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Exeter, Salem

SALEM – Returning home one week after being shutout at Bedford, Salem showed signs of improvement Friday night.

The Blue Devils snapped a seven-quarter scoreless streak with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes. And a physical David Jacques ran for a season-high 144 yards.

Unfortunately, Jacques’ rushing total was well short of the whopping 412 yards visiting Exeter compiled on 57 attempts and the point total also fell a bit shy in a 35-15 loss.

“We are so young,” Salem coach Steve Abraham said. “We started seven sophomores tonight. The inexperience is showing, but our guys played really hard. I just told the kids, if we can stay the course, we’ll get better.

“We got our offense in. We had to make some adjustments based on our personnel, but there were times tonight when I had guys who have never played varsity football playing. ”

After spotting Exeter (3-0) a 28-point lead, Salem got on the board five plays after starting quarterback Nolan Lumley was briefly sidelined with a cut hand. On his first three plays, replacement Jacob Chartienitz handed the ball of to Jacques. Then on third-and-13, the sophomore backup found Justice Casado with a nicely placed 14-yard scoring pass. Junior varsity kicker Ryan Todd, who wasn’t even on the roster, added the extra kick.

It was Salem’s first points since its season-opening victory over Manchester Central when they scored all 35 points after intermission.

Exeter’s Michael Dettore scored his second touchdown late in the third before Salem capped the evening when Lumley hooked up with Felix Gonzalez on a 7-yard scoring pass to Felix Gonzalez with 1:51 left. Jacques ran for the conversion.

Exeter rolled out of the gate, scoring on its first-two possessions in a combined 3:07. The Blue Hawks, who received two first-half touchdowns from Ethan Moss, ran for 287 yards and compiled 15 first downs on only 35 first-half rushes.

“They’re a great team,” Abraham said of the victors. “I expect them to play for a championship. I played in the Straight T (offense). I love what they do. They are the epitome of how you’re supposed to run a high school football program.”

Moss, who also was perfect on five conversion kicks, finished with 183 yards on 21 attempts.

“This is not an easy place to play,” Exeter coach Bill Ball said. “The Salem kids are always we coached and tough. I thought we tackled well. That was the most pleasing part. Obviously, up front I thought we did a good job running the ball. We controlled the line of scrimmage. I’m just really happy because I was concerned about this game.”

Salem did lose sophomore wide receiver Calem Smith, who was taken to the hospital after suffering a shoulder injury on a nice diving reception of a 38-yard second-quarter completion.