P.H.-SALEM
- Thread starter salem football
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Salem should take care of business. They play a better defense than does JF imo. The key will be containing QB Calfee.He will pick you apart if you give him time. I think The Ramsey brothers blitzing from the ends will cause him trouble all night. If he takes it up the middle he'll have to deal with Fox, Close, Howell. I don't think PH will have much success on the ground unless Calfee runs wild. I think Salem will pressure him into making mistakes throwing the ball, giving the secondary opportunities to get picks. On offense Salem should score in the 40's, PH's defense isn't good.
I look for salem's defense to get tested against PH. if calfee has a big game, then salem may in for a close game. if salem can keep calfee in-check, then salem rolls. PH has good team speed, which will benefit salem down the road.
I am not sure what to think of PH because they are talented and fast with experienced QB ! They gave Jefferson Forest on dry field everything they wanted losing 40-35 . They also lost to undefeated Pulaski team 21-14 at Pulaski on grass during wet conditions and Calfee was manhandled by Pulaski strong defense , getting sacked 7 times , I believe . The question is to me , can Salem slow down the PH offense and Calfee on turf field . I believe Salem young defense has got better but we have not faced as good or dynamic a offense . We have improved on special teams as far as covering kicks and that was a problem . Salem will be the favorite but this would be a big win for PH. Just a few miles separates the two schools and correct me if wrong Patrick Henry's field is called Gainer field where Willis White once coached . Should be a great game !
You are correct sir. Gainer was the head coach at PH before Coach White. I believe Gainer won a title in 72 or 73 took and took PH to title game in 1979 losing to Petersburg. Nice analysis guys. As good as Calfree is I don't think Salem lets one man beat them. Too much balance on offense for Salem and too little defense for the Patriots. 35-14 Salem
I thing Meryl Gainer was head coach at PH in 1973 state championship team that beat T.C. williams for state. His assistants were Willis White on defense and Glen Carlock on offense , who later became legendary coach at Graham high school in Bluefield Virginia where he once coached Ahmed Bradshaw !
I did not know that Coach White was with Gainer in 73. I knew he was there in 1979. I believe he became the HC in 1980. Coach White had some very good teams at PH and highly respected by his players.
Willis White assistant at PH when they won State in 73.--they beat Lafayette for State Championship with Ron Springs 28-0 Willis was head coach when PH got beat by Petersburg for State Championship--I believe score was 6-0
Coaching tree---Merrill Gainer----Willis White----Steve Magenbauer
Coaching tree---Merrill Gainer----Willis White----Steve Magenbauer
I picked PH to win this game only because (sorry PC fans) this is the only game I see Salem losing. PH has a lot of speed and if Calfee is on, PH can beat anybody west of Richmond on any given night. If he's not on, then Salem runs away. Closest game came 2 years ago at Salem Stadium when Calfee was a sophomore. I like PH at home in a shootout, but like I said, if he's not on, Salem wins big.
I think Salem will be able to contain Calfee better than JF did, but that's just my opinion. I think he will be running his butt off, question is will it be for positive or negative yards. Calfee will pick you apart if you don't put pressure on him. Salem should be able to do that with the Ramsey brothers coming from the ends, Fox, Close, and Howell from the LB position. Hopefully that works like it did against Blacksburg. The only difference is Calfee can scramble, Johnston could not. In the past, a mobile QB has been Salem's Achilles. Calfee does a good job of keeping his eyes downfield when scrambling so he's especially dangerous.
I have been really impressed with Calfee the last few years, he's one of the best HS QB's I've seen in a while. He has a good arm, usually makes good decisions, has good accuracy, can run, and most impressive is his touch. He can throw bullets, or put some air under it for his receivers to run under it.
You are correct Southbottom. He took over In 1978. The neat thing about Coach White was the loyalty of his assistants. Coach Oliver (great man and one of my mentors), and Jerry Sharnus went with him to Salem. The PH staff was unreal and he formed another great staff at Salem. To me his greatest coaching move was to make us believe we could come back from a 20 point deficit against a really good Fleming team in 1982. Alvin Comer, Victor Caldwell, Keith "sleepy" Gilliam, and Bo Blankenship ran through the Colonels defense for 21 unanswered points. Coach didnt fuss or even raise his voice at half time. He simply stated we had the game under control. Thought he was nuts but we trusted him did what he told us to do. Guess who got the game ball? He had a smile from ear to ear.
