Salem Blue Devils Schedule 2010

Here is our schedule for 2010. Lots of potentially tough games. It should be a fun season. Welcome aboard to any Exeter fans that may read this. I personally am looking forward to the rematch with Manchester Central, last years spoilers.

Salem High School
Boys Varsity Football 2010 - 2011

Day Date Place Opponent Facility Time
Wed 08/18 Away Spaulding (scrimmage) 3:00PM
Tue 08/24 Home Winnacunnet (scrimmage) Grant Field 10:30AM
Fri 08/27 Away Jamboree vs Goffstown Gill Stadium - Manchester 4:30PM
Fri 09/03 Home Bishop Guertin Grant Field 7:00PM
Fri 09/10 Home Central Grant Field 7:00PM
Fri 09/17 Away Memorial 7:00PM
Sat 09/25 Away Pinkerton Academy 2:00PM
Fri 10/01 Home Nashua North Grant Field 7:00PM
Sat 10/09 Home Timberlane Grant Field 2:00PM
Fri 10/15 Home Exeter Grant Field 7:00PM
Fri 10/22 Away Nashua South Stellos Stadium - Nashua 7:00PM
Fri 10/29 Home Concord / senior day Grant Field 7:00PM
Fri 11/05 Away Londonderry 7:00PM
Thu 11/25 Away Thanksgiving Day Game vs Lawrence High 10:00AM

Salem looked good in the first scrimmage. Spaulding did not offer much resistance to the Varsity. Jacques looked the most impressive back. Alicea and Lorenz had 50 yard TDs and Matt Cannone (looking like a linebacker now) had no problem throwing TD passes. Jerickson, looking a bit lighter and quicker this year wasn't used much, but was impressive (he is very powerful) on his couple of carries. A new player that saw reps with the starters was Micah Dion. He is very small but extremely explosive, similar to Jacques. Cannones backup Adaschik was extremely impressive also. Overall the linemen on both sides of the ball look a bit smaller but a lot faster this year. Next scrimmage should be a stiffer test.

Looks like the Blue Devils (got its hard for me to type that as a UNC fan) have moved into the New England preseason Top 10.

ESPNBoston.com's NE football Top 10

Blue Devils return a tremendous backfield, led by third-year starting quarterback Matt Cannone and running backs Max Jacques and Jerickson Federick.

Tuesdays scrimmage will be played at Lawrence High School's Veterans Memorial Stadium at 12 noon. Salems new sod isn't quite ready yet.

The Salem offense is powerful. During the short time that they were out there they seemed to score about 7 TDs. All of last years players look terrific. Jacques once again was the most impressive. I do not see anyone stopping this kid. If you let him get the first 4 steps without being touched he is pretty much gone. He left defenders grabbing for air on a couple of long runs. All 3 of the starting RBs looked very good. The new TEs caught several passes along with Lorenz. I expect Cannone to set up the runs with passing. He really is as good as advertised. I dont think that anyone will be able to stop his team from scoring. On defense they still need some work. They were inconsistent there. I would say that the D linemen and a couple of linebackers did very well, but everybody else needs some work. They are all very fast and can cover mistakes pretty well however. There is enough talent on D where they will probably pitch a few shutouts this year. On to the Jamboree. PS.. The Lawrence HS facility is spectacular. Thanksgiving will be loads of fun. Make plans to be there.

Friday 10/22 at Nashua South will be an interesting matchup....offensive outburst much?

I'm not going to lie. My basketball persona is getting excited for HS football this year. Seeing these posts is making me pumped to see some games. I might be making my way down to that Salem - BG game. It looks tantalizing. I really want to see the Blue Devil offense in action. Keep the posts coming Salem BC. I might have to get my name legally changed to Friday and Saturday for September to November.

Careful T and F I changed my name because of a password issue that I could not resolve and the next thing you know I was being told that I was using two names to protect my identity and being accused of having an extra personality! lol

If there is anyone in NH that needs a protective identity and an extra personality, then it would certainly be you, ChiKid.

Well, not what I expected to say that least. Given what I had seen to this point, I figured that Salem just run over any D3 team using even subs. Boy, was I ever wrong!!

1. A lot of RB's saw action, two or 3 carries a piece and none of them really stood out. I know its not easy getting a rhythm going that way, but wow!!. Salem is very deep at the RB position, one of them should have broken one out. I saw Fedrick make the turn and not make it upfield, that was suprising to me.

2. Cannone was running for his life a few times. This is something that I didn't expect, the O-Line had been strong. Cannone had never really experienced pocket collapses like that, maybe had a little to do with some of the sacks by not getting out of there. But then again, many times the RBs got hit as soon as they got the ball also. We need to teach those linemen how to 'hold' inside this coming week.

3. Contrary to some comments that I read from Coach Gati, I thought that the 1st Defense looked very good. This is the only place where I thought they needed some work going in to the Jamboree and it seems that they have figured it out. I still love the team speed on D. With only starters in there they barely gave up any yardage at all.

