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Alvirne Broncos Football '14

Fri, Oct 03, 2014 07:00 PM @ Alvirne
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Salem 0 29 7 0 36
Alvirne 0 0 0 14 14

Second-quarter surge powers Salem

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Friday, October, 03 By Jeff Hamrick

HUDSON, N.H. — Holding a 29-point lead and receiving the second-half kickoff, any coach would wish for a 16-play possession that lasted more than 8 minutes and resulted in a game-clinching score.

Well Salem's Rob Pike now only hopes it won't be the last wish he's granted.

Erupting for four second-quarter touchdowns, the Blue Devils manhandled an Alvirne squad that entered last night's game with an identical 3-1 record, but proved no match for Salem, which rolled to a 36-14 victory.

"That's always what you're thinking about," coach Rob Pike said of the power drive that ended with Charles Sibanda's second TD run. "But no, we just wanted to execute like always and keep on improving."

Improvement is what Salem progressively has shown through the season's first half during which the Blue Devils have outscored their four opponents by a combined 142-63.

It took a quarter last night for Salem to crank up its offense, but once the faucet opened it gushed.

Sibanda began the barage with a 10-yard run 53 seconds into the second. Four minutes later, Nick Shumski, who entered without a rushing attempt all season, scored on a 33-yard jaunt.

That's when defense joined the party. Kenny Calabrese recovered a fumble on Alvirne's ensuing play, setting up a 42-yard burst by Johnny Bartose. One play later, Doug Maroun recorded his first interception return score, taking a Daniel Brown pass 33 yards and a 29-0 lead with 6:15 remaining in the half.

"I was just thinking about holding the ball and not dropping it," Maroun said.

The defense forced four turnovers and allowed two first downs in the opening two quarters. The Broncos managed only 151 total yards — 122 on their two scoring drives. Salem's front four surrendered a mere 50 yards on 20 rushes.

""Turnovers make such a big difference, and our guys were opportunistic," Pike said. "(Alvirne) has weapons on offense. They have kids that can play. Our defense just played a good game tonight."

With the clock running and Salem using reserves, Alvirne, which had not lost since a 63-20 loss to Pinkerton, managed a couple passing touchdowns in the final 7 minutes to narrow the margin.

"Turnovers are going to kill you," Alvirne coach Tim Walsh said. "That set the tone. (Salem) was controlling the line of scrimmage. Typically we can move people out and exexute what we want to do. Tonight we couldn't do that. That's what good teams do."

Game Statistics:


Second Quarter

S — Charles Sibanda 10 run (Chris Sheikhabdou kick) 11:07

S — Nick Shumski 33 run (Sheikhabdou kick) 6:52

S — Johnny Bartose 42 run (Austin Homsey pass from John Cerretani) 6:30

S — Doug Maroun 22 interception return (Sheikhabdou kick)  6:15

Third Quarter

S — Sibanda 1 run (Sheikhabdou kick) 3:57

Fourth Quarter

A— Sam Bonney-Liles 33 pass from Michael Roberts (Daniel Brown kick) 7:25

A— Bonney-Liles 33 pass from Roberts( Brown kick) 1:16

 


INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING: S (43-248) — Shumski 9-69, Bartose 5-64, Sibanda 12-50, Cerretani 2-25, Corey Ortiz 6-22, Maroun 3-9, James Leblond 2-5, Mark Foglia 1-3, Jake Rosentrater 1-2, Mike Iascone 1-2, Sheikhabdou 1-(-3); A (20-50) — Ryan Godschall 7-30, Jack Mahoney 6-9, Ethan Rainville 2-7, Brown 5-4

PASSING: S — Cerretani 4-11-45, 0 interceptions; A (6-13-101, 2 interceptions) — Roberts 4-6-79, 0Brown 2-7-22 (2)

RECEIVING: S — Homsey 2-28, Kenny Calabrese 1-11, Sibanda 1-6; A — Bonney-Liles 3-75, Harold Leete 2-17, George Notini 1-9

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