High school football: Salem edges Windham on late score
Sep. 23—SALEM — On a day when both teams had trouble stopping the run, Saturday's Division I clash between Salem and Windham was decided by the passing game.
Quarterback Nolan Lumley connected with halfback Kevin Todisco for a 62-yard touchdown pass that ended the scoring and handed Salem a 33-28 victory.
The TD pass came on a third-and-20 play with 5:17 remaining in the fourth quarter.
"Our guy (Todisco) went up and made a play," Salem coach Steve Abraham said. "That's what we told Nolan: 'Throw it up. Let our guy make a play.' Kevin wanted that ball. He ripped it away."
Windham still had a chance at the road victory, however. After punting on their ensuing possession, the Jaguars stopped the Blue Devils on a fourth-and-1 play and took over on their own 44-yard line with 51.8 seconds to play.
The Jaguars drove to the Salem 15 with five seconds left, but quarterback Billy DePietro's pass into the end zone fell to the grass as time expired.
"They made a play (on the TD pass)," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "They deserved it. I thought our kid covered it great. With all the bad things that happened. we get the ball in the air to win the game."
Salem improved to 4-0. The loss dropped Windham's record to 2-2 overall (1-2 NHIAA).
"If we just play with heart, play together, communicate and play this game with passion and enthusiasm, we have a shot in every game," Abraham said. "And they've done that."
Salem took its first lead when Todisco scored on a 1-yard run to make it 27-21 with 5:47 left in the third quarter, but Windham regained the lead on DePietro's 31-yard TD run plus Seamus Ross' point-after kick with 6:51 left in regulation.
Lumley's TD pass came on the third play of Salem's next possession
"If we play like this, we're not going to do anything significant in the playoffs anyway," Byrne said. "I'd rather it hurt right now, for us to regroup and get to the level that we can play."
Each team scored on its first three possessions. Windham received a 2-yard TD run from fullback Tiger An (31 carries for 167 yards), a 33-yard TD pass from DePietro to Chris Brearley, and an 8-yard TD run by An.
Salem's first-half TDs came on Todisco's 4-yard run, a 4-yard run from Felix Gonzalez and a 12-yard run by Gonzalez. Lumley swept around right end for the 2-point conversion following Salem's third TD, which made it 21-21 with 1:07 left in the second quarter.
"They had to learn through some adversity," Abraham said. "For a team that's all sophomores and juniors — there's only two seniors that we really play — that football experience and (overcoming) adversity, more than the weight room or anything else, that will give us a shot when we get into the playoffs."
