Salem’s Will Harmon tackles Beaver Local’s Lane Jones on Fridday at Sebo Stadium. (Photo by Gary Leininger)

SALEM — Salem, which features one of the top scoring offenses in the area, scored on all but one of its seven first-team possessions and rolled to a 46-26 win over Columbiana County rival Beaver Local at Sebo Stadium Friday night.

“We didn’t get off to a great start (on their first drive) but we scored on every other possession,” said Salem head coach Ron Johnson. “And that’s our goal to score on every possession. We just kept pounding the rock and kept doing that and sooner or later it’s going to crack.”

“They’ve got a really good running game and we knew that,” said Beaver Local head coach Mike McKenzie about the Quakers. “We knew they were physical and they’ve kind of been pointing towards this year for a couple years. (Quarterback) Cletis (Monroy) is good and he’s a three-year starter.”

The win raised the Quakers’ record to 3-2 and they are riding a three-game winning streak heading into the start of Eastern Buckeye Conference action next week. It’s Salem’s first three-game winning streak since the 2022 campaign when they opened the season with back-to-back-to-back wins over Crestview, Beaver Local and East Liverpool.

“Our theme this week was attention,” said Johnson. “If you want people to know who you are, do things that people want to know about. We’ve brought some attention, scoring over 50 the last couple games and people want to come see us, and I’m really proud of the way our kids represented themselves for Homecoming. They represented Salem and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Salem now leads the all-time series with the Beavers, 8-5. The teams have split their past 10 meetings but Salem has won five of the past seven games.

The loss dropped Beaver Local to 3-2.

Salem, which rushed for 165 yards alone in the first half and 368 for the game, scored four out of five times it possessed the football in the opening two quarters. The Quakers capped a 50-yard march on its second drive when running back Brandon Kana raced 17 yards around left end to score, giving Salem a 7-0 lead after kicker Gerson Samayoa’s PAT kick at the 6:23 of the first quarter.

For the game, Kana rushed for a game-high 168 yards and five touchdowns, while senior quarterback Cletis Monroy added 116 yards on 18 carries.

“I was feeling it, I felt good,” said Kana. “Coming in and winning three games in a row is impressive. Now we’ve got to keep going, we’ve got Alliance next week.”

Beaver Local was led by quarterback Wade Foster who completed 16-of-29 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns through the air. He also scored a six-pointer on the turf.

The Quakers got their special teams involved in the scoring show in the second quarter when they blocked a Beaver Local field goal attempt and Salem defensive back Braydon Van Dyne picked up the football and raced 75 yards the other way to score. The PAT boot failed but the Quakers led 13-0 at the 11:45 mark of the second quarter.

“Obviously the blocked field goal kind of hurt our momentum,” said McKenzie.

Beaver Local got on the board midway through the second quarter when Richie Wyse hauled in an eight-yard scoring pass from quarterback Wade Foster in the left quarter of the end zone. Brayden Hall added the PAT which briefly cut into Salem’s lead at 13-7 with 8:43 showing before halftime.

But Salem answered with two more offensive scores on a 12-yard run around the right side by Kana and a 25-yard fourth down scoring pass from Monroy to receiver Owen Davidson with just 24 seconds left before the break. Samayoa added both PAT boots and the Quakers took a commanding 26-7 lead at the break.

Salem led in total offense, 208-132 at halftime as Monroy rushed for 92 yards in the first half and Kana had 65 yards rushing.

The Quakers added three more scores on Kana touchdown jaunts of 16, six and 51 yards in the second half, which started a running clock with the Quakers leading 46-13 with 8:51 left.

“We fought back and came out and scored in the second half and had a couple chances to stop them and we didn’t and that’s kind of where the game was,” said McKenzie.

Beaver Local added three second-half scores on a five-yard scoring run by Foster, a 40-yard scoring pass from Foster to Nicholas McKenzie and a last second-touchdown pass from quarterback Richie Wyse to receiver Chris Warrick to close the final deficit to 20 points (46-26).

Johnson was very proud of how Salem handled Beaver Local’s strong lines.

“We really took the challenge tonight, they’re a big, strong physical football team and we wanted to bring it to them and I think we really mauled them tonight,” said the Salem coach. “We really kind of did whatever we wanted.”

Notes

¯ Salem begins Eastern Buckeye Conference play next Friday night when the Quakers travel to Alliance to play the Aviators at Mount Union’s Kehres Stadium.

¯ Beaver Local will make the trip to Union Local next Friday evening to play the Jets in a Buckeye 8 crossover game.

BL: 0-7-6-13 — 26

SA: 7 19-6-14 –46

SCORING

SAL — Brandon Kana, 17 run, 6:22 1st (Gerson Samayoa kick)

SAL — Braydon Van Dyne, 75 blocked field goal return, 11:45 2nd (Kick failed)

BL — Richie Wyse, 8 pass from Wade Foster, 8:43 2nd (Brayden Hall kick)

SAL — Brandon Kana,12 run, 3:07 2nd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

SAL — Owen Davidson, 25 pass from Cletis Monroy, :24 2nd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

SAL — Brandon Kana,16 run, 1:49 3rd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

BL — Wade Foster, 5 run, 8:29 3rd (Kick failed)

SAL — Brandon Kana, 6 run, 11:18 4th (Gerson Samayoa kick)

SAL — Brandon Kana, 51 run, 8:51 4th (Gerson Samayoa kick)

BL — Nicholas McKenzie, 40 pass from Wade Foster, 4:35 4th (Brayden Hall kick)

BL — Chris Warrick, 5 pass from Richie Wise, :00 4th (No PAT attempted)

——

BL S

First downs 16 23

Total yards 368 410

Rushes-yards 26-161 44-367

Passing 207 43

Comp-Att-Int 16-29-0 3-6-0

Penalties-Yards 6-60 6-55

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1

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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING — Salem, Cletis Monroy, 18-116, Brandon Kana, 19-184, Zavier Kinsey, 3-25; Beaver Local, Lane Jones, 10-63, Wade Foster, 12-43, Zaiven Riley 1-6, Richie Wise, 2-62

PASSING — Salem, Cletis Monroy, 3-5-43-1-0; Beaver Local, Wade Foster, 16-29-207-2-0; Richie Wise, 2-2-8-1-0

RECEIVING — Salem, Brandon Kana, 1-13, Owen Davidson, 1-25, Will Harmon, 1-5; Beaver Local, Nicholas McKenzie, 4-72, Luke Rettos, 4-33, Zaiven Riley, 2-50, Lane Jones, 2-28, Richie Wyse, 1-8, McElroy 1-6