Friday night’s much-anticipated matchup between undefeateds Patrick Henry and Salem began like a thoroughbred horse race.
Both teams came out of the gate racing for the early lead..
In the end, it was the Salem horses that ran away down the home stretch.
Breaking away from a hard-fought 21-17 halftime advantage, Salem scored 19 unanswered second half points to pull away for the 40-17 win at PH Stadium.
“We told the kids at halftime to trust your coaching,” Salem head coach Stephen Magenbauer explained afterward. “There were big plays on both sides of the ball early, and we knew PH had big-play potential. The last touchdown of the first half was big for us. Good things happened afterward. By the fourth quarter we had settled in and our defense didn’t allow any big plays. We played hard tonight.”
The standing-room only crowd that ringed Merrill Gainer Field hardly had time to settle in before the offensive fireworks began.
On the first offensive play of the game, Patriot quarterback Quishon Calfee connected with senior wide receiver Rasheed Whorley for an 81-yard touchdown bomb that put PH up 7-0 and sent the Partiot faithful into a frenzy.
Salem wasted no time tying things up when Spartan running back Coleman Fox raced 37 yards for a touchdown a minute later. It set the tone for Fox, who surpassed the 200 yard mark on the ground for the game.
The Spartans got their first lead of the game later in the opening quarter when Isaiah Parker hauled in a 15-yard toss from Fox before the Patriots countered with a 2-yard TD scamper from Calfee that made it 14-14 after one quarter.
Patrick Henry regained the lead late in the half when Patriot kicker Charles Francillon hit on a 36-yard field goal to make it 17-14.
Salem took the ensuing kickoff and marched straight down the field thanks to an Austin Coulling 38-yard pass to Alex Ramsey and 21-yard touchdown strike to Parker along the back line of the end zone that was vigorously disputed by the PH sideline to no avail.
“Who knows?” PH head coach Alan Fiddler pondered afterward. “We’ll watch the film. I thought the receiver was out of the end zone.”
The play sent the Spartans to the locker room with a 21-17 lead.
Salem made it 24-17 on a Kyle Reighard 24-yard field goal to open the scoring in the third quarter.
PH then felt it was robbed on its next possession when a long pass play was called back on a holding call.
“That holding call was the turning point of the game,” Fiddler noted. ‘It’s 24-17 and we rip off a big play…..then it gets called back.”
Late in the third quarter, PH rolled the dice twice on fourth down plays. They converted on the first, but the second, a fourth-and-8 from the Salem 35, turned disastrous when Parker picked off Calfee and returned it 37 yards. Fox went straight through the Patriot defense on the next play for a 43-yard touchdown run that put Salem up 31-17.
The Spartans tacked on a safety later in the third when a Patriot punt snap deep in PH territory sailed through the kicker’s legs and out of the end zone. Ramsey completed the night’s scoring on a 19-yard TD run for Salem’s 4th quarter encore.
Calfee, who threw for 238 yards for the Patriots, was the offensive highlight for PH. The brutal Salem defense held Patrick Henry to 52 yards on the ground in 28 rushing attempts.
“They made the plays in the fourth quarter,” Fiddler pointed out. “It just got away from us.”
Bill Turner