D1 beware, Salem's Sibanda back and better than ever

It was time for the Goffstown High School football team to make a decision during Friday's Queen City Jamboree.

If the Grizzlies accepted an ineligible man down field penalty against Salem, the Blue Devils would be facing second down with 26 yards to go for a first down from Goffstown's 31-yard line.

Or the Grizzlies could decline the penalty, and Salem would face a third-and-11 at the 16.

Goffstown opted to push the Blue Devils back and took the penalty, but on the next play, Salem pitched the ball to Josh Sibanda as he ran to the left. The senior running back burst past the line and through the Goffstown defense for 27 yards and a first down.

Two plays later, Salem scored what proved to be the winning touchdown from a yard out.

"He’s fantastic," Goffstown coach Justin Hufft said of Sibanda. "He’s not the biggest guy out there, but he is tough and he runs as if he weighs 240 pounds. He’ll run inside. He does the interior stuff, he lowers his shoulder into the hole, and I think he’s dynamite."

After watching Sibanda rush for over 1,400 yards and 20 touchdowns a year ago, Salem coach Rob Pike believes he's poised to have an even bigger senior season.

"He’s an incredibly hard worker," Pike said. "He practices hard every single day and he keeps getting better and better. He’s substantially better than last year, which is scary because he was pretty good last year."

While he's not afraid to get tough yards inside the tackles, Sibanda can be just as difficult to bring down once he reaches the numbers. Three members of Goffstown's defense found that out Friday, when they had Sibanda hemmed in along the sideline inside the red zone.

But instead of going down, Sibanda danced his way around all three and into the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown run.

"Nothing easy about it, he is a tough dude to tackle," Hufft said. "Hopefully, this gets us better, but we saw what we need to catch up to as far as the speed of play."

That ability makes Sibanda a bit of an X-factor for the Blue Devils.

"He’s a luxury," Pike said. "That first one was all him. He broke a million tackles and I don’t know how he gets out of those things. Josh, when the rest of make mistakes, he can make up for them. He’s special."

Salem opens the season on Friday at 7 p.m. against Nashua South at Stellos Stadium.