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# On the Gridiron: Snafu doesn't stop Salem football this time
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/on-the-gridiron-snafu-doesnt-stop-salem-football-this-time/
- Published: 2015-10-20T15:00:40.000Z
- Updated: 2015-10-20T15:00:40.000Z
- Description: Many of us would have been experiencing some form of deja vu Friday night if any of us were the Salem High School football coach. Fortunately for the Blue Devils, actual head coach Rob Pike was not - or at least he wasn't admitting to it after Salem's 37-26 win over Merrimack that featured a potenti
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Fall Sports, Division I, football, On the Gridiron, Salem, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Many of us would have been experiencing some form of deja vu Friday night if any of us were the Salem High School football coach.

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, actual head coach Rob Pike was not - or at least he wasn't admitting to it after Salem's 37-26 win over Merrimack that featured a potentially devastating officiating mistake early in the third quarter.

With the game tied 13-13, the Blue Devils (5-2) faced a second-and-8 from their own 37-yard line. They faked an inside hand off to Doug Maroun and then pitched the ball to Charles Sibanda as he ran around the left end toward the sideline.

While a couple of Merrimack players were tackling Maroun - who didn't have the ball - Sibanda was racing the rest of the Merrimack defense down the sideline, putting on a couple of nice moves to get around the last two Tomahawks between him and a 63-yard touchdown run.

But the fake was so good, the official on the opposite side of the field blew his whistle when Maroun was tackled, and after a brief conference, the officiating crew ruled it an inadvertent whistle and brought the ball back to the Salem 45.

"By rule, it's got to come back to where the ball was," Pike said. "I thought we were further along when he blew the whistle."

Sibanda may or may not have been further along, but if he made it to the 45, it was an 8-yard gain, which should have either been a first down, or at worst, third-and-1\. Instead, since the chain crew had already moved, thinking it was a touchdown, officials marked it as a second-and-3 from the 45.

Two plays later, Merrimack's Avery Paulson picked off a pass by Salem's Matthew Soldano, and on the next play, the Tomahawks scored to take a 20-13 lead.

Salem was able to bounce make from the officiating mistake, which is a credit to the Blue Devils, considering its the third time in less than a year that something like that's happened.

In last year's regular-season finale against Londonderry, it was a clock stoppage on a blocked field goal that turned into a game-winning field goal by the Lancers. And earlier this season, against Exeter, it was another clock stoppage in the final seconds - when the clock shouldn't have stopped - that led to the Blue Hawks' game-winning score.

"That didn't cross my mind," Pike said after Friday's game. "Luckily, I know, these kids are going to bounce back. They've been through a lot in a lot of games these last two or three years. I had full confidence they'd bounce back. That's what our kids do. They're very mentally tough, they just keep playing football. It's a great credit to the kids."

And thanks to that win, and a pair of losses by Pinkerton, has opened the door for Salem to possibly finish first in the South Conference. Salem finishes the year at Portsmouth (1-6) on Friday and then heads to Londonderry (3-4) on Oct. 30, and would win the conference by winning out and having Pinkerton lose one of its final two games against Dover (1-6) and Exeter (7-0).

"Any conference game is a big one," Pike said. "The whole conference is good. All five teams are very good teams. We knew this was a big one regardless of the outcomes (of other games)."