Summary:
While I was not impressed with our very powerful offense I think that they will be fine, just too many weapons. The starting Defense looked good. No one got hurt. I still feel good going into week 1. Not as good as I would have felt going in with a 35-0 victory, but good.

I was very surprised to see Goffstown give Salem a tussle in the jamboree. I know it was only one half, but it was a tough half of football for Salem. The good thing is that the jamboree counts for NOTHING. We'll see how Salem does when it really means something with the vaunted BG program on opening Friday.

The Salem BG game will now be held at 2PM on Saturday.

This won't be very long, not much to say. I knew we were in trouble when I saw Tom Donovan, our OT, on crutches. Just a few quick points.

1. Max Jacques is the best runner that I have ever seen. Were it not for him, this would have been much worse. He never got more than two steps before being contacted. He is the real deal as he fought for every yard he got. The BG runner #21 deserves mention also. He had much bigger lanes, but had he not been at the game, the outcome may have been different. He is the real deal also, if anyone knows his name, please post it, he deserves mention. He carried his team.

2. Jerickson Fedrick. There is possibly something wrong with him. He did not look at all like last years Fedrick. He is very hesitant and I never saw him deliver a hit when running the ball. He looked much better on defense than he did on offense which is a 180 from last season.

3. Salems Offense and Defense. Both looked strong at times, but more often than not, they were weak. This team needs a lot of work if it is to repeat.

I will make this short and close here. I am not convinced that these guys can't put it together and compete for a title, but a lot of things need to change over a short period of time. They should play inspired football for the next game against Central, it is divisional and they have payback to deal out.

BG RB is Mike Kelly. Very talented kid.

Ouch,that hurt to watch and from what I hear play in. BG survived a hard fought battle with Timberlane last night.Kelly taken off the field in an ambulance in the 1st quarter {looks like a sprained ankle} took the air out of BG's sails.Timberlane played very physical football.BG'S roster is starting to look like the red sox.Battari broke his nose,Cuipa took some savage hits,I am sure he is sore today.I was impressed with Timberlane's qb until he got hurt,they will win some games if they play like they did last night.As for BG,sloppy,sloppy,sloppy.A ton of penalties which is very unusual for Coach Johnson's squad.Fumbleitis has also seemed to rear it's ugly head over at Guertin..It's like my daddy told me when I was young,{before he said get out}"it's better to win ugly then lose pretty".Well it's off to lunch at the new homestead {old silos} with some green and gold parents.I have a feeling it will be more liquid then solid,anyone want to join us feel free to.

Liquid lunch for green and gold parents at the former Silo before High Noon. I guess when green and gold parents say it is 5 O'Clock SOMEWHERE, they take it seriously

It looks like Salem went back to the drawing board last week to get ready for a bounce back game against Central. Central will have to borrow that drawing board from Coach Gati this week.

I missed this game due to unforseen circumstances. Lets hope they repeat this performance next week. If anyone has the video of Jacques "run" that I am hearing about, please post it. Best of luck to Mike Kelly. It would be a great loss to NH football if he does not return 100%.

Judging by last years shellacking at the hands of this Central team and this years shellacking at the hands of BG, it is possible that this team can not get motivated for games with no meaning? I hope this is not the case because I would hate a poor Turkey Day showing.

Well, next week I will be able to speak to the game, see you then.

Somebody posted a comment with this link on NHNotebook...2009 highlights of Mr. Max Jacques.

Sorry guys. I missed this game too. I will most certainly be at the Pinkerton game. I did happen to catch the Nashua North - Pinkerton game. I think our chances are good. Pinkerton had a tough time with Andre Williams, who has a running style similar to Jacques. You never know how teams match up head to head though. I expect a tough game. It seems as if Salem is figuring things out. From what I read, Memorial had a tough time scoring in the first half. Hopefully this means that the Salem defense is maturing. Big test this Saturday.

Nice Highlights previous poster on Max Jacques.

I managed to find the highlight of the amazing Central run that Max had. For those of you not aware, Salems entire games are posted to www.ssdtv6.com. Just search on "blue devil football" and it will list this and all of last years games also.

Also, the most recent game is posted to http://www.sau57.org/shs/Pages/Home.aspx sometime midweek after each game.

Well, what can I say but it was a great game to watch right up to the bitter end. I think that every single player played thier hearts out and deserved the win. For both teams.

I give this loss to the coaches for the following reasons.

1. Bad time management. This is the number one cause for not getting to a point where they could have either gone for the tie or win at the end. When they got the ball back at around the 4 minute mark, it seemed as if they were trying to run the clock and they did. They did not even turn over on downs at the end. They "ran out of time" on second down. This is a crime. Calling a time out for an extra point is very suspect. There was another one earlier (I don't remember what it was) that drew groans from those around me. At one point I saw the coaches call for a spikeing of the ball on 3rd and 2 with a timeout still on the board!! Insane.

