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'Old School' Astros hold of scrappy Salem

Saturday, September, 27 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

DERRY, N.H. — With 8:30 left yesterday, Salem High coach Jack Gati looked up at the scoreboard and smiled.
His young, upstart Blue Devils had the football, down only 21-14, with a worn-out Pinkerton defense on a mucked-up field. It was the perfect upset scenario.

Eric Guinto and the big-play Astros would have none of it.

Pinkerton senior linebacker Colton Desmarais stopped the Devils in their tracks, forcing a punt with a five-yard sack, and the 5-foot-8 guided missile Guinto did the rest.

The junior’s 36-yard touchdown dash over right end — his third long score of the drizzly Homecoming afternoon — finally put the scrappy Blue Devils away, 28-14, here on Memorial Field.

“This was old-school Pinkerton football,” said coach Brian O’Reilly. “I like big plays. Big plays are psychologically disruptive to the other team. When you get big plays on an opponent, you put them into a depression.

“Eric made a number of those today. He’s a big-play kid, and everybody knows that. Everybody watches him.”
Now 3-1 overall and 3-0 in Division 1, defending state champion Pinkerton now takes dead aim on Saturday night’s mammoth collision with unbeaten Londonderry.

Pinkerton ran just 26 offensive plays and Salem had 22 first downs.

Heck, the usually conservative Blue Devils threw 26 times among their 82 snaps.

But while Salem chewed up all kinds of clock, the Astros got optimum bang for the buck.

In addition to the 36-yard score, Guinto bolted 56 yards for another — including a vintage Matt Jordan-like sideline-to-sideline cutback across the grain that left at least eight Blue Devils in his wake. He also went untouched on a 65-yard punt return for a score.

“Guinto, I thought we had him in the backfield, a couple guys had him, all of a sudden he outjukes three guys, outjukes four guys, outjukes 11 guys,” said Gati. “He’s a hell of a player. He’s done that against everyone.”
With all the Guinto fireworks, it was Pinkerton’s lone completion, a 40-yard TD hookup from Ryan Simpson to Desmarais, that Gati considered the difference-maker.

Now 1-2 in Division 1 play but with both Pinkerton and Londonderry in the rear-view mirror, Salem dictated the pace, one of many positives on the afternoon.

Sophomore Max Jacques continues to blossom as a backfield threat, rolling up a team-best 99 yards on 22 carries. His classmate, quarterback Matt Cannone, hung tough in the pocket all afternoon, clicking on 11 of 26 passes for 123 yards in mostly brutal weather conditions.

“Look at what we did, 22 first downs against this defense, it’s something to build on,” said Gati. “Max is a much different player than he was three weeks ago, and he showed it today. We’ll keep getting better.”
In the end, Guinto’s explosiveness made the difference.

Raising his season total to nine TDs, he ran nine times for 103 yards. On the day, Pinkerton was outgained 321-179.
“You don’t want to play Salem on a rainy day,” said O’Reilly. “This (weather) is made for them, just slogging it out. This was a good, solid performance by us. It was tough.”