Salem Blue Devils Schedule 2010

Exeter will now play at Salem on Saturday at 2 p.m.

What ever happened to playing football in the rain. I've only been out of high school for 4 years 5 football seasons and we played damn near everygame in the rain?

The last three games Exeter has taken Winnacunnet, Memorial and Pinkerton to the wire. This was becoming a tough team. The ease with which Salem handled them was quite impressive. Exeter never once threatened against the 1st D. I remember maybe two/three first downs from Exeter. This defense is coming into its own just at the right time. It will definitely face a test against Nashua South, the most explosive offense that they will see this year. The offense is clicking on all cylinders. Once again, no punts in the first half. Given the two defenses that they did this to, I am ready to say that this offense has arrived. Even with the windy conditions, Cannone was able to complete his passes whenever he needed to. Not an easy task, as witnessed by the two INTs thrown by Exeter. This was another complete game. The usual names were great while Andrew Ivas and Mike Lorenz stepped it up on Defense today. Absolutely impressive performance. Two shutouts in a row for the starting D, they have come a long way. The kick off team allowed a TD but I will give them a pass because it appeared that everyone stayed in thier lanes and a couple of players fell and up the middle the returner went. Other than that play, they were consistently pinning Exeter deep. the kickoff team opened the game with a bone jarring hit on the Exeter return man that seemed to lift him off his feet.
Special Teams Player of Game was Mike Lorenz and his spectacular punting

Good job all that way around Blue Devils, can't wait to see what you bring next week to South.

I did not make it to this game. I watched it yesterday online. It was a fun game to watch, even knowing the outcome.

Well, first of all, I want to say that the Nashua South offense was firing on all cylinders. I could not keep up with the ball. I had to stop the video and rewind a couple of times to see what had happened. The ball handling and deception was impressive, as was the no huddle.

DEFENSE
That being said, overall, the defense was very good. South resorted to trickery more often than not to get out of jams. Salem took South to quite a few 3rd and longs. The defense unfortunately missed a few key tackles that either led to big first downs or touchdowns. There were also a couple of coverage issues, but even the DBs made a ton of plays. The following names on defense were called out for tackles over and over... Joey DiPalma, Micah Dion and Brady Alicea. I don't know how many tackles they made, but there were many. I know that those are 2 linebackers and a corner, but the deception made it hard for the linemen. Jared Matthews, Kevin Dembkoski and Dan Stacey also turned in some nice defensive plays. With about 6 minutes left in the game, South had only scored 24 points and two of those TD drives started in the Red zone (Salems D had already stopped another drive that started in the redzone). I know 38 points sounds like a lot, but it really does not mean that they did not put up an impressive effort. The heartbreaker was the last 75 yard TD pass/run on 3rd and 6. The reciever simply had a terrific run and made some major league moves. The play almost never happened as Cannone had just made an impressive play on defending a pass and nearly came up with the interception. On the set of downs before that one, South was pinned back deep on 3rd and 13 and the same player slipped some tackles for the first down. I look forward to seeing what the Salem D can do against Concord.

OFFENSE
As impressive as ever. Cannone was very good. It must be heart breaking for him to see his passes dropped since he does not throw that many. Jacques and Fedrick were both very good. Jacques once again was very hard to bring down and can make the turn against the best D's. Fedrick broke a few tackles up the middle for big gains. Once he gets through, there is no stopping him... well, he did seem to fumble a ball on the way to a TD jaunt on one play, but he recovered it. According to the commentators, we had not fumbled the ball away this year. Boy o Boy, what a day we picked to get fumbleitus. Lorenz and Matthews showed good hands once again. I could not tell on video what caused Lorenz to fumble one of his catches, but it looked like a freak thing. This Offense still makes the Blue Devils the team to beat.

Special Teams

Kicking - Chris Saulnier is a very good kicker. On the video, the 32 yard field goal seemed to be higher than the goal posts. He could have gone 42. He made two field goals and 4 PATs. The commentators mentioned that he is now the career PAT leader for Salem HS. I will give some credit also to his holder Anthony Adaschik. The day that Adaschik was not available, kicks were anything but a certainty.