Agree Mike. Salem is just solid in every aspect. Minimize Calfee damage and the Spartans roll.
Agreed Mike. Although I must say, Calfee is good but I'd have to give the best QB from PH in recent memory to David Prince. Couldn't throw the ball for nothing but that kid was a heck of an athlete. Fast, made good decisions, and most importantly, he won! Never won a Western Valley District Championship (boy oh boy Franklin County was GOOOOOOOD back then), but he made PH a formidable threat. I've never seen Calfee play in real life but if he's better than Prince, then he's one hell of a player!!
I never got to see Prince play because Salem has only been playing PH for 3 years- Calfee's tenure. Just looking at size Calfee is 6'4" 200, Prince is listed at VT now as 6'1" 180. Obviously, Calfee is much bigger than Prince was, but that tells me Prince was much faster. Looking at Prince's HS bio, he only threw for 1 TD his Sr yr. He ran for as many yards as he threw. You said Prince wasn't a very good passer but a great athlete. I think Calfee is a slower version of Prince running the ball, but after seeing Calfee throw the ball for 3 years I can assure you he is a much better passing QB than a running one. The first year I saw him he didn't attempt many runs. When he's forced to scramble he always keeps his eyes downfield. He's one of the best passing QB'S I've seen in HS. He has a strong arm, good legs, is very accurate, usually makes good decisions, most importantly he has better touch than any HS QB I've seen in person, that includes Logan Thomas. He is really good at putting just enough air under the ball to drop a pass right into the receivers hands over the top of the secondary. I've noticed this year he has started to add more running into his repertoire. This makes him even more dangerous. He really torched JF they didn't put much pressure on him.
We need @cutnjump expertise on this one. I'm sure he saw both QB and can offer a good evaluation of them. JF couldn't stop him it was the Calfee vs Jones show. Should be interesting on Friday night.
David is a tremendous athlete, better than Calfee IMO, however, Calfee is the better quarterback by a lot. David was a runner or wideout forced to play QB. I truly believe, had he liked contact, safety would have been his best position. Extremely smart on the field and really able to high point balls( a skill useful for both wideouts and DB's). Calfee is a quarterback and his decision making has improved with experience although he is still prone to the occasional relapse and what the hell was that throw. Tremendous arm capable of making all the throws with velocity and/or touch. His legs can get him out of trouble as necessary. Should be an entertaining game but, I think Salem wins primarily due to discipline and fundamentals that make it a rarity for them to beat themselves. The margin of victory depends upon how well the Salem D controls the PH offense. Salem will get their points and the question is whether PH can get theirs. If Salem D plays poorly it will be a shootout like the Salem/JF preseason benefit game. The best quarterback mentioned in this thread was Al Comer, IMO and the second best was Bo Blankenship. PH hasn't produced many athletes like those guys in recent times.
P.H. j.v. team beat Salem last night 21-20. Win streak over.....
Yeah I was there, good game but Salem turned the ball over a couple of times. PH had a good game plan, stop 25 Robinson with 9 in the box. We were too conservative and predictable. Should have thrown the ball a few times on 1st down to open up the run. Coach Yuhas was really missed last night! They could have tied it up but no OT in JV. I agreed with the decision to go for it, but everyone knew 25 was going to run it and he was stopped short.
Just got this update from a friend:
Was on wife's facebook...Marty Yuhas has had intubation to help clear edema from lungs and has tube to drain fluid from brain.
Needs prayers.
To be fair, the win streak may be over, but it's incredible Salem's JV can still be top notch even with a big chunk of sophomores starting on varisty. I have to give credit where credit is due. Kudos to their program.
Coach Yuhas ' s win streak is still in place. Yes, JV'S streak has ended, but his hasn't as head coach!
This is odd. I'm sue PH is happy and rightfully so. Now, it needs to be seen whether this actually means anything or is it just a matter of "even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile". Personally, my bet is on the 43 - 1 program.
Well as said there's a ton of sophomores who are starting varsity instead of still being on the JV squad and some of them, like Deangelo Ramsey, can carry JV games by themselves.
Oh well, you can't win them all. Hats off to the PH squad for taking it to them.
Oh well, you can't win them all. Hats off to the PH squad for taking it to them.
