Salem football runs away from Nashua South to win season opener (video)

NASHUA - The Salem High School football team opened the 2021 season Friday night in the same place that the last one ended.

The results, however, were much, much different.

Aidan MacDonald rushed for over two hundred yards and scored six touchdowns as the Blue Devils racked up over five hundred rushing yards and thumped Nashua South 62-36 in the Division I season opener at Stellos Stadium.

After losing in the semifinals to Nashua North on the same field to end the 2020 season, opening a new year with a big win in the same place was a great way to kick things off.

"After last year, with all the COVID stuff and some teams couldn’t play, we were so hyped to come out here," MacDonald said. "We knew they were going to be good. We knew it would be a tight game."

The senior did his part to loosen things up, rushing for 243 and five touchdowns on 22 carries while also returning a kickoff 85 yards for Salem's first touchdown of the game. As a team, the Blue Devils ran for 503 yards and seven scores on 48 carries and also got a touchdown through the air on a 40-yard scoring pass from Noah Mustapha to Thomas Ahlers.

"Everybody bashes the Wing-T, but we just put up 62 points against a really good team, and we can throw it when we want to," Salem coach Steve Abraham said. "Our running backs are great, they scored a lot of points, they’re fast, they’re powerful. But we blocked well (Friday) and I think we wore them out a little bit upfront."

The line also helped clear the way for Ahlers to rush for 71 yards and a touchdown while David Jacques had 65 yards and a score. Joseph Piccirillo added a 78-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring for the Blue Devils (1-0).

South (0-1) had little trouble moving the ball against Salem's defense in the first half, as the Panthers took the opening kickoff and went 59 yards in seven plays to take an early 7-0 lead.

And although the Blue Devils were able to convert two Panthers' turnovers into touchdowns in the first half, South had a chance to tie the game at the end before halftime, but ran out of time.

Michael Rutstein led South with 144 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and was 6 of 15 passing for 67 yards and an interception. Josh Compoh had 84 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and also returned a kickoff 80 yards for a score.

But both players, and several other starters for the Panthers, battled leg cramps in the second half. At times, it seemed like someone for South was cramping up on every other play.

"Most definitely, but that’s part of the game," South coach Scott Knight said when asked if he thought it affected the outcome. "You’ve got to get the horses to the gate."

After South took a 7-0 lead on Compoh's 8-yard run, MacDonald wasted little time tying things up, returning the kickoff 85 yards.

"They drove down the field on us," MacDonald said. "We were like let’s focus and execute. We ran the middle wedge and I just hid behind my blockers and then boom, just squirted out. That was it."

The Panthers drove back down the field, but a holding call stalled South's drive at the Salem 32. South opted to punt, but the kick traveled just 5 yards.

The Blue Devils went three-and-out, but after another hold and an illegal shift on the Panthers, Rutstein was picked off by Peter Beeley. Five players later, MacDonald scored on a 5-yard run with 59 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 13-7.

After South had returned the first two kickoffs to midfield, Salem opted to kick it short, and the move paid off. The ball went to South's Brady Swisher, who couldn't corral it, and Jonathan Smith recovered for the Blue Devils.

Eight plays later, MacDonald scored again, from 2 yards out, and after South was called for encroachment on the PAT, Ahlers ran in the two-point conversion for a 21-7 lead.

"They’ll kill you," Knight said of the special teams miscues. "The 5-yard punt, the turnovers. We muff a kickoff, give up a kick return (touchdown). That was a nightmare. We got a PAT blocked. We got one (kickoff) back and we had some good punts in the second half."

The teams traded touchdowns on their next four possessions, with Salem going up 35-20 on Mustapha's touchdown pass to Ahlers. But the Blue Devils elected to kick deep and Compoh broke free for the 80-yard kickoff return score. Connor Rowsell added the two-point conversion to make it 35-28.

South's defense stopped Salem and got the ball back at its own 18 with 46 seconds remaining and two timeouts. Rutstein picked up 57 yards on the ground on the first play of the drive, but the Panthers had to use both timeouts on the next two run plays.

On third-and-3, Rutstein hit Rowsell along the sideline for a 10-yard gain and the senior went out of bounds at the Salem 8-yard line to stop the clock. Rowsell got the handoff on the next play, and for a moment, looked like he might break free, but Salem's defense stopped him at the 2-yard line with four seconds left and time ran out.

Salem got the ball to start the second half, and on the second play of the third quarter, MacDonald went 60 yards for a touchdown and a 42-28 lead.

"We stopped then here (at the end of the half)," Abraham said. "I think our second play (after halftime), we scored when Aidan went around the corner. It was momentum and you could kind of see the air come out of their sails.

"The defense will be fine. We’ve got a lot of young guys on defense. We shut them out in the second half. Once our guys played their keys … if we can figure it out on defense, we’ll be OK. We’ll have a shot. I’m very proud of the resiliency of my guys."