FOXBOROUGH — Salem High football coach Matt Bouchard has preached all season about the importance of winning the turnover battle. And for the most part, the Witches accomplished that goal during their dream run to the Division 6 Super Bowl.
But in that state title tilt at Gillette Stadium Thursday, Salem suffered a trio of unfortunate cough-ups that ultimately came back to bite them.
While they had a chance at the end to make something special happen and walk away with an improbable victory, it wasn’t meant to be as the Witches fell to the Blue Devils, 26-22.
“Obviously what killed us today was turnovers,” said Bouchard, his team wrapping up an incredible campaign at 10-3. “It’s not something that we’ve historically done all year, and it put us in a tough position. All year Fairhaven has been able to move the ball consistently and score pretty much on every possession. So each possession was critical today.”
Despite the untimely turnovers, Salem still had an opportunity at the end of regulation.
Following a backbreaking fourth touchdown run from Fairhaven’s Justin Marques, the Witches got the ball back down 11 with 3:48 to play. Starting at their own 44-yard line, quarterback Corey Grimes executed a textbook 6-play, 56-yard scoring drive, capped off with a fantastic 15-yard catch-and-score from Albert Pujols.
But with no timeouts remaining and under two minutes to go on the game clock, Salem’s only hope was to recover an onsides kick and orchestrate a game-winning touchdown drive in swift fashion. Fairhaven would jump on the attempted boot before taking a couple of knees to run out the clock and celebrate.
“I love those kids, man. More than you know,” said Bouchard.
“At the end of the day we always talk about giving yourself an opportunity, and even with two minutes to go in that game, we gave ourselves an opportunity. It’s not the best opportunity; putting all your bet on an onsides kick isn’t the best thing. But you’re in a championship state title game and you have a chance with two minutes to go, I can’t ask for anything more from these kids.”
The Witches knew what they were up against Thursday. As Blue Devils coach Derek Almeida quipped following the win, the triple option offense they utilize “may not be sexy”, but it’s certainly effective when run right.
In the biggest game of the year, they absolutely ran it right. Marques was the headliner, carrying the rock a whopping 46 times for 228 yards and his four scores. He kicked things off with a 1-yard TD run just three minutes in; scored late in the first quarter on a 4-yard run to give his team a 13-8 lead after Salem had briefly gone ahead; added a 48-yard sprint to paydirt midway through the third quarter; and capped things off with the late score that put the Blue Devils in the driver’s seat for good.
Marques’ 46 carries were a state Super Bowl record, breaking Cedric Washington’s mark of 45 totes for Holyoke back in 1995.
“He’s so strong and so tough and he gets tougher as the game goes on,” Almeida said of his star back, who injured his knee last season but came back strong in 2023 to finish his junior campaign with 1,695 rushing yards and 38 TDs.
“I knew he was going to bounce back strong,” continued Almeida. “We took it easy on him a little bit early in the year, but we knew (riding his hot hand) was what we were going to have to do to win a football game today.”
After taking an 8-6 lead midway through the first quarter on a 1-yard TD run by Devante Ozuna (85 yards rushing), Salem put itself in position to take a two-score advantage after stopping the Blue Devils on 4th-and-short. But a fumble on their second snap of the ensuing drive put the ball back in Fairhaven’s hands, and Marques made them pay.
Grimes then had a pass picked off in the Blue Devils’ end zone late in the second quarter, keeping it a 13-8 at the half.
Salem would regain the lead early in the third, forcing a punt before Grimes rolled to his right and found Quinn Rocco Ryan (5 catches, 119 yards) down the sidelines for a 73-yard touchdown.
The Witches then got yet another key stop on 4th-and-goal from the 6-yard line, only to fumble it three plays later.
Fairhaven scored to go up 11 (26-15), Salem responded with the one final scoring drive, and that was all she wrote.
“I felt from a play call perspective we had what we wanted in front of us,” said Bouchard. “Offense all night was doing really well, so we felt pretty good. But that’s the name of the game is we gotta hold on to the ball. The ball is the game — and unfortunately we just gave it up too much.”
Ozuna was very effective on the ground all afternoon while hauling in a 26-yard pass.
He also added a 28-yard halfback option pass to Grimes that was good for 28 yards. Shane Field (5 carries for 27 yards) chipped in offensively as well.
Salem’s defense did a great job limiting the explosive plays, with Marques’ 48-yard touchdown scamper serving as the only lengthy play. Field was a beast at linebacker, Alfred Ferrioli, Roman Steine and Logan Abboud more than did their job on the line, as did Elias Vasquez, while Ryan, Pujols, Christian Lane and Julian Ortiz all made an impact at one point or another.
“They were giving everything they had,” added Bouchard. “These kids continue to impress me even until their final hour.”
Salem wraps up their best season of the century with a 10-3 record and their first Super Bowl appearance since 1999. It didn’t go their way in the end, but Bouchard, Grimes, Ozuna, and the rest of the Witches’ senior class have certainly put their school back on the map.
Fairhaven 26, Salem 22
Division 6 Super Bowl
at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough
Salem (10-3) 8 0 7 7 22
Fairhaven (12-1) 13 0 6 7 26
Scoring summary
F — Justin Marques 1 run (Kick fails)
S — Devante Ozuna 1 run (Logan Abboud pass from Corey Grimes)
F — Marques 4 run (Grant Darmofal kick)
S — Quinn Rocco Ryan 73 pass from Grimes (Grimes kick)
F — Marques 48 run (rush fails)
F — Marques 3 run (Darmofal kick)
S — Albert Pujols 15 pass from Grimes (Grimes kick)
Individual StatisticsRUSHING: Salem — Devante Ozuna 11-85, Shane Field 5-27, Corey Grimes 6-33; Fairhaven — Justin Marques 46-228, Aaron Lague 9-62, Jayce Duarte 9-50, Colby Correia 4-22, William Foster 1-5, Nikko Morris 2-4.
PASSING: Salem — Grimes 8-18-160-2-1, Ozuna 1-1-28-0-0; Fairhaven — Duarte 1-2-6-0-0.
RECEIVING: Salem — Quinn Rocco Ryan 5-119, Grimes 1-28, Ozuna 1-26, Pujols 1-15, Field 1-0 Fairhaven — Jarrod Frates 1-6.
Contact Nick Giannino at NGiannino@Salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGiannino_SN.