Mighty Oaks start off strong, grab first lead of the season, but couldn’t finish and falls to Nassau CC, 31-6

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – The game started off with great promise, but it ultimately devolved into a frustrating lesson of what it’s like to be a startup junior college football program where everything, including learning how to win, is a work in progress.

Salem CC enjoyed its first ever lead early in Saturday’s game, but by the end of the day, under the weight of untimely penalties and mistakes that gutted their confidence, the Mighty Oaks left Schalick High School with a 31-6 loss to Nassau CC they were in for the better part of three quarters.

“Frustrated, disappointed,” Mighty Oaks coach Jay Accorsi said. “I thought we played better (than in the opener), but still just too many mistakes.

“I felt we played better in some areas, but you can’t have too many guys in the huddle as you’re driving down. You can’t have penalties on the kickoff return. You can’t have a personal foul as you’re driving the ball. It’s the struggle of junior college football is understanding the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is gonna win.”

The Mighty Oaks came out sharp on offense, having had two weeks of fix the shortcomings in the opener. After surviving a missed field goal attempt on Nassau’s opening drive extended by a fumbled punt, starting quarterback Aidan Hill took them 80 yards in 15 plays for their first lead in program history.

Demetris Williams ran in from 13 yards, but a bad snap cost them the extra point. All the yardage they gained in the drive came on the ground, including a big 14-yard burst up the middle by Hill on fourth down to keep it alive.

“The start started off well,” Hill said. “I was happy. I wanted to get back on the field and score again, but we didn’t get to do that.”

Things looked even better when Raheem Tomoney picked off Nassau quarterback Elijah Outlaw in front of the Salem bench, but the offense couldn’t take advantage of the turnover. The defense stopped the Lions again when Matt Bishop sacked Outlaw just in front of the goal line, forcing the visitors to punt from the back of the end zone.

Then it got crazy with penalties. Jeremiah Russell appeared to return to the punt to the Nassau 23, but a pair of personal foul penalties on the return brought it back to the Salem 47. The Mighty Oaks recovered from that and appeared to score a second touchdown on Hill’s 23-yard pass play with Jahfarri Payne, the same receiver he connected with on the last-play touchdown in the opener, but the score was called back for a block in the back on the block that sprung him.

They came up empty when Hill missed Russell over the middle on fourth down from the 26 with 7:22 left in the half.

That set the Lions in motion to score two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the quarter to sap the Mighty Oaks’ momentum and take a 14-6 halftime lead. They went in front with 1:52 left in the half when Mekai Henderson blasted in from the 10. Hill fumbled away Salem’s next possession and the Lions extended their lead when Outlaw eluded heavy pressure by Jermar Jones and hit tight end Justin Betz in the back corner of the end zone with 33 seconds left in the half.

“I thought (scoring on the opening possession) was really good,” Accorsi said. “Maybe we started too well early on and started to feel too good about ourselves because certainly we didn’t finish like we started. Again, you can’t make those mistakes.

“But, yeah, we showed flashes offensively of doing some stuff, which we didn’t even do anything two weeks ago. There’s a lot of plus things there. I still think it’s trying to get a bunch of individuals to play as a team … I have to do a better job of figuring out how to make us more of a team. I think the pieces are there, I think the players are there. There are some other things I think we need to do and I need to do to just get it better and more cohesive.”

Cam Wright started the second half at quarterback for the Mighty Oaks after Hill had an incident unbecoming of a leader in the locker room at halftime. Wright led the Mighty Oaks on two drives, the second of which almost produced a touchdown but ended when he got caught from behind on fourth down from the 15 short of the line to gain to end the third quarter.

The game was a homecoming of sorts for Salem tight end Robert Daly. The Mighty Oaks played their second “home” game at Daly’s high school, giving the freshman one more chance to play on a field he never thought he’d play on again.

The team gave him a chance to make it a special return, setting him up for a play in the red zone. Daly was wide open in the end zone and, although he had to come back for the pass, had the touchdown that could have tied the game in his hands, but couldn’t hold it.

“It was a go ball,” Daly said. “I found myself open in the end zone. Wide open. Wide open. Ball was a little short so I came back to it and just bobbled it a little low. Not the way I wanted to go. It was a catchable ball. I blame myself.”

It went downhill for the Mighty Oaks from there. Lions kicker Matias Perez Herrera kicked a 48-yard field goal on the ensuing possession to make it 17-6. 

Hill returned to quarterback in the fourth quarter, but just couldn’t generate the same kind of offense he did in the first half. He also threw two interceptions out of his comfort zone passing from behind. One the Lions nearly returned for a touchdown but scored a few snaps later and one they did bring all the way back that brought out the Mighty Oaks’ frustration with the day.

“I feel defeated right now,” said safety Mark Moore, who had a fourth-quarter interception to give the Mighty Oaks some hope. “It was slowly slipping away from us,. You could tell by the third quarter everybody’s energy was down. It just wasn’t good.”

“It was frustrating,” Hill said. “Honestly, we just collapsed as a team. Our momentum was there, but it wasn’t there all the way. It just wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t good.”

