game that we’re not very good at right now, especially offensively,” Accorsi said. “We need to control the clock, run the ball, minimize mistakes, don’t put our defense in harm’s way and we didn’t do that in that fourth quart“
Going forward, the Mighty Oaks will “juggle some guys around” on both sides of the ball to best match abilities with situations, although they didn’t provide specifics.
“That happens with any team all the time all year long,” Accorsi said. “It’s just different for us because, again, these are all really new players. We have a lot of really good players, we’re just still trying to find out who can do what. That’s going to be probably all the way through the season.”
The Bulldogs come into the game with a 1-1 record, having beaten the New Jersey Warriors, a post-graduate football program whose players can attend any New Jersey community college, after opening the season with a 39-9 loss to Erie. They affiliate with something called the Seaboard Conference, but it’s hoped they would join with Salem, Sussex, Hudson Valley, Nassau and Erie, and perhaps others, to form their own conference.
So it’s another week and another chance to break through. The Mighty Oaks are getting close. The first win might not come this week, but Accorsi knows what it’ll do when it does.
“it validates a lot of things we’re doing,” he said. “I think it more than anything it cements and validates all the things we’re trying to do with the coaches and the players. Even in your first year to get a win, that’s not really easy to do. Whenever it comes, it comes. Whether it’s this year or next year, we’re just going to try to do the best we can to get close and try to get one.”
Salem CC leaders
RUSHING: Aidan Hill 15-52, Jon Pettigrew 7-47, Kahmaj Kearney 11-43, Tre McLeod 6-35, Demetris Williams 5-9-1.
PASSING: Aidan Hill 5-17-2, 98 yards, 1 TD; Malakhai McKenzie 5-11-0, 41 yards; Cameron Wright 1-3-0, 14 yards.
RECEIVING: Darion Joyner 2-21, Kahmaj Kearney 2-12, Jon Pettigrew 2-12, Jahfarri Payne 1-44-1.
TACKLES: Charlie Shute 11, Zariah Poutre 6, Mark Moore 6, Ben Secouler 5, Germer Jones 5.
SACKS: Charlie Shute 1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Jarrell Burks 2, Mark Moore 1.
