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Salem Blue Devils Football '21

Mustapha stars, but Salem rally fall short in semis

LONDONDERRY — Salem coach Steve Abraham had a message for his players as the clock ticked down in Saturday's New Hampshire Division 1 semifinal.

"I challenged them," said Abraham. "I told them, no matter what that scoreboard says, you keep swinging until the game's over, and they did. This team has heart."

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Football, 11/13/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

McDonald runs for 333 yards, Salem rolls over BG

NASHUA — Spearheaded by an historic performance by senior Aiden McDonald, Salem High used a relentless and brutal ground attack to roll over Bishop Guertin, 61-31, in the opening round of the Division I State Tournament, Saturday night at Stellos Stadium.
McDonald was unstoppable, rushing for 333 yards and six touchdowns on just 17 carries. As a team, the Blue Devils rolled up 559 yards on the ground and more than 600 yards of total offense. Despite this, Head Coach Steve Abraham doesn't think his team has played its best football.
"I don't think so," he said. "We're a good team. Everyone thought the sky was falling when we started out 1-2. But Pinkerton is a good team, BG is a good team. We had a couple little things go wrong. We just had to believe in ourselves and we had to get better."
With the win, 3rd-seeded Salem (7-2) advances to the South/West bracket final to face top-seeded Londonderry, a team that has been a thorn in the Blue Devils' side in the post-season over the past several years. Last month, Salem knocked off Londonderry, 35-21. But Abraham knows how little regular season results mean in the tournament. After all, Bishop Guertin shut down Salem, 17-14, back in September. Saturday night was a completely different story.
The 2nd-seeded Cardinals (7-3) actually drew first blood on a 21-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matt Santosuosso (23 carries, 109 yards, 3 TD) on their opening drive. Santosuosso also ran in the 2-point conversion for a brief 8-0 lead.
Salem's response was as swift as it was devastating.
The Blue Devils reeled off 34 straight points, starting with a 44-yard touchdown run by McDonald to cut the lead to 8-7. Early in the second quarter, McDonald added his second score, from 2 yards out before Thomas Ahlers exploded for a 64-yard scoring run and suddenly, Salem had a 20-8 lead.
On any other night, Ahlers would have been the star of the game, finishing with 148 yards and 2 TDs on 11 carries. But this night belonged to McDonald, who scored on runs of 50 yards and 20 yards to help the Blue Devils build a 41-16 halftime lead.
Salem poured it on in the third quarter, with a 7-yard touchdown run by McDonald, his fifth of the game, to push the lead to 48-16.
Adam Gnanou gave Bishop Guertin fans a reason to cheer, with an electrifying 89-yard return for a touchdown on the ensuing kick. Another conversion rush by Santosuosso cut the Salem lead to 48-24. But that was as close as the Cardinals would get.
David Jacques (10 carries, 66 yards) scored on a 4-yard run before McDonald put the exclamation mark on his night with a school-record tying 99-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter. According to school officials, it tied a record for the longest run from scrimmage by a Salem runner last set back in 1973.

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Football, 11/06/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Ahlers, McDonald lead Salem blowout of Merrimack

SALEM — Behind huge performances by dynamic running backs Tommy Ahlers and Aidan McDonald, Salem High entered the postseason with a bang on Friday night.

Ahlers ran for 176 yards on just five carries and McDonald added 125 rushing yards on six carries as the Blue Devils rolled past Merrimack 54-14 on Friday night in the regular season finale for both teams.

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Football, 10/30/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Salem stuns previously-unbeaten Lancers

SALEM - Salem intercepted five Londonderry passes and Tommy Ahlers had another huge game with three more touchdowns (2 runs and a pick-6) as the Blue Devils stunned unbeaten Londonderry 35-21 on Friday night.

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Football, 10/23/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Ahlers' career day leads Salem past Nashua North

NASHUA — Tommy Ahlers ran for a career-high 186 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning 68-yard score with 7:37 left in the game, as Salem edged defending Division 1 champion Nashua North 35-28 on Friday night.

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Football, 10/16/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Versatile McDonald paces Salem

 

SALEM — Aidan McDonald executed a trifecta of sorts Friday night to pace Salem over Keene 33-22.

