Show of Class by Salem

[MntnrMark]

It is a rare day in history when a Salem football team gets humbled like they did against Blacksburg Friday night. It was uncharted territory for the Spartans' players, and probably most of their coaches. It would have been easy to take some cheap shots at the end of the game to vent some frustrations, but that didn't happen. All class all game long by Salem's players, coaches and fans. Well done, Spartans. Well done.

A trivia question for long-time Spartans fans. I've been told last Friday night was the biggest margin of loss for the Spartans since a 38-0 Salem loss years ago. Who was Salem's opponent in that game and what was the year? Thanks for the assistance.

 

[1bburgfan]

I have watched Salem and Blacksburg play since the opening of Salem High School, always been a class program . Very few coaches I would even mention with the same breath as William Lacy Brown and Dave Crist, Willis White is one and CoachMags is well on his way .

 

[HighestPoint]

38-0 loss to PC in 2008. Was in the playoffs I believe.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

38-0 loss to PC in 2008. Was in the playoffs I believe.

You are correct. Region IV Div. 4 championship, at Pulaski County. Quite possibly the coldest game I've ever attended, made all the worse by the curb-stomping the Cougars put on the Spartans that night.

A couple of notes from Friday's game. First, the 49 points was the most Blacksburg has scored in a game against Salem, far surpassing the 28 the then-Indians scored in their 28-6 victory way back in the teams' second-ever meeting in 1978.

Of greater significance - although it's apparently escaped the local media - is that the Bruins' win on Friday broke a Salem winning streak that stretched back almost six years. Salem was last beaten by a River Ridge District team on October 21, 2011, at Christiansburg. Since that loss, the Spartans had won thirty-five consecutive regular season district games. Adding in playoff victories over Pulaski County ('11,'12) and C'burg ('12), Salem had built a streak of thirty-eight straight wins over district opponents. That was a pretty loud "snap" heard in the Blacksburg vicinity around 9:30 pm Friday.

Considering that there is zero chance that Blacksburg will lose two River Ridge games (barring something really freaky), this will also end Salem's streak of five straight outright district championships in football.

Heartiest congratulations to the Bruins on a great win. I had said back in the spring that this was easily conceivable, and for once, I was right. Blacksburg is the better team, not just better the other night. If the Bruins keep playing at this level, I should think they have an excellent chance of playing in Williamsburg. They would be a splendid representative of the River Ridge District and Region D.

As for Salem, thus far this season, the whole has seemed to be less than the sum of the parts. I have my theories as to why that is, as everyone seems to, but I don't need to add to the noise. I will just say if this team manages to win two playoff games to reach the Region D championship game, I will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

It is a rare day in history when a Salem football team gets humbled like they did against Blacksburg Friday night. It was uncharted territory for the Spartans' players, and probably most of their coaches. It would have been easy to take some cheap shots at the end of the game to vent some frustrations, but that didn't happen. All class all game long by Salem's players, coaches and fans. Well done, Spartans. Well done.

A trivia question for long-time Spartans fans. I've been told last Friday night was the biggest margin of loss for the Spartans since a 38-0 Salem loss years ago. Who was Salem's opponent in that game and what was the year? Thanks for the assistance.

"All class all game long by Salem's players, coaches and fans. Well done, Spartans. Well done."

I should have said this before, but a big thanks to MntnrMark for his original post. It is extremely rare on this forum that a poster with ties to another school goes out of their way to start a thread actually saying something complimentary about Salem, so your kind remarks were very much appreciated.

Also, one last trivia tidbit. Salem's 37-point loss to Blacksburg was the team's worst loss in the regular season since 1980, when the Spartans suffered three losses of 42 or more points.

 

[cougardemon]

1982 salem lost to Pulaski 40-0
1993 salem lost to Pulaski 45-6....it was actually 42-0 at half time before all the back ups were put in

 

[SpartanOfYore]

1982 salem lost to Pulaski 40-0
1993 salem lost to Pulaski 45-6....it was actually 42-0 at half time before all the back ups were put in

You are absolutely right! In last night's haste to check out my assumption that this was the worst regular season loss since prior to the Willis White era, I made the mistake of using the current Salem football site as my main source. It is absolutely riddled with factual errors and typos, so I also relied primarily on my memory. I have the series histories with all of Salem's regular opponents written out in longhand, but I failed to go to that as a backup. Hence the omissions. So - last Friday was the second-worst loss in the regular season since the pre-White era, which began in 1983.

Many thanks for the correction, and my apologies for an honest mistake. I meant no disrespect to your gallant Cougars.

Here's a link to that Salem football Google site, but it is of limited use. You'll see it lists the 1993 score with Pulaski as 6-6. It actually has the 1982 score correct, so I just overlooked that one.
https://sites.google.com/a/salem.k12.va.us/salemfootball/history

 

[1MoreHokie]

If that post doesn't prove what a win over Salem means I don't know what does. That dude just made his 2nd post ever on a 7 year old account to talk about beating Salem 35+ years ago.

All in good fun but cmon lol.

 

[cougardemon]

If that post doesn't prove what a win over Salem means I don't know what does. That dude just made his 2nd post ever on a 7 year old account to talk about beating Salem 35+ years ago.

All in good fun but cmon lo

 

[cougardemon]

I typically don't post, but I just knew the info wasn't correct.

 

[cougardemon]

It's fun watching how sensitive these guys are. Lol.
Checking out my previous posts or lack of post?

 

[ClarkeFan83]

It's fun watching how sensitive these guys are. Lol.
Checking out my previous posts or lack of post?

Nah, that info is on display every post you make. But c'mon man, join in the fun!

 

[numb3rs]

It's also, I believe, the most points Salem has surrendered since a 55-19 loss to Amherst in the 1994 playoffs. The 49 slightly eclipses the 48 scored by Magna Vista against Salem in the 2010 playoffs.

It's surprising that the late 1970s - early 1980s Spartans didn't suffer more defeats of a similar magnitude; it mainly shows how low scoring that era was.

 

[1MoreHokie]

It's fun watching how sensitive these guys are. Lol.
Checking out my previous posts or lack of post?

You must have me confused with someone else. I simply had a laugh at a hardcore lurker coming out to post about beating Salem 35 years ago. I took less time to see how old your account was and how many posts you made than it took you to read my response because despite lurking for 7 years you've clearly never seen said information painfully visible under each and every post someone makes.

Like I said, it's all in good fun, I don't mind you bringing up the wins as you guys won the games, I just found it funny.