Classical puts clamps on Dunston, Salem

LYNN ? When you’re trying to stop Salem’s Christian Dunston, it always helps to have some inside information.It turns out Dunston’s three cousins – Jordan, Jalen and Delvin Brown – play for Classical, which defeated the Witches, 26-19, in a hard-hitting game at Manning Field, Friday night.View photo galleryDunston threw for 111 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 34 yards and another score, but the Rams (4-1) mostly contained Salem’s slippery quarterback.”Yeah, we got some scouting reports from his cousins,” Classical coach Tim Phelps said. “They grew up with him and they know everything about him.”Classical got three touchdowns and 108 yards rushing from Devin Crayton, while Brad Scuzzarella (game-high 122 yards) added another score on a 62-yard run. Burly fullback Justin Avery contributed 99 yards.”They controlled the ball and they controlled the clock. That’s Classical football,” Salem coach Sean Connolly said. “They usually have that one big back who runs up the middle and a couple of fast backs who can run outside.”Salem also got an 85-yard kickoff return from Devonte Holloway to make it a 1-score game, right after Scuzzarella’s long touchdown run seemed to put the game away. But the Rams never gave the ball back to the Witches (3-2), with Avery running up the middle for four consecutive first downs to kill the clock.”We like to run the ball,” Phelps said. “We had some success, but they (Witches) played hard and gave us all we could handle.”Classical, which benefited from excellent field position in the first half, took the opening kickoff and marched 56 yards in 12 plays, with Crayton scoring from two yards out with 4:19 left in the first quarter. Salem answered on its first drive, with Dunston hooking up with Ben Sattiewhite for a 44-yard gain on a deep fade to the Classical 1-yard line. Dunston scored on a keeper on the next play.A 39-yard return by Scuzzarella set up a 45-yard from Crayton on the next play from scrimmage and the Rams led, 12-7, with 1:20 left in the first quarter. The Rams had a promising drive toward the end of the first half end with a fumbled snap that was recovered by Salem’s Cameron Harvey.The Witches took the lead with a 76-yard drive to open the second half. Dunston hit Genrri Rosario with a pass at about the Classical 30, and the hulking back broke two tackles on his way to the end zone.Classical took the lead right back with a 57-yard drive that mostly featured runs by Crayton and Scuzzarella, with the former going between left guard and tackle from seven yards out for a score that put the Rams back on top, 20-13, with 2:58 left in the third quarter.After a Salem punt, Classical got the ball at its own 19, but was faced with a 4th-and-4. The Rams lined up to try to get the Witches to go offside, and got exactly what they were looking for when one of Salem’s linemen jumped.”I can’t fault a kid for that,” Connolly said. “That was a kid who was trying to make a play.”Two plays later, it looked like Salem had recovered another fumbled snap when Patrick Charlton came out of the pile with the ball, but the officials ruled the runner was down.”If that’s what they saw, then that’s what it was,” Connolly said.Two plays after that, Scuzzarella went off right guard and beat a defender into the end zone to give the Rams a two-touchdown lead.