SALEM — The Salem football team needed to pull out all the stops to earn a victory Thursday night, and with a last-minute pick-six by senior captain Michael Ready, the Witches earned a 12-6 win over Saugus on homecoming night at Capt. John Bertram Athletic Field.
“All year we’ve been playing great defense, and I think (Thursday) was the epitome of that,” said Salem coach Matt Bouchard. “Saugus was really tough inside and they made things hard for us all game on offense, but when we needed to make the big plays, we were able to do it.”
Ready threw for 153 yards and a touchdown to lead the offense for Salem, while Corey Grimes had five receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown. Jeandavis Cardenas totaled 56 yards from scrimmage, while Jariel DelValle totaled 34 yards from scrimmage.
For Saugus, quarterback Sean O’Rourke threw for 119 yards and ran for 30 more.
“That’s probably the toughest way you can lose a football game, and it’s going to hurt for a few days,” said Saugus coach Steve Cummings. “We had some opportunities to put another score on the board and we just weren’t able to execute. We’ve got to get better at finishing out games, that’s the bottom line.”
The game was an absolute slobber knocker from the start of the first half. The two teams traded three-and-outs throughout the first quarter, with Salem also fumbling away a ball early on, but neither team could capitalize on its field position.
The game was played entirely within the 20-yard lines up until the five-minute mark of the second quarter, when Salem took over on its own 31-yard line. The Witches went on a 10-play drive from there, highlighted by a 30-yard connection from Ready to Cardenas to get Salem inside the five. But disaster ensued from there, as a fumble at the two-yard line was recovered by Saugus to send both teams into the halftime break tied at 0-0.
At halftime, Salem honored its 1999 Super Bowl championship team with a short ceremony on the field. The 1999 Witches went 10-1, rattling off 10 straight wins before taking down Attleborough to win the Division 3 title.
After another long Salem drive puttered out to start the second half, Saugus got the ball and immediately took advantage. In just three plays, the Sachems moved down the field — eventually getting a 76-yard touchdown connection from O’Rourke to Gardiner to make it 6-0 with four minutes to play in the third quarter.
But Salem wouldn’t go down without a fight. After a few unsuccessful drives, the Witches got the ball back with three minutes to play in the game. After a short completion and then an incompletion on the first two plays, Ready hit Gardiner over the middle and Gardiner turned up the field and raced 64 yards to the house to tie the game up at 6-6.
Saugus started moving the ball well on the ensuing drive, getting into the red zone with less than a minute to play. But just when the Sachems started to get momentum, O’Rourke’s pass was picked off by Ready at the 10-yard line. Ready quickly got to the outside and it was a foot race from there, as the senior rumbled 90 yards for the pick-six — a new Salem High School record — to give the Witches a 12-6 lead that they would not relinquish.
Salem (4-1) plays on the road at Masconomet next Friday (7).
“One of the things we’ve talked about is that a lot of these kids have had some tough times over the past few years, but they’ve invested a lot into the program,” said Bouchard. “The guys are seeing that investment pay off now, but we’ve got to keep grinding.”
Saugus (0-5) travels to Gloucester next Friday (7).
“We’ve got another great test in Gloucester next week, and we’ve got to bounce back,” said Cummings. “I’m blessed to have a great group of seniors that helps to steer the ship, but we’ve got to come together at practice next week and just keep working on getting better.”