McDonald scored twice in the first quarter, on a 12-yard run and a 55-yard pass from Noah Mustapha, and then scored on a 70-yard kickoff return in the third quarter.

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Football, 10/09/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Astros put on clinic

 

SALEM — Thanks in large part to senior With quarterback Nathan Campos, Pinkerton's football team put on a clinic Friday night.

A wing-T clinic.

With Campos running for three touchdowns while rushing for 81 yards on eight carries and passing for another, Pinkerton's offense was unstoppable in a surprising 49-21 pasting of host Salem.

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Football, 09/17/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Salem can't complete late rally

NASHUA — For the game's final five-plus minutes, Salem showed the offense that looked unstoppable just one week ago on the same field.

But, despite two late Aidan McDonald touchdowns, the Blue Devils couldn't overcome three costly turnovers inside the Bishop Guertin 25-yard line, falling to the Cardinals 17-14 on Saturday night at Stellos Stadium.

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Football, 09/11/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

McDonald runs for 243 yards, scores 5 TDs, Salem runs away from Nashua South

NASHUA - Asked to describe the most prolific performance of his football career so far, Salem running back Aidan McDonald though for a moment and smiled."This was pretty exhilarating!" he said with a laugh. "I want to keep it going."The senior erupted for a career-high 243 rushing yards on just 19 carries, ran for four touchdowns and returned a kickoff for a score as Salem - the No. 1-ranked team in New Hampshire - ran away from Nashua South 62-36 in the season-opener for both teams on Friday night."McDonald was awesome tonight," said Salem coach Steve Abraham. "He's fast, but he's also a violent runner and very football smart. People think, because of his speed, he always wants to take it to the outside, but he grinded a lot of stuff inside tonight. He's a game-changer."Returning Eagle-Tribune All-Star McDonald rushed for 128 yards on 13 carries -an average of 9.8 yards per rush - and scored three touchdowns in the first half. He then added 115 yards on just six carries (19.2 yards a rush) and two scored in the third quarter, before sitting out the fourth quarter with the game out of reach."It was awesome," said McDonald, who ran for 763 yards and scored nine TDs in last fall's COVID-shortened season. "We just stuck to the plan. When I see some separation, I just hit it. We mixed it up with inside and outside plays, that worked well. It was an excellent way to start the season." Despite the lopsided final score, Salem needed every bit of McDonald's contributions, as the Blue Devils led by just one score - 35-28 - after a crazy first half.Nashua South took the opening kickoff and marched down the field to take an early 7-0 lead.But McDonald struck right back, running the ensuing kickoff back 88 yards for a touchdown."We all knew we just had to settle down, focus and execute," said McDonald. "We ran the middle wedge, I squirted out and was gone. It felt awesome."His teammates agreed it was crucial to turning the momentum early."That was huge!" said fellow running back Tommy Ahlers. "That was a huge momentum shift. It got everyone going. It was awesome.McDonald gave Salem the lead for good with 0:59 left in the first, taking a pitch in for a 5-yard touchdown run. Blue Devil Jonathan Smith then recovered a perfect Ahlers onside kick, and six plays later McDonald dove in for a 3-yard score.Nashua South scored, but Ahlers responded with a 13-yard touchdown. South responded with another score, but new Salem starting QB Noah Mustapha hit Ahlers for a 39-yard score."Coach Abe told me the safeties played really high up," said Ahlers, who finished with 76 rushing yards on 9 carries. "So as long as I could get around the corner it was going to be wide open. I had a seam there, Noah saw me and put a perfect ball right in my hands."South added another score, and was a yard from tying it up right before halftime. But Ahlers and Peter Beeley made a tackle at the goal line as time expired in the first half.McDonald then put the game away in the second half. On the first play after halftime, he sprinted for a 55-yard touchdown. Then, after a defensive stop, he added a 35-yard score to ice the win.Salem's defense also tightened up in the second half. After surrendering 248 rushing yards in the first half, the Blue Devils limited South to just 29 and no points after halftime, outside of a Panthers drive in the game's final two minutes against the Salem reserves."I let my assistants give it to them a little at halftime," joked Abraham. "Our defensive line grew up in the second half. The technique got better, we changed a few things, and we played much better after halftime. I'm very proud of the kids."

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Football, 09/04/21 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars