By Brian Hoffman
The Salem High football team will try to beat both South Roanoke County teams in less than a week’s time when the Spartans play Hidden Valley at Bogle Field tonight. Salem beat the other south county team, Cave Spring, 42-7 at Salem Stadium last Friday.
The Spartans are playing Hidden Valley on a Thursday because both the Titans and Knights share Bogle Field, and Cave Spring has a home game scheduled for Friday night against Christiansburg. So, the Salem-Hidden Valley game was moved to Thursday.
Salem coach Don Holter isn’t real happy about this, and most high school coaches wouldn’t be. They’re creatures of habit and anything that throws them off the routine isn’t welcome.
“We use every day for preparation,” said Holter. “With a day short of practice we’ll have to combine Monday and Tuesday into one day. We usually work on our two-minute drill and we can’t ignore that, because it’s been good to us. In the last four games we’ve scored right before halftime every week.”
While Holter isn’t happy playing on Thursday Hidden Valley is in the same boat, and there are some benefits. Salem will play a tough Patrick Henry team next week and with Friday off Holter can catch the PH game with Pulaski County this Friday.
Salem will be decided favorites against Hidden Valley whenever the game is played. The Spartans are on a seven game winning streak after opening with a loss to powerful Martinsburg of West Virginia while Hidden Valley is 3-6. The Titan wins have been against 0-8 Northside, 2-6 William Byrd, and last week Hidden Valley snapped a five game losing streak with a win over 0-8 Blacksburg.
“We can’t overlook this team,” said Holter. “We have to play with grit, focus and discipline.”
The Spartans had all three last Friday at Salem Stadium as they dropped Cave Spring to 5-3 with a decisive win. The Knights struggled to contain Salem’s speed as the Spartans outgained the Knights 388 to 120, holding Cave Spring to just nine yards of rushing on 22 attempts. Of Cave Spring’s 120 yards, 70 came on one busted coverage pass play with Salem holding a 42-0 lead.
Salem struck first when DaRon Wilson hit Josiah Moyer with a 21 TD pass that Moyer made a nice catch on over top of a Knight defender. On Cave Spring’s ensuing possession Josiah Persinger picked off a pass and Salem made it 13-0 when Peyton Lewis concluded the drive with a two yard run.
Lewis scampered 75 yards around the end to make it 19-0 with 6:53 left until the half. The Spartans missed the conversion point on their second TD so they went for two this time and Wilson found the end zone for a 21-0 lead.
The Spartans made it 28-0 as they converted in the final two minutes until the half. Jayveon Jones found paydirt on a one yard run and Salem led 28-0 when the Pride of Salem band took the field.
The third quarter was more of the same. Lewis broke free on a 54 yard run just 48 seconds after intermission and Wesley Cross’ extra point kick made it 35-0, setting the clock running continuously. Jones added a two yard TD to make it 42-0 with 4:27 left in the third period and the Knights averted a shutout with the long TD pass with just 58 seconds to go in the period. The fourth quarter was for the second team as the clock continued to run.
Lewis finished with 182 yards rushing on just 12 carries and he now has 902 yards for the season with a shot at going over 1,000 tonight. He’s averaging over 10 yards a carry for the season.
Wilson was six for eight passing for 116 yards while Moyer had two catches for 35 yards and Jonathan Vernon had a 30 yard reception.
On defense Isaiah Barlow and Jaelyn Allen led the team with eight tackles each, and Barlow had two sacks. Chris Martin had six tackles and Lewis and Wilson Rakes had five each.
Despite the win Salem is still second behind E.C. Glass in this week’s Region 4D rankings, but it’s close. The Hilltoppers have a 27.75 rating to Salem’s 27.62. The Toppers finish with Brookville and Liberty Christian, the third and top ranked teams in Region 3D. The Spartans have an opportunity to pick up some good points against Class 5 Patrick Henry next week but they might need Glass to lose one of their games to leap frog the Hilltoppers. That’s important for home advantage in a possible region final showdown.
Salem’s jayvee team also beat Cave Spring last week. With the varsity playing Thursday the jayvees will host Hidden Valley at Salem Stadium on Wednesday this week.