FOXBOROUGH —The Salem High football team may not be bringing a Super Bowl trophy back to Witch City, but there’s certainly no reason to hang their heads.
Yes, they came up a bit short in Thursday’s title clash with Fairhaven, suffering a 26-22 defeat. But when you look back on the season that was, it was still nothing short of an historical run filled with record-breaking statistics.
Here’s a quick look at some of the more eye-popping numbers and tidbits stemming from both Salem’s season as a whole, and Thursday’s Super Bowl finale:
With 85 yards on 11 carries on Thursday, Witches’ captain and running back
Devante Ozuna
finished his senior season with 1,022 rushing yards and 16 total touchdowns.Another senior captain, quarterback Corey Grimes re-wrote the record books at Salem High, setting new standards for passing yards in a season (2,082), career passing yards (4,566) and career touchdown passes (54), the latter of which ranks 8th all-time in the region.
Grimes also broke the Salem completions record for a single season, finishing with 115 completions on 192 attempts (59 percent) this fall.
Salem finished the year with 465 total points, far and away the highest mark in program history.
Junior captain
Quinn Rocco Ryan
and Ozuna both surpassed 100 points for the season, becoming the first pair of teammates to do so in the region since St. John’s Prep’s Johnny Thomas and Alex Moore in 2012.Ryan also broke Salem High’s record for receiving yards in a season with 828.Seven different players attempted at least one pass for Salem this year: Grimes, Ozuna (2-for-3, 61 yards); Jordan O’Malley(2-for-4, 23 yards);Antonio Bennett(1-for-2, 15 yards);Alfred Ferrioli(0-for-1);Julian Ortiz(0-for-1); andAndreas Bernal (0-for-2).Salem finished Thursday’s game 2-for-7 on third down conversions. The Witches held Fairhaven to a 4-for-12 clip on third down and 3-for-6 on fourth down situations.Salem was whistled for five penalties totaling 50 yards on Thursday; Fairhaven had six flags for 30 yards.Fairhaven had 17 first downs while Salem managed seven.Cumulatively, Salem finished the year with at least 98 points in every quarter this season: 104 points in the first, 160 in the second, 103 in the third, and 98 in the fourth.Salem and St. John’s Prep, the only two Super Bowl participants in the Salem News coverage area, both finished with exactly 465 points scored.Fairhaven finished Thursday’s game with 377 total yards, with their only pass completion going for six yards.The Salem High band, “The Pride of the North Shore” as they refer to themselves, performed a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem before the game began to a rousing applause. They also performed at halftime.
Contact Nick Giannino at NGiannino@Salemnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGiannino_SN.