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Quakers on to West Branch week

Salem’s Niko Walter navigates past an Akron Kenmore players on Friday at Reilly Stadium. (Salem News/Gary Leininger)

SALEM — The Salem Quakers are looking to close the 2018 season with a winning season and a lot of momentum. Following a 44-14 blowout win over Akron Kenmore-Garfield Friday night, the Quakers improve to 5-4 on the season. They are 1-4 in the Eastern Buckeye Conference.

The lopsided win, the second in two weeks for the Quakers, follows a midseason four-game losing streak. The back-to-back victories give the Quakers a great deal of momentum heading into the season finale with arch-rival West Branch next week.

“It was huge,” Quakers senior quarterback Turner Johnson said of the victory. “Big wins going into a big game like that it means a lot.”

Despite the large margin of victory, the Quakers struggled miserably in the first half as they couldn’t seem to be able to get out of their own way. They committed a fumble, two interceptions, and multiple penalties as they were only able to hold a slim 12-8 lead at intermission.

“Yeah, we played down to our competition,” Quakers coach Ron Johnson said. “Our guys were a little tight with it being their last game, a lot of emotion. They were really pressing. You could tell that they were trying too hard to play too well.”

“It was frustrating at first, but we came together,” junior running back Cade Campolito said. “We came in at halftime and said we just have to worry about us, we can’t worry about what the other team does.”

The Quakers’ two touchdowns came on a pair of 28-yard passes from quarterback Turner Johnson to receiver Niko Walter. The first came at the 5:58 mark of the second quarter and the second was with 2:40 remaining before halftime. The Rams scored on a 32-yard pass from quarterback Anthony Wright to receiver Zyier Saunders just three plays after Walters first touchdown reception.

But the Quakers came out of the locker in the second half ready to take charge of the game as their defense set the tone on the first offensive play by the Rams in the half. A pass by Rams quarterback Wright was ruled a lateral as it was scooped up by Cade Campolito as he raced 60 yards for a score and a 20-8 lead.

“We don’t need to do anything differently, we just need to it better,” Johnson explained what his advise to the team was at halftime. Schematically we were fine. Everything was correctable with just doing what you do and fun doing it.”

The Quakers offense then got going as they scored on three consecutive possessions with Campolito scoring on runs of 1 and 6 yards in the third quarter, and then kicker Andre Tonkinson booting a 32-yard field goal at the 11:45 mark of the fourth quarter. That gave them a commanding 37-8 lead.

“First time we kicked all year and he kicked the extra points and kicks a field goal. That was a bomb. He hit a bomb,” Johnson said of the Quaker’s new offensive weapon.

The Quakers defense put a nightcap on the night with a 30-yard interception return by Luke Weigart on the Rams next offensive play. That occurred before the Rams scored on a 46-yard pass from Wright to Hasan Muhammad with just 7:38 remaining to close the scoring.

The Quakers wrap up the 2018 season playing at West Branch next Saturday night. Akron Kenmore-Garfield closes the season playing at Akron North next Friday.

NOTES

• The Quakers honored the 15 seniors on the team with pre-game introductions surrounded by their family

• The Quakers went 4-0 in non-conference games this year. They outscored their opponents 132-49

• Akron Kenmore-Garfield became a school in the Akron City School District in 2017 with the merger of Kenmore and Garfield High Schools. They participate in the Akron City Series

KENMORE 0-8-0-6–14

SALEM 0-12-22-10–44

SCORING

SA — Niko Walter 28 pass from Turner Johnson (Kick Failed)

KG — Zyier Saunders 32 pass from Antony Wright (Chale Johnson pass from Wright)

SA — Walter 28 pass from Johnson (Kick Failed)

SA — Cade Campolito 60 fumble return (Campolito pass from Josh Lewald)

SA — Campolito 1 run (Andre Tonkinson Kick)

SA — Campolito 6 run (Tonkinson Kick)

SA — Tonkinson 32 field goal

SA — Luke Weingart 30 interception return (Kick Failed)

KG — Hasan Muhammad 46 pass from Wright (Run Failed)

K S

First downs 4 9

Total Yards 142 272

Rushes-yards 21-16 36-199

Passing 126 73

Comp-Att-Int 13-25-1 4-15-2

Punts 7-17.29 3-25.33

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-1

Penalties-Yards 9-55 8-65

——

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING-KENMORE, Zyier Saunders 4-16; SALEM, Cade Campolito 21-96, Turner Johnson 12-96

PASSING-KENMORE, Anthony Wright 13-25-126-1-1; SALEM, Turner Johnson 4-14-73-2-1, Niko Walter 0-1-0-1

RECEIVING-KENMORE Hasan Muhammand 7-77, Zyier Saunders 2-31; SALEM, Niko Walter 2-56, Luke Weingart 1-16

INTERCEPTIONS – KENMORE, Lamont Evans, Zyier Saunders; SALEM, Luke Weingart

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