Salem football wins latest installment of fierce rivalry with Penns Grove

  • 10/03 - 12:00 AM FootballFinal
    Penns Grove 16
    Salem 22
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Losing a Salem-Penns Grove football game seems to carry a life of its own, and the bad feeling seems to linger.

It goes beyond the football field, trickling down to social media, and then tends to hover for months. The winners get to relive it over and over, through little jabs here and there, and the losers have no other recourse but to take it.
 
That might explain why Salem's come-from-behind, 22-16 victory on Saturday was played with such fury by both teams. Penns Grove was looking to avenge its 22-14 overtime loss, a game in which it led 14-0, in last year's NJSIAA South Jersey, Group 1 quarterfinals in November, 10 months ago.

It may explain why the Rams reacted as if they had won the Super Bowl, moments after quarterback Shareef Jefferies hit Teron Nance with a 13-yard touchdown pass between three defenders with 17 seconds left to win Saturday's game.

And it might explain why some of the Penns Grove players were so dejected they were lying prone on the field, needing help to get to their feet, reacting as if their season was over after their fourth game of the year.
 
Salem's Daquan Blake was so hyped to play Penns Grove again he couldn't stand still during the National Anthem. The senior receiver/linebacker carried that high energy onto the field, making several key stops on defense and catching two passes for 35 yards.
 
"I had to come out explosive, there was some crazy talk between the players on both teams and it's why we had to win," Blake said. "We depend on effort to win."
 
Salem is now 4-0, and Penns Grove is 3-1. You have the sense these two programs aren't through seeing each other this year.
 
Nance found personal redemption in the course of one game. He dropped what could have been a fourth-quarter touchdown pass—then returned to catch the game-winning TD pass.
 
"It's a crazy rivalry," Nance said. "It's a neighborhood thing. It's a matter of believing in each other. I really hope we'll see Penns Grove again, so we can beat them again."
 
Salem head coach Montrey Wright came in with Dennis Thomas, now at Millville, when he took over as the Rams' head coach in 2014. Wright is a 2006 Salem graduate and has yet to lose in his first season as head coach of the Rams.
 
"It's about small-town rivalry that makes this special," Wright said. "The kids from both teams grew up playing against each other and it's a rivalry that starts there. It's about bragging rights with the kids. The kids talk and it gets intense on the field."
 
Penns Grove coach John Emel is a 2002 Salem graduate who inherited the Penns Grove program from former coach Kemp Carr, another Salem grad.
 
"We have to play better in the stretch," Emel said. "In the back end, we made three crucial mistakes. Our defense has played good all year, good all summer and we came in here and made some crucial mistakes. Not just at the end of the game, all day. We gave up three passing touchdowns. We shouldn't give up three passing touchdowns all year. We have to sure some things up. We took it away and they found a way to take it back. We have to figure out a way to move the ball against them.

"We'll see them again, maybe, maybe not. We can't worry about that. We let one get away."

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