Mighty Oaks wrap up their inaugural football season with overnight road trip to Erie CC; kickoff at noon Saturday
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – The tough thing about having a first-year program is having to go through a lot of new experiences and learning on the fly. The good thing is you’ve gone through it and know what to change going forward.
Salem CC’s focus is on Saturday’s final game of this inaugural season at Erie CC, as it should be, but there’s always been an eye on what’s next. Head coach Jay Accorsi has a two-inch stack on the corner of his desk filled with notes, observations and thoughts on things that have come up during the season to take into the post-mortem to plan for Year 2.
“There’s a ton of different things probably we’ll do differently and probably more effectively and better in Year Two than Year One,” Accorsi said. “Not many people have started a program before. There are a lot of things you have no idea (will develop). Just because I’ve been coaching for 30-something years doesn’t mean I know everything. This is a whole new game.
The deep dive from the notebooks will run the gamut – operations, scheduling, recruiting and the expectations of players. Some of the uncertainty should be eased just from the trust developed by establishing a program that fulfilled its eight-game schedule and with a few exceptions were competitive in every one.
“For the players my hope is it will be much different in the fact we understand the areas that we’re struggling at (and) those are the areas we really have to concentrate on in recruiting,” Accorsi said. “The top thing is the recruiting piece and finding players in areas that we really struggled, in particular offensive line and quarterback.”
The Erie game represents another new ballgame for the Mighty Oaks. It’s their first overnight trip as a program. They loaded up two charter buses with players and equipment Friday afternoon and shuffled off to Buffalo. There’s a planned stopover midway to stretch their legs, team dinner and breakfast at the hotel near to the stadium and then on to a game against another strong opponent and a long bus ride home.
Sure, there’s a game to be played, but it’s also a business trip.
“There were a lot of larger experiences than just the games that I wanted to try to build this first year,” Accorsi said. “Getting one overnight (trip), I’m very appreciative of the college for being supportive of it. When I crafted the schedule it fell into place that we could do the overnight the last game of the year. The goal or the hope was that the players who weathered the storm of the whole season would be able to get a great experience.
“I talked about that (Monday) in our team meeting. If these players decide to go to four-year schools, no matter where you go you’re probably going to have some overnights. Part of this program was to give them the experiences what may occur when they go to a four-year school. I appreciate the school for letting us do this. It’s an expenditure; it’s a lot. It’s a challenging, but very worthwhile experience.”
Once they arrive, it won’t be an easy game. The Kats are 6-2 and averaging 350 yards a game. Their two losses have been by a total of five points. Among the teams’ common opponents, they’ve beaten Sussex, lost to Nassau and split two close games with Hudson Valley. Quarterbacks Noah Willoughby and Salomon Georges have combined to throw for 1764 yards and 23 touchdowns to 16 different receivers. Their four top rushers have combined for nearly 900 yards and seven TDs.
“Their quarterbacks are very well schooled, they’re experience; they’re what we don’t have,” Accorsi said. “Their numbers aren’t great, but when you run the ball and you throw the ball equally well that’s going to create a lot of stress. When we’ve gone against teams that we’ve limited them running the ball we were able to kind of hold them throwing and then vice versa. This presents a different challenge for our defense because they do both, and they do both really well. Not surprising from a Mike Kemp team. Not at all.”
