Salem 37 PH 13

[Shabutie]

PH played them tough for awhile and hit some very nice trick plays early, as coach Fiddler seems to always do in this matchup but Salem pulled away in the 4th quarter.

The best news for Salem fans is that they finally have made the switch at tailback, although they didn't do it until late in the 3rd quarter. Isaiah Barlow had a bad leg injury to start the season but is healthy now and clearly the best option. The lack of explosiveness here has been the teams biggest weakness of the team, in my opinion.

Jones will still carry the ball and is only a sophomore so he needs to stay involved and work hard... he still has a bright future. Barlow just simply hits the hole faster and has more wiggle, speed and explosiveness.

It was also interesting to see Peyton Lewis dressed and moving around able to jog some after his brutal leg injury and surgery earlier in the season. I did not expect to see him even dressed the rest of this season.

 

[1MoreHokie]

Not sure if they made that move or not, a month or so ago a similar sequence played out and Jones was back there the next week and Barlow basically disappeared minus a handful of carries until he came back tonight.

I ran into a coach a couple weeks ago and he said something about Lewis coming along and I didn't really press him for more info but I kind of inferred that maybe he was going to be given the green light at some point. If he is healthy that could be enormous, I think he's the second best player on the team already.

If the offense didn't stall out on a couple drives this score would be quite a bit larger. PH played tough for as long as they could but this offense just grinds teams into dust eventually. There's only so many plays you can expect kids to want to tackle Leftwich. Wilson continues to progress as well, his touch has gotten immensely better compared to the first half of the season. The short to intermediate passing game can really springboard this offense because Logan and Greer are such menaces in the open field.

If they actually made the switch completely with Barlow, this team can make a run, I think.

 

[1MoreHokie]

Knew the stats would be a bit wonky but man.

Second half plays: Salem 40, PH 6 (SIX). If you go back a bit further, Salem also had the ball for seven of the last eight minutes of the second quarter and PH just ran a couple runs to end the half. PH had eight plays for about the last 70% of the game, it's incredibly difficult to win any game in that scenario much less against a quality opponent. PH could slow down but not stop Salem's offense, which is straight out of the early 90s where they just power run down your throat, complete a pass or two when necessary, and take eight minutes off the clock to put up points.

PH had 15 runs for 11 yards (not an atypical performance for the Salem front 7) and 4 of 8 passing for 116 and 2 picks.

 

[DUDLEY93]

Not sure if they made that move or not, a month or so ago a similar sequence played out and Jones was back there the next week and Barlow basically disappeared minus a handful of carries until he came back tonight.

I ran into a coach a couple weeks ago and he said something about Lewis coming along and I didn't really press him for more info but I kind of inferred that maybe he was going to be given the green light at some point. If he is healthy that could be enormous, I think he's the second best player on the team already.

If the offense didn't stall out on a couple drives this score would be quite a bit larger. PH played tough for as long as they could but this offense just grinds teams into dust eventually. There's only so many plays you can expect kids to want to tackle Leftwich. Wilson continues to progress as well, his touch has gotten immensely better compared to the first half of the season. The short to intermediate passing game can really springboard this offense because Logan and Greer are such menaces in the open field.

If they actually made the switch completely with Barlow, this team can make a run,

 

[Shabutie]

Not sure if they made that move or not, a month or so ago a similar sequence played out and Jones was back there the next week and Barlow basically disappeared minus a handful of carries until he came back tonight.

I am pretty confident that Barlow will be starting next week.