Pinkerton football holds off Salem in second half

DERRY – John Cerretani’s pass was on the mark and Kenny Calabrese made the tough catch, but Tyler Gendron was right there to make the tackle, with a half-yard to spare.

Gendron brought down Calabrese short of the goal line on fourth-and-9 with 20.3 seconds remaining in Saturday’s football game between Pinkerton Academy and Salem High School, allowing the Astros to survive with a 14-7 victory over the Blue Devils.

It was one of several big defensive stops the Astros made on a night when their offense struggled with injuries and the Salem defense. In the second half, Pinkerton ran just 13 plays – or one fewer than the Blue Devils had on one drive in the fourth quarter – and were outgained 185-42.

But when it mattered most, the Astros came up with a stop.

“That’s as good a defensive job as we’ve done for years,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “When it mattered, when you got inside the red zone, we came up multiple times in the second half.”

Salem got inside the Pinkerton 25 on all four of its second half drives, but the Blue Devils couldn’t finish. With a first down at the Astros 12, Salem could get only two yards and Chris Sheikhabdou’s 27-yard field goal attempt was wide left.

On its next drive, Salem got to the Pinkerton 23, but a sack on first down and a false start set up a fourth-and-17. Johnny Bartose (17 carries, 81 yards) ran for 14 yards on the play, but the Blue Devils turned the ball over on downs.

And on Salem’s final two drive, Pinkerton’s defense made the stop at its own 1-yard line.

“I’m proud of the effort and they didn’t give up,” Salem coach Rob Pike said. “I’m happy with that. Bad things are going to happen and you’ve got to keep persevering and going after it. They did that in the second half (Saturday). We’ll come back Monday and be confident and keep working to be better.”

After an even first half – total yards were in favor of Salem 138-137 at halftime – the Blue Devils (2-1) were able to get things going, thanks to great field position and a balance offense. Salem gained 323 yards, with 154 on the ground and 169 through the air.

Cerretani finished the game 11 of 14 for 169 yards while Charles Sibanda added 84 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries, and Austin Homsey caught five passes for 71 yards.

“We let up some long passes where we should have made a play on the ball,” O’Reilly said. “We let them catch it and then we tackled them when we should have made a play on the ball, but we didn’t. It’s a good character builder and it’s a W. Now we’ve got to deal with what’s left over.”

What’s left over are injuries to some key players. T.J. Urbanik left the game during Pinkerton’s second offensive series and was on the sideline with ice on his right shoulder. Sean Coombs also exited late in the fourth with what appeared to be an ankle injury and was on crutches after the game. Both players’ status for Friday’s game against Londonderry was undetermined.

The loss of Urbanik hurt the Astros (3-0) on offense, where some inexperienced players had to step up against a Salem defense that was putting a lot pressure on quarterback Jack Hanaway.

“The biggest problem offensively was a combination of not having people who understand our game plan and Salem selling out and bringing tremendous pressure on us,” O’Reilly said. “It was difficult (Saturday), but it will be better in the future because now they know they have to know.”

Hanaway finished with 36 yards rushing and a touchdown and was 3 of 4 passing for 47 yards, while Coombs had 69 yards of total offense.

“Our defensive line did a good job of reading their keys and our linebackers filled the holes,” Pike said. “It wasn’t anything special.”

Pinkerton got on the board first on Hanaway’s 7-yard touchdown run with 2:27 left in the first quarter. The play was set up by a 43-yard run by Peter Cyr and a 13-yard pass from Hanaway to Coombs that gave Pinkerton a first-and-goal at the 9.

The Astros made it 14-0 in the second after Mike Curley recovered a fumble by Homsey at the Salem 15. Jason Hansen ran in from 15 yards out on the next play to put Pinkerton up two scores.

Homsey returned the kickoff to midfield and Salem answered with an eight-play, 50-yard drive, scoring on a 2-yard run by Sibanda.

“We’ve got a big fullback who is tough to bring down and our offensive line usually comes off the ball well,” Pike said. “Interior runs are pretty good for us. We’ve got a quarterback who can throw and receivers who can catch, and that gives our offense a nice balance. We made plays, just not quite enough.”