CARNEYS POINT – If there’s something oddly familiar about Salem CC’s first homecoming game Saturday, it’s because there is.
The Mighty Oaks just played Sussex CC two weeks ago with an open date in between so not to make things too familiar. And they’re playing in Pennsville’s Lou D’Angelo Stadium, the site of the first game in their history seven weeks ago.
They’re calling it homecoming, but don’t expect the usual festivities and accoutrements that come with such an occasion. It’s just to set the precedent of there being a homecoming game as the program moves forward.
“There’s still events and different things they’ll do, which makes it different and special,” Mighty Oaks coach Jay Accorsi said. “Any time you play a team twice it’s challenging since you kind of know the team pretty well, you kind of know what they do. In our case, we know the things we need to do to win the game. We know the things they did to put themselves in a position to win the game. We’re more familiar with their systems and their players.
“It’s something that’s a challenge. We just need to keep getting better.”
The Mighty Oaks were getting better in Accorsi’s eyes each week, then they played the Skylanders, a team that was winless at the time, and took a step back in two critical areas.
When the teams played two weeks ago in Newton, the Mighty Oaks fell short offensively and on special teams and lost 23-8. They fumbled the opening kickoff, but the defense kept the Skylanders out of the end zone, and then they gave up a touchdown on the second half kickoff. They also couldn’t get a running game going, a problem that has plagued them all season, and just had too many turnovers to be effective. Their touchdown came on a long pass from Jimmy Wilson, the fifth quarterback they’ve used this season, to D.J. Joyner.
“Every week we got better and better and better and then at Sussex I thought we just kind of were the same from Army Prep,” Accorsi said. “I think we improved in some areas, but not as a whole program. That’s that step we need to keep taking, to be competitive but put ourselves in a position to win the game. We had opportunities and we didn’t against them.”
They’ve spent the last two weeks trying to fix it.
An effective running game starts up front and the line has been a juggling act all season. They’ve been working with two new tackles and in an effort to shore up the exchanges between the center and whoever is taking the snap at the time they’ve been working Hayden Miller at center and Brody Selfridge at guard. And speaking of quarterbacks, they’ve moved Aidan Hill to defense and added Lindenwold’s Tobias Martin to go with Wilson, Cam Wright and Malakhai McKenzie.
They’ve also done more work on their red zone offense, since they haven’t developed a kicker for extra points and field goals. That will be a point of emphasis in recruiting.
“We’ve just gotta run the ball better,” Accorsi said. “We blocked OK on the offensive line, but we just can’t block OK. We’ve gotta block better.
“Any time you run the ball it takes a lot of stress off everybody, not just the offense but the defense. We can’t afford to turn the ball over five or six times. Usually when you turn it over five, six times you’re losing 50-0. For us to still be in the game at 23-8 and turn the ball over six times that’s phenomenal. How you doing that? The defense is pretty good.”
This is a big game for the Mighty Oaks for even more than the reasons stated earlier. When you look at what remains on the schedule – road games against Navy Prep (in Annapolis) and Erie CC – this may be their last best chance to taste victory. Don’t expect to hear them say that, though.
“I think I put a lot of pressure on the team going up to the Sussex game because I said that that week and … I think the guys were pressing,” Accorsi said. “Any time you do that, and I should’ve known better, you’re just putting too much pressure and they’re going to press and do things they normally shouldn’t do. I probably made that mistake two weeks ago when we did that. I’m not going to make that mistake this week.
“We’ve just gotta keep getting better and play the best we can and try to put ourselves in a position to win the game. We’re going to do the same thing at Navy and the same thing at Erie. I think when you (make that statement) you’re setting yourself up. You can never do that and I think partially I did by saying when I looked at the schedule these were two games I thought were winnable games. You just can’t say that. I think it puts too much pressure and too much emphasis and too much on an immature program that we’re just trying to find our way.”
The inaugural game at Pennsville drew a crowd of about 900. Early presale numbers for Saturday’s game indicate it would take a big game-day walkup to reach that.