PITTSGROVE – The game started off with great promise, but it ultimately devolved into a frustrating lesson of what it’s like to be a startup junior college football program where everything, including learning how to win, is a work in progress.
Salem CC enjoyed its first ever lead early in Saturday’s game, but by the end of the day, under the weight of untimely penalties and mistakes that gutted their confidence, the Mighty Oaks left Schalick High School with a 31-6 loss to Nassau CC they were in for the better part of three quarters.
“Frustrated, disappointed,” Mighty Oaks coach Jay Accorsi said. “I thought we played better (than in the opener), but still just too many mistakes.
“I felt we played better in some areas, but you can’t have too many guys in the huddle as you’re driving down. You can’t have penalties on the kickoff return. You can’t have a personal foul as you’re driving the ball. It’s the struggle of junior college football, understanding the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is gonna win.”
The Mighty Oaks came out sharp on offense, having had two weeks to fix the shortcomings in the opener. After surviving a missed field goal attempt on Nassau’s opening drive extended by a fumbled punt, starting quarterback Aidan Hill took them 80 yards in 15 plays for their first lead in program history.
Demetris Williams ran it in from 13 yards, but a bad snap cost them the extra point. All the yardage in the drive came on the ground, including a big 14-yard burst up the middle by Hill on fourth down to move the chains.
“The start started off well,” Hill said. “I was happy. I wanted to get back on the field and score again, but we didn’t get to do that.”
Things looked even better for them when Raheem Tomoney picked off Nassau quarterback Elijah Outlaw in front of the Salem bench, but the offense couldn’t take advantage of the turnover. The defense stopped the Lions again when Matt Bishop sacked Outlaw just in front of the goal line, forcing the visitors to punt from the back of the end zone.
Safety Mark Moore called it “amazing” the way the defense played in the first half to keep the Lions at bay. “They couldn’t get a run off,” he said.
Then it got crazy with penalties. Jeremiah Russell appeared to return to the punt to the Nassau 23, but a pair of personal foul penalties on the return brought it back to the Salem 47. The Mighty Oaks recovered from that and appeared to score a second touchdown on Hill’s 23-yard pass play with Jahfarri Payne, the same receiver he connected with on the last-play touchdown in the opener, but the score was called back for a block in the back on the block that sprung him.
They came up empty when Hill missed Russell over the middle on fourth down from the 26 with 7:22 left in the half.
That set the Lions in motion to score two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the quarter to sap the Mighty Oaks’ momentum and take a 14-6 halftime lead. They went in front with 1:52 left in the half when Mekai Henderson blasted in from the 10. Hill fumbled away Salem’s next possession and the Lions extended their lead when Outlaw eluded heavy pressure by Jermar Jones and hit tight end Justin Betz in the back corner of the end zone with 33 seconds left in the half.
“I thought (scoring on the opening possession) was really good,” Accorsi said. “Maybe we started too well early on and started to feel too good about ourselves because certainly we didn’t finish like we started. Again, you can’t make those mistakes.
“But, yeah, we showed flashes offensively of doing some stuff, which we didn’t even do anything two weeks ago. There’s a lot of plus things there. I still think it’s trying to get a bunch of individuals to play as a team … I have to do a better job of figuring out how to make us more of a team. I think the pieces are there, I think the players are there. There are some other things I think we need to do and I need to do to just get it better and more cohesive.”
Cam Wright started the second half at quarterback for the Mighty Oaks after Hill had an incident unbecoming of a leader in the locker room at halftime. Wright led the Mighty Oaks on two drives, the second of which almost produced a touchdown but ended when he got caught from behind on fourth down from the 15 short of the line to gain to end the third quarter.
The game was a homecoming of sorts for Salem tight end Robert Daly. The Mighty Oaks played their second “home” game at Daly’s high school, giving the freshman one more chance to play on a field he never thought he’d play on again.
The team gave him a chance to make it a special return, setting him up for a play in the red zone. Daly was wide open in the end zone and, although he had to come back for the pass, had the touchdown that could have tied the game in his hands, but couldn’t hold it.
“It was a go ball,” Daly said. “I found myself open in the end zone. Wide open. Wide open. Ball was a little short so I came back to it and just bobbled it a little low. Not the way I wanted to go. It was a catchable ball. I blame myself.”
It went downhill for the Mighty Oaks from there. Lions kicker Matias Perez Herrera kicked a 48-yard field goal on the ensuing possession to make it 17-6.
Hill returned to quarterback in the fourth quarter, but just couldn’t generate the same kind of offense he did in the first half. He also threw two interceptions out of his comfort zone passing from behind. One the Lions nearly returned for a touchdown but scored a few snaps later and one they did bring all the way back that brought out the Mighty Oaks’ frustration with the day.
“I feel defeated right now,” said Moore, who had a fourth-quarter interception to give the Mighty Oaks some hope. “It was slowly slipping away from us,. You could tell by the third quarter everybody’s energy was down. It just wasn’t good.”
“It was frustrating,” Hill said. “Honestly, we just collapsed as a team. Our momentum was there, but it wasn’t there all the way. It just wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t good.”
NCC SCC 10 First Downs 11 29-40 Rushing 40- 12-18-2 Passes 5-17-2 188 Passing 41 2-0 Fumbles-Lost 5-2 3-35.3 Punts-Avg 4-38.8 13-110 Penalties-Yds 11-105 Nassau CC (2-1) 0 14 3 14- 31 Salem CC (0-2) 6 6 0 0- 6
SCORING SUMMARY
S-Demetris Williams 13 run (kick blocked), 1:21 1Q
N-Mekai Henderson 10 run (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 1:52 2Q
N-Justin Betz 8 pass from Elijah Outlaw (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 0:33 2Q
N-Matias Perez Herrera 48 FG, 10:47 3Q
N-Tito Ruiz 3 pass from Elijah Outlaw (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 1:44 4Q
N-Antonio Washington 40 interception return (Matias Perez Herrera kick), 0:48 4Q