Salem controls action, but comes up short in home opener

SALEM – Kemp Carr walked down the air-conditioned hallway after a hot afternoon of football a defeated man.

“It’s a horrible loss,” the Salem coach said three times as he approached the door to his office.

And all for the want of making a play. Salem had several chances to make one Saturday but didn’t. Paulsboro did when it counted and handed the Rams an 8-6 loss.

Paulsboro quarterback Jahsir Johnson connected with Jeremiah Carr on a 15-yard touchdown pass and the go-ahead two-point conversion with 3:27 to play, then the Red Raiders intercepted an Owen McDonald pass with 1:31 to play to seal it.

“We needed to make two plays,” Carr said. ”We got them in fourth-and-16 and we don’t make the play; our kids have to understand we don’t need an interception there we just need to knock the ball down – and we know where the ball’s going. We didn’t make a second play, it’s 6-6, they go for 2, we know it’s pass, they hadn’t run the ball all day. We know it’s power fade. We knew that. We just have to knock the ball down.

“That’s what makes it a bad loss because we controlled the game. We controlled the clock. We controlled the score. We controlled the ball. In the fourth quarter we shouldn’t fold. We had them exactly where we wanted them. We’ve got to go down there and execute.”

Instead, it was the Red Raiders (2-0) who made the crucial play. Jackson had three huge completions in the go-ahead drive. He hit his Carr on a jump ball with the defensive back there for 24 yards on fourth-and-10 from his own 35 early in the drive. He later hit Julian Gaines for 21 following a big sack to get the Red Raiders into the red zone, and then hit Carr for the score and then went back to him for the conversion.

“We didn’t play good, I don’t even know what to say; we gutted it out,” Paulsboro coach Kevin Harvey said. “Made a couple plays and that was the game. We just made a play, man. That’s why they’re out there, to make plays. I don’t know what to say.”

“Jeremiah Carr made a big play,” Johnson said. “Always. He’s a playmaker. You can’t say too much, he’s just special.”

There was nothing more gutsy than the fourth-down call from the 35. With more than half the quarter left, some coaches would choose to punt, figuring they’d get a stop and then get the ball back with time to mount a winning drive. The players, receiver Marques Eli in particular, convinced their coach go for it with 7:33 to play and it paid off.

“I thought about punting but the kids wanted to go for it,” Harvey said. “I said all right, we’ll go for it. Put our best guy out there, threw it to our guy and he made a play.”

The Rams still had time to answer and drove it to the Paulsboro 31, but McDonald was intercepted to end the threat. In the freshman’s defense he was blasted as he was throwing the ball up for grabs. The Red Raiders took a couple knees to run out the clock. 

The Rams (0-2) scored their touchdown earlier in the quarter when Cashmir Parsley returned to the field after receiving treatment for leg cramps and blasted his way into the end zone on fourth down from inside the 2. The play came right after Jeremiah Carr was flagged for pass interference on Ahmad Tucker in the end zone, a penalty that no longer carries an automatic first down but got them a few feet closer to the goal line.

“My mindset was we had to go score; I just took my opportunities and did what I could do,” Parsley said. 

Trainers were working on his leg when the pass interference got called, but the sophomore asked to go back in after the penalty. He said the leg felt good when he went back into the game, but he was back in the trainer’s care after the score when someone hit the back of his leg on the play. 

Parsley was the Rams’ workhorse in the third quarter, carrying it on eight of the first nine plays of the drive before cramping.

The teams slugged through a scoreless first half that included little offense and a bizarre final six minutes that had a little bit of everything except a score. There were 12 plays and eight penalties in the drive that only covered 22 net yards start to finish.

It started with a Paulsboro timeout after change of possession and then Myshon Barnes tackled Jiyayre Thomas for a 13-yard sack on the first play followed by back-to-back Paulsboro penalties. The Rams appeared to have stopped the drive when they forced Paulsboro to punt on fourth-and-38 from the 21, but they came after the punter and were called for roughing, then were hit with a personal foul on the next snap that brought the ball across midfield.

The Red Raiders came up empty when the Rams’ Blue Storm defense that Carr said “played extremely well” swamped Johnson for another sack and fumble that David Harris recovered with 25 seconds left in the half. And even that play, the coach explained, could’ve been handled better.

Paulsboro 8, Salem 6

SCORING SUMMARY
S-Cashmir Parsley 1 run (kick failed), 11:13 4Q
P-Jeremiah Carr 15 pass from Jahsir Johnson (Jeremiah Carr pass from Jahsir Johnson), 3:27 4Q