RallyNorth.net

Salem survives Lawrence comeback

Thursday, November, 25 By Christopher Smith
Staff writer

LAWRENCE — Salem’s Thanksgiving game at Lawrence yesterday was sort of a welcome-home party for Jerickson Fedrick, who lived in South Lawrence before moving to Salem in the seventh grade.

Yet it was almost a horrible homecoming for Fedrick as his Salem team nearly squandered a 28-point fourth-quarter lead to the Lancers.

Fedrick rushed 24 times for 229 yards and scored two touchdowns as Salem barely hung on for a 44-38 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium yesterday.

“They (Lawrence football players) are good athletes and a few of them are my buddies,” Fedrick said. “We played together back in the day. We just tried to play our hardest and not let it slip away from us.”

Fedrick said a couple of players on the Lawrence team, including Steven Mannion, were best friends of his growing up in South Lawrence. Mannion and Fedrick re-connected all afternoon — shoulder pads to shoulder pads — as Mannion closed out his career with a game-high 17 tackles.

Fedrick added that it was nice to play on Thanksgiving morning, as it’s something he has never done before.

“It was unfortunate that we didn’t make it to the (New Hampshire Division 1) championship, but this is our championship for us,” Fedrick said. “We were just coming out here trying to have fun. That was basically what we did. We all love football, so it was like a gift to us (to play an extra game).”

Salem built its 28-point lead by running the football.

Senior Max Jacques, who had a crucial fumble in the fourth quarter of the Division 1 semifinal loss against Pinkerton, got a chance to redeem himself yesterday and he did. He finished his high school football career in style, rushing 26 times for 147 yards and three touchdowns.

“This was the craziest game I’ve ever been in probably,” Jacques said. “My heart was beating every second. They (Lawrence) really do have fight in them. A lot of fight in them.”

Lawrence’s comeback was fueled by quarterback Nathan Baez who threw for 269 yards. He threw for three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter alone.

He connected with Mario Encarnacion for a 5-yard touchdown to make it 44-32 with 2:45 left.

Lawrence then recovered for an onside kick and Baez threw a 65-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the drive to Jean Zorilla to make it 44-38 with 2:35 left.

But that was as close as Lawrence would get. Lawrence attempted another onside kick but it was recovered by Salem’s Don Needham.

“We wanted to send the seniors out with a bang because they worked hard all year so we wanted to have a good second half,” Baez said. “So we did our best to have a good last game for them.”

Lawrence coach Mike Yameen added: “The turnovers definitely killed us in the first half (two fumbles). We really didn’t wake up until the third quarter. ... They (Lawrence) fought. It’s the most points we’ve given up all year, which is disappointing to me but they didn’t quit until we ran out of time-outs that last drive and Salem got that first down.”

A first-down conversion by Jacques on a fourth-down run play clinched the game for Salem with less than 2 minutes remaining.