One rough quarter

Salem CC goes toe-to-toe with Army Prep for three quarters, but rough second quarter does the Mighty Oaks in

By Riverview Sports News

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Salem CC football team stayed with the best team they’ve played so far this season for three quarters, but it was that one quarter they didn’t that make all the difference in the result.

The Mighty Oaks fell to Army Prep 35-6 in their first true road game of this inaugural season Friday night. They battled their hosts to a scoreless tie through the first quarter and were only outscored 7-6 in the second half, but the 28-point second quarter is where it got away.

“I thought we stood the test of a really good team,” Mighty Oaks coach Jay Accorsi said. “They’re really good, by far the best team we’ve seen this year. We knew it was going to be a big test for us and I thought we held up well, I really do. Very pleased for the most part, except for the second quarter, how we did.”

Prep scored on the first play of the second quarter, blocked a punt to set up a second score, then put together two nice drives to go into halftime leading 28-0. It was 35-0 before the Mighty Oaks found the end zone on wildcat quarterback Kahmaj Kearney’s 60-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Russell.

The Mighty Oaks (1-3) played three quarterbacks in the game – starter Cam Wright, Malakhai McKenzie and Kearney. Official game statistics won’t be available until early next week.

“Take out the second quarter, it was a 7-6 ballgame, really,” Accorsi said. “I thought we did some really good things. I thought we did against them in the option. The second quarter got away from us, but we rallied back and played a good second half.

“I thought we played with a lot of emotion in the first quarter defensively, maybe too much emotion because I don’t think we were able to kind of carry that into the second quarter. I was pleased how we started, we were toe-to-toe and I just don’t think we kept that emotion defensively in the second quarter.”