The kickoff team played it safe and didn't kick anything deep. They did not miss any tackles and pinned South Deep a couple of times. They came close to recovering a bobbled ball once using some good hustle. It seemed like the best field position that South managed was around the 40 after Chris kicked from five yards back. This team has made some great improvements.

The kick return and punt return team did not manage to get us any field position advantages, but they also did not cost any. Cannones punt towards the end of the game was spectacular, yet another talent.

Overall, I think that this was a good effort. Salem needs to take care of business over the next two games and let chips fall where they may. Lets hope for a home playoff game.

Friday 7PM Concord at Grant Field in Salem. This game will be broadcast live on the NHIAA and SSDTV6 websites along with TV Channel 6 in Salem. It is Senior Night.

I have seen Salem play three or four times this year. They have, in my opinion, the most talented top of the roster players in the state. (meaning if you take the top 10 or so of each roster and compared talent). Offenseively thay are scary because they have so many different ways to score from anywhere on the field at anytime. (still can't stand their archaic offense though). My concern for them is their defense. They have the athletes to play it but in the games I have seen they just don t look that good at it. They take terrible angles and try to grab by the uniform and bring down instaed of acutally putting a helmet on someone. Just fundamental things that would be hard to correct in 1 or 2 games. Seems like they play alot of kids both ways too. In the playoffs if they get down by a couple scores I think they could be in trouble just because of their defense.

Please tell me the score I just saw on nhiaa was wrong....If not what happened??

This was truly a tale of two halves.

First half - Dominant performance by Salem, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The 7 points that Concord got were due in large part to starting field position and two 15 yard penalties, 'swearing at a player for 15 yds and phantom facemask for another 15. The Offense also didn't have much trouble moving the ball and scored 20 points.

Second half - Only one team came out of the locker room... Concord. Concord dominated Salem on both sides of the ball unlike any team this year. This second half Concord team is the best team that we have faced all year. I refuse to believe that Salem forgot how to play football in the locker room at halftime, so the only answer is that Concord played really good football for 24 minutes. Salem had the ball first coming out of the locker room and immediately proceeded to go 3 and out. Concord blocked the punt and immediately took it in. Then they recovered the ensuing kickoff and took it in again. It only got worse for Salem from there. Concord did everything right in the second half. Salems defensive and offensive lines were seriously overmatched. The RBs and QB had not more than a 1 count before someone was on them. I'll tell ya, a good way to stop Max and Jerri is to hit them right when the QB hands them the ball. A good way to stop the QB is to hit him before he even stops and sets his feet. Total and absolute domination by Concord. When Concord had the ball, they went whereever there were no Blue Devils, simple approach actually. They did not seem to run any plays during the second half that were not working for them in the first half. The only bright spots for Salem were the once maligned kickoff team, the Offensive play of Fedrick and the Defensive play of Alicea in the first half.

All of NH D1 football should count thier blessings that this Concord team is not in the playoffs this year . I am going to predict that they are involved in the postseason next year as the sophomore running back Nemo (who Salem could not find) reminds me of Jacques when he was a sophomore.

Well, despite this setback, a win at Londonderry next week puts Salem in the playoffs where they will be a tough game for anyone. I do not expect this team to lose three in a row.

It was a little different this time.

Well the first half of this game was, as usual, very strong for our Blue Devils. The big play offense could not be stopped. Max and Jerickson in particular looked very smooth. Jerickson looked extremely strong tonight. I noticed that he was not being used on defense, this seems to be a good move. He looked strong throughout the entire game. This is one of the first games that he did not look entirely winded late in the 4th. He still had plenty of fuel left after his final carry.

The defense gave up 13 points in the first half. They were on the field for extended periods of time. They gave up tons of yardage, but often toughened up and stopped drives. Salem was scoring quick in the first half so the defense defended 6 times and gave up two scores, not too bad. DiPalma was tough inside.

Salem went into the locker room with a 34-13 lead at halftime.

