Last year, the Northside Vikings were one of two teams to ambush perennial powerhouse Salem in the regular season.
Friday night in the friendly confines of Salem Stadium, the Spartans made sure there were no surprises around any corner.
Scoring in every quarter, Salem pulled away from a 16-0 halftime lead to throttle the Vikings 36-0. Salem improved to 4-0 while Northside fell for the second straight week to drop to 2-2.
“They won every aspect of the game,” Northside head coach Burt Torrence noted afterward. “That’s a very talented Salem team. We played as hard as we could.”
“They will be tough for anybody, because Salem is that good,” Torrence added. “It was two programs tonight that know everything about each other. Their offense was tough. You can (initially) stop them one yard in the backfield and they still were getting four yards.”
The talented Northside defense put up a good fight in the opening half, stopping Salem from reaching the end zone four times, but the Spartan offense came through on three occasions.
Spartan quarterback Austin Coulling hit senior Coleman Fox with a 40-yard touchdown strike in the first quarter to put Salem up 7-0.
In the second frame, Spartan placekicker Kyle Reighard split the uprights on a 20-yard field goal and Fox added a 4-yard TD run that sent the teams to the locker room with Salem up 16-0.
The Spartans upped the advantage to 23-0 on a Coulling-to-Isaiah Parker 15-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter. Salem put things firmly away with 9 minutes left in the game when receiver Davonta Womack took a short pass from Coulling and reached the end zone 25-yards later with a couple of nifty moves.
Spartan Donte Clayborne put the icing on the cake with 3:56 left when he bulled his way across the goal line from 6-yards out.
Northside had potential opportunities go awry in the third quarter with a fumble and a dropped pass on a wide-open deep halfback pass from Tra’ Jackson that was a sure six.
“Field position was key tonight,” Salem head coach Stephen Magenbauer said outside the Spartan locker room. “Our defense set us up. We knew Northside could throw deep.”
When asked if his team’s dominant 4-0 start now brings a bull’s eye for the rest of the season, Magenbauer had the answer.
“Our senior leadership is doing it’s job,” he pointed out. “We just need to stay focused. That’s the difference.”
– Bill Turner
