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Nashua South bedeviled in Salem

By Staff | Sep 6, 2014

SALEM – The 2014 football season didn’t exactly start the way Nashua High School South wanted – or expected.

The Panthers gave up three second-half touchdowns and were torched for 345 yards of Salem offense in a 35-14 loss at Grant Field on Friday night.

“We’ve got to play better than that,” South coach Scott Knight said after Salem quarterback John Cerretani tossed three touchdown passes. “I’m hoping we’re going to play a lot better than that down the road. That was not a good showing for our first game.”

Leading 14-7 at the half, thanks to two a pair of Cerretani TD passes, the Blue Devils grabbed a 14-point lead on their QB’s third touchdown pass early in the third quarter. It was a 3-yard flip to Austin Homsey to end a 10-play, 80-yard march to start the half.

It was a hint of things to come as the Blue Devils controlled the final 24 minutes.

“A few things were working for us,” Salem coach Rob Pike said. “That drive is exactly what we want to do to teams.”

South, which got a 119-yard rushing game from Andrew Decarteret, never led. Cerretani hit Kenny Calabrese on a 26-yard touchdown pass with 53.6 seconds left in the first half to snap a 7-7 tie.

Earlier in the half Cerretani capped off a 91-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown to Homsey early in the second quarter. South quarterback Malik Langa answered with a 74-yard touchdown sling to Josh Perry a minute later to tie the game at 7-7.

South had other chances in the half. The Panthers fumbled it away at the Blue Devils’ 5 early on, and when the buzzer sounded at halftime Langa was brought down at the Blue Devils’ 14. Langa completed 8 of 13 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown on the night.

The Panthers closed to within 21-14 on an 8-yard Decarteret touchdown run with 5:24 left in the third quarter. However, the Blue Devils pulled away on Nick Shumski’s 7-yard halfback-option touchdown pass to Matt Ayotte on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Charles Sibanda’s 18-yard run with 7:50 left finished the scoring.

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