Salem came out of the locker room a full two sets of downs after Londonderry did. Salem took the ball to start the second half and went 3 and out. A couple of plays later Londonderry scored on a 40 yd TD run. Salem fumbled the ensuing kickoff away and Londonderry came on the field and quickly scored on another 40 yd TD run. All of a sudden its 34-25. Well, that is where the similarities to last weeks Concord game stopped. Coach Gati called a timeout, gathered the troops, calmed them down and they went on to dominate from there. 3 defensive stops in a row after that and the offense rolled again. Final 55-32.

So, here we are. Back in the playoffs, poised to defend. I know nothing of the Pinkerton Game today, other than they only beat Memorial by 9 points. As good as they have been, I think that Pinkerton is the best match up for Salem. I am feeling very confident going into this game. I know that we never win there, but I fully expect Salem and all of its great seniors to come to play. Pinkerton is a young young team. The core group has a couple of more years to win a title and they will win one. Just not this year. In my opinion, Salem outplayed Pinkerton the first time around, everywhere except kickoffs. Salem has worked on Kickoffs. Gati has put together a team of hard hitting, strong, fast kids that have been dominating since the Pinkerton game. The kickoff team was responsible for the 4 hardest hits in the Londonderry game. The ooohs and ahhhs that they are generating are impressive. Also, Jerickson was overused the first time, this seems to have been resolved. Max was overused the first time, this also seems to have been resolved as Max has sat out often on defense over the last few games too. They have both been getting breathers on offense also, this is new. These two running backs will be fresh in the 4th quarter this time around. Should they need to get 5 yards in 4 carries, there will be no stopping them this time. Everything fell into place for Pinkerton the first time around. This time will be different. Salem is coming to Derry with all guns blazing. They are loaded with Seniors that want the playoffs to continue for them on the field at Stellos Stadium with a title in reach. They have corrected something after each of its 4 losses. Salem is Ready.

First I need to say congrats to Pinkerton. At no time during this game, until the very last three minutes, did I thnk that Pinkerton had a chance to win this game. Yet, Pinkerton hung in there and made the most to the few mistakes that Salem made. They are a team that just knows how to find ways to win.

Defense. The Salem defense was the better defense on the field on game day. They time and time again stopped the Pinkerton offense. This defense came to play and play they did. Had it not been for an unfortunate mistake by a very good kickoff team and an untimely unnecessary roughness call coupled by a costly fumble on what should have been Salems game winning drive, Pinkerton only scores 7 points. In the end, it is what it is and they gave up 21, but it came with lots of help from Salems offense and coaching staff.

Offense. While they outplayed Pinkertons offense (Time of Possesion was nearly 2-1) they could have done a little more. Give credit to Pinkertons defense, they made some big 4th down stops where Salems defense could not. Still, I expected a little more from this offense, at least 28 points. Even though they did face off against the best defense in D1, 14 points was just not enough.

Coaching. This is the area where Salem was severely outclassed. I can almost understand passing up the first field goal, but passing up the second one after surely recognizing that points were going to be at a premium was just a bad bad call. I would have like to have seen a naked reverse with Jerrickson and Max sweeping one way and reversing to any of the unknown backs in the other direction. I know that this play is in the books. Our coach also has a knack for calling time outs that favor the OTHER team. The best example of this was when a fired up Salem defense was getting ready to defend a 4th and 16 with less than a minute left. The Salem Crowd and players were going nuts, the Pinkerton crowd and players were silent.... and then... timeout Salem. What?? Did you not learn anything during the first game when you ran out of timeouts. 3 timeouts with a minute left would have given you a great shot at a game winning field goal (since you passed up the first two). So Salem calls a time out, gives Pinkerton a chance to regroup and the rest is history. Even if Salem had made the stop, it would not have been because of the timeout, all that that timeout would have accomplished was wasting a timeout. The lack of creativity with all of the talent on this team was also an issue.

I mentioned in the previous post that Salem had corrected minor flaw after each game and just kept getting better. Well, the only thing that we did not change was our gametime coaching approach, and it killed us.

Well, it was a fun up and down team this year. Never knew what we were going to get. The team certainly did not play up to its potential, but these things happen. One more chance, on Thanksgiving, to end this season on a winning note. Get out and support NH against MA if you can. Thanksgiving morning at 10AM.

Thanks for your thoughts/observations on Salem all year, has been very interesting to keep tabs on!