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Fedrick's huge day leads Salem

Friday, October, 07 By David Willis
Staff writer

PLAISTOW — Even Jerickson Fedrick’s teammates weren’t sure if the senior was ready to play following his injury a week ago — right up until his second carry.

“I thought he would just play a few plays and out,” said Kevin Dembkoski. “But when he popped that first big run, I knew he was just fine. That shocked me.”

On his second touch of the day, Fedrick broke free for a 94-yard touchdown, his first of five scores and 374 yards as the Blue Devils pulled away from pesky Timberlane 59-20 last night.

“Everyone said I wasn’t going to play and I don’t know where they got that,” said Fedrick with a chuckle. “We had to surprise them. I felt great tonight.”

A week ago, Fedrick suffered a hip injury against Nashua North and did not play after the first quarter.

“It was so frustrating,” said Fedrick. “Football is all I look forward to all week, so it was heartbreaking to put in all that work and not be able to play after the first quarter.”

Fedrick practiced during the week, but the Blue Devils weren’t sure what they would receive from the returning Eagle-Tribune All-Star.

“I heard around the locker room he wasn’t playing,” said running back Abner Rodriguez. “But I knew he was playing. I was confident in him.”

After no gain on his first rush, he followed with his 94-yard touchdown, and his next carry went for a 72-yard score.

By the end of the first half he had 251 yards on 14 carries. He needed just six carries to add 123 yards in the second half, including a 50-yard touchdown. He also ran a kickoff back 63 yards to set up one of his scores and picked off a pass, which was disallowed because of an inadvertent whistle.

He did not play in Salem’s last drive in the third and the entire fourth.

The Blue Devils rushed for 668 yards on 53 carries (12.6 yards a carry), and threw just a single pass in the contest.

“The running game was really going,” said Rodriguez, who had 102 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries despite suffering an ankle injury early in the second half. “We had some big runs in the first half and kept the momentum going in the second half.”

Meanwhile, Timberlane held strong in the first half thanks to the pair of quarterback Evan Bidgood and receiver Josh David. They connected seven times for 128 yards and a touchdown in the first half, making the score 30-20 Salem.

But the Blue Devils locked down in the second half, holding the Owls to negitive-15 yards of total offense in the second half, including sacks by Dembkoski, Phipps Kristopher and Bryan Bartlett.

“I don’t know what was wrong with us in the first half,” said Dembkoski. “But we changed it up and we were hungry. We weren’t going to allow them to gain any more yards.”

Additional stories:

• VIDEO: Fedrick, Salem run past Timberlane