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Demetris Williams 13 run (kick blocked), 1:21 1Q
N-Mekai Henderson 10 run (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 1:52 2Q
N-Justin Betz 8 pass from Elijah Outlaw (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 0:33 2Q
N-Matias Perez Herrera 48 FG, 10:47 3Q
N-Tito Ruiz 3 pass from Elijah Outlaw (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 1:44 4Q
N-Antonio Washington 40 interception return (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 0:48 4Q

Top photo: Salem CC quarterback Aidan Hill (3) rears back to fire a pass in Saturday’s game with Nassau CC.

Mighty Oaks come through open week after making corrections, adjustments to inaugural game loss, ‘host’ Nassau CC at Schalick Saturday

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Everyone knows the adage: A team makes its greatest improvement from Game 1 to Game 2. Salem CC football coach Jay Accorsi is hoping that’s the case with his new team as it has spent the last two week trying to make that a reality.

The Mighty Oaks have come through the most important open week in the program’s young history in preparation for its second ever game, a “home” date Saturday against Nassau CC at Schalick High School. Kickoff has been moved back to 12:30 p.m.

Salem lost its inaugural game 26-18 to now-No. 4 Hudson Valley and spent most of the last two weeks making the necessary corrections and invariable changes.

“We started Aug. 3, that was a long time up to the (first) game time,” Accorsi said. “There’s a lot of days there, so it was a lot. It was grind for the new coaching staff, new players, it was a lot.

“So, when I created the schedule I wanted to get an open date (early) just to assess where we were, where do we need to go, what do we need to work on. Just to take a breath of fresh air and get the players and coaches time off. I think we all needed to take a step back and take a deep breath and kind of assess where we’re at and what we’re doing and fix as many things as we can.”

The first game taught them a lot of things about the team and game operations that only a first game can To that end, perhaps the most recognizable change is the decision to bring offensive coordinator Chris Crowley down on the field to call plays and move offensive line coach Nick Santosuosso to the press box.

“We changed practice around,” Accorsi said. “It’s a new coaching staff. Montclair was a false sense of security for coaches because it was really just offense and defense and punt, so there wasn’t a lot of changeover. It wasn’t like a real game, it was kind of like a practice, which I look back and kind of regret, because there are lot of things as coaches we need to fix and I need to fix. Being in charge of special teams one of the things I need to do communication wise with offense and defense. There’s a lot of that behind-the-scenes stuff I think you do as coaches just to make the overall operation clean.”

Player decisions continue to be work in progress. A starting quarterback hadn’t been determined at the beginning of the week and it’s likely they’ll play multiple QBs against the Lions (1-1), who are coming off a 28-0 loss to an Army Prep team the Mighty Oaks will play at West Point Sept. 25.

Cam Wright was the last-minute starter in the inaugural game and he played the first quarter, moving the offense between the 30s in the most sustained drive of his appearance. Malakhai McKenzie entered in the second quarter, scored a touchdown and played all the way to the final two minutes, when Aidan Hill sent the crowd home buzzing over a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jahfarri Payne on the final play of the game.

Still, the offense generated just 163 net yards, was 4-of-13 on third down and gave up six sacks. They ran 10 fewer plays than Hudson Valley, but held the ball two minutes longer.

“Playing three quarterbacks the first game is kind of a juggling act,” Accorsi said. “You’re trying to see what they can do, what they can’t do, what they’re good at, what you’re asking them to do, where they are with other players. I thought we’d probably play three, might play three again, that’s just the nature of it. Offenses this time of year are always behind the defense. I think that’s just going to be the nature of what we’re trying to do is figure that out. That’s going to be one of those things game day or right around game day.”

The way the Mighty Oaks played in the second half and fought through what could’ve been a demoralizing stretch in the third quarter when the Vikings answered Salem’s touchdown to regain a 14-point lead was Accorsi’s biggest takeaway from the game. “I thought we were competitive,” he said.

“That last play kind of shows the character of our team,” offensive lineman Jacob Hand said. “Even thought we’re in the last seconds, we’re down by two touchdowns, like we know we’re not coming back to win this game, but it’s a win with pride type of thing to really stick it to them. Yeah, we lost to you guys, but you know who we are.”

The Mighty Oaks are expecting a team similar to what they faced in Hudson Valley. The Lions started their season with a win over the Wagner JV in which quarterback Elijah Outlaw threw for 288 yards four touchdowns and the defense came up with four interceptions. Army Prep held them to 34 yards rushing and 110 yards of net offense.

“My hope is some of the breakdowns we had defensively will correct and we can get an offense that’s more fluid and can be more consistent,” Accorsi said. “It’s going to be a challenge for us to see where we have improved, if we have from Week 1 to Week 2, and can we play a little bit cleaner. That’s going to be the key for us.

“I’ve always believed I don’t think it’s so much the other team it’s more of what your team does, how they perform and how they play. That’s just going to be the difference for us. Can we play more cleaner offensively. Can we play more cohesively. Can we generate some drives. Can we not turn the ball over. Can we not put ourselves in harm’s way by taking large sacks. Part of that is us learning what we need to be.”