2. Offensive game plan. It was clear that Pinkerton was keying on Max and Jerickson. Very clear. In the first half they ran a different back a few times and he ran very well. One of the half time adjustments that was made was to only run Max and Jerickson, this proved costly. Salem has a few top caliber runners that could certainly give the other two some breathers. I have to think when Jerickson is bent over gasping for air and asking to come out that one of the fresh RBs are a better option. Oh, I think that this is when we called one of our time outs, when Jerri was too tired to get back to the huddle.

3. Special teams. Why o why won't this coaching staff allow this team to run up and catch a kick? The rewards outwiegh the risks. Also, it was clear on this game that Pinkerton had practiced kick returns hard. They had a body on everyone setting up nice wedges and returns. We need to pick up on this and not kick the ball deep. It's called adjustments and only one team made them on Special teams. Pinkerton started squibbing the kicks right around the time we started kicking them deep.

Well, I don't want to just sit here and beat on coaching. I hope that they see these things and adjust. Huge game coming up at home. With the point system the way it is, you simply can't lose at home. We need to change something on our special teams, maybe practice kickoff coverage or get aggresive on the returns but something has to change. Also, have someone keep an eye on the players, particulary key ones. If they look spent, give them a breather. And for goodness sakes, save your time outs. The smartest timeout we used all day was one the Jerickson called because we only had 10 defenders on the field for a key goal line play.

Back at home after a two game road trip getting ready for North.

To paraphrase Dennis Green, I guess up to this point in the season:

Salem is not the football team we thought they were going to be.

Salem 67 Nashua North 54

Too much that I could say, so here are some things that I found of note.

1. Max Jacques is hands down the best running back that I have ever seen. That includes anyone that I have ever seen on TV at any level.

2. When Jerickson Fedrick wants to run hard, he is an animal. The one play where he totally ran over an equally big and strong Andre Williams was nothing short of spectacular. It reminded me of the game where Bo Jackson ran over Brian Bosworth.

3. Matt Cannone should stop playing defense, it is affecting his offense.

4. Coaching staff needs to involve Matt Cannone more on offense. Try the option coach.

5. 67-54???? Wow.

6. Did Salem improve on kickoffs that much or is Nashua North simply not that good at returning kicks. Salem kicked off a ton of times and North never came close to Midfield. Salem covers kicks like this last week and they win the game.

7. This is the offense that I expected to see each and every week. Can't wait to see what the numbers were.

I was at this game...well, I only got to see the 2nd half after getting off the air on WGAM @ 11am and racing over to Grant Field in Salem hoping to at least catch the 4th quarter. When I arrived shortly after 11:30 I looked at the scoreboard and it read...

Visitor 28
Home 54

AT THE HALF!!!

My 1st thought was there must be some lights missing on the scoreboard that made it look worse than it really was?...or maybe the game was over already? No, it was true...the Blue Devils did indeed have a whopping 54 points...in the 1st 2 quarters of play. And North's 28 points at the half were nothing to sneeze at either. So i found a guy wearing a Salem hat in the stands and asked..."what the heck happened?" His answer was only 2 words long..."Max Jacques", he said. No clue what the final #'s for #5 were, but they must have been pretty huge. Now, I'm not going to go overboard like "Salem Bleacher Creature" on here just did and say Max is the best RB I have ever seen, including on TV. But the fact is he's a DAMN good runner...and he absolutely toyed with what had been a pretty good Nashua North defense. And remember, all I saw was the 2nd half when Salem "only" put up 13 points.

Craziest game I have ever seen, or at least half seen!

This game shows up in some places as taking place at Timberlane. This is not the case. It is at Salem at 2PM Saturday. It is Salem Homecoming day.

Well,
This is the first time all year that Salem has played a complete game. This is the team that I expected to see this year. It can be argued that the Defense outplayed the Offense. It was simply total domination on both sides of the ball against a solid team. The kickoff team had back to back good outings. It seems as if they have figured out what ailed them in the Pinkerton game. Matt Cannone and Max Jacques could be considered players of the game. Joey DiPalma looked entirely healthy. He looked to be limping alot last week. Joey was the biggest impact on a defense that according to the paper held Timberlane to under 80 total yards. If I remember the last Timberlane drive correctly, they went over 40 yards at the end with most of the Salem Starters on the sidelines. This would mean that the starting defense gave up under 40 yards during gametime. This is a remarkable accomplishment. I actually saw this dominant defense for the first four Nashua North drives. If this is an indicator of how this defense will be playing for the remainder of the year, this just became the team to beat. Next week Exeter comes to Salem. It seems that they have started to play good ball losing to Pinkerton 21-14. This is another good test for this Salem team. Lets hope for a repeat performance of this Timberlane game.