Tanners’ Football Hangs Onto Win Over Witches [VIDEO]

A crowd of better than 1,000 packed the bleachers at Coley Lee Field Friday night for the long awaited season opener between traditional rivals Salem and Peabody, and after 44 minutes of hard-nosed and frenetic action, the Tanners gave their loyal following the same thing they delivered the last time they kicked off the season with the Witches – a win.

Thanks to some precision passing from quarterback Jason Hiou, the Tanners scored all the points they would need in the first quarter and held off a feisty Salem squad, 14-13, to secure their first opening day win since besting the Witches back in 2004.

“This is the first time we’ve been undefeated,” joked fourth-year Peabody coach Scott Wlasuk, who has taken his lumps in his previous three season openers thanks to mighty St. John’s Prep.

While it looked like Peabody might run away with this one early as the Tanners put up 14 unanswered points in the first quarter, a very tenacious Salem squad hung right in there behind their dynamic junior QB Christian Dunston (109 yards rushing, TD pass). In fact, Salem appeared to be in the driver’s seat as it drove all the way to the Tanners’ 13-yard line with 6:16 to play and trailing 14-13. Salem ran into a brick wall, however, on fourth-and-nine in the form of Peabody’s massive middle linebacker D.J. Henrick, who teamed with Brady Doyle to slam Dunston to the turf after a short gain to effectively close the books on this one.

“I knew they were going to go to him because they had been going to him on the long plays all game,” said the Peabody quad-captain and fullback Henrick, who had a great two-way game. “I guessed that it would be him and I guessed right. This feels great. We’re going into the season hard.”

While Salem coach Scott Connolly can take away a ton of positives from this one he also knows that his team has to cash in on those opportunities in the red zone.

“You’ve got to punch it in and as coaches we have to do a better job of play calling there,” said Connolly. “We saw a lot of good things tonight and Peabody is a good football team. I thought defensively we did a good job on their ground game.”

Indeed. Paced by linebackers Brendan Broderick, Kyle Coleman and Davis Walsh along with DBs Dunston and Jorge Segura behind them, Salem held Peabody’s returning 1,000-yard rusher, Nat Gaye, to just 33 yards, but Peabody proved that it has a plethora of other threats, starting with  Hiou (5-7-110-1 TD, 54 rushing yards).

The senior captain looked like he had been running Peabody’s new “Pistol” offense since his Pop Warner days as he connected on his first four passes, including the pretty 45-yard fly pattern to the speedy Nick Ingham on the game’s opening drive to stake Peabody to a quick 7-0 lead.

After Salem coughed up the ball on its first possession, Peabody and Hiou got right back at it, embarking on an eight-play, 50-yard drive that culminated with Gaye’s plunge off-tackle from three yards out. The key play was a 28-yard strike from Hiou to Doyle on third-and-17 to keep the drive going.

“We had been banged up in the preseason and had not been able to do a lot in our two scrimmages, so coming in I really didn’t know what we would be able to do offensively,” Wlasuk admitted. “After that first quarter I was pleasantly surprised. The idea (with changing our offense) was to get the ball out on the perimeter more and to utilize our athletes and Jason made some great throws.”

Down by two touchdowns in just the first nine minutes and with just one play to Peabody’s 15, it would have been easy to stick a fork in Connolly’s club right there, but Dunston and the Witches had other ideas. Set up by Edwin Alcantara’s 48-yard kickoff return, Salem put together a smart, 43-yard, nine-play drive that finished with the elusive Dunston scampering 15 yards left on a keeper to bring Salem to within one score.

Peabody would counter with a 10-play drive all the way to the Salem 18, but Sean Wlasuk’s 35-yard field goal try on fourth down struck the left upright and bounced back with 3:56 left in the half. That proved to be just enough time for Salem, which moved the ball all the way to the Peabody 25 behind the slashing runs of Alcantara (13 rushes, 64 yards) and Dunston.

Looking at first-and-20 from the 25 with just 16 seconds on the clock, Dunston showed that he was far from a one-trick pony as he found senior captain Nick Paine in stride to bring Salem within one. A miss on the ensuing PAT, however, would loom large after a scoreless and very physical second half.

“I thought Nick Paine did a great job pulling in that ball in the corner and Dunston just threw a perfect ball to him,” said Connolly, who also lauded the play of his veteran offensive line.

Things will not get any easier for Salem next week as it travels to longtime CAL heavyweight Masconomet, while Peabody entertains an improving Danvers squad.

Peabody (1-0)   14       0       0       0                 14

Salem (0-1)         0       13     0       0                 13

P — Nick Ingham 45 pass from Jason Hiou (Sean Wlasuk kick)

P — Nat Gaye 3 run (Wlasuk kick)

S — Christian Dunston 13 run (Jonathan Crimble kick)

S — Nick Paine 25 pass from Dunston (kick failed)

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