SALEM, MA — A spirited comeback that kept the Division 6 state championship game in doubt into the final seconds came up just short for the Salem High football team as the Witches fell to Fairhaven at Gillette Stadium on Thursday.
Salem quarterback Corey Grimes fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to Albert Pujols with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter, with the extra point making it a four-point game. But the Witches could not recover the onside kick for the chance to win and Fairhaven was able to run out the clock with Salem having no timeouts remaining.
The Witches finished their breakout season at 10-3 in making their first Super Bowl appearance since 1999.
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It was a one-score game throughout the day before Fairhaven turned a Salem fumble at the 35-year-line into a fourth touchdown run of the game for Justin Marques for a 26-15 lead with 3:48 to go. The 215-pound Fairhaven running back piled up 240 yards on 46 carries on the day.
But Salem wasn’t quite done yet as the Witches quickly moved back the other way behind the arm and legs of Grimes after a strong kick return to the Fairhaven 44. Grimes found Quinn Rocco Ryan for a 16-yard pass to the Fairhaven 10 with just over two minutes left on the clock.
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A penalty pushed Salem back five yards before Grimes found Pujols along the sideline and he stretched into the end zone to keep the championship hopes alive another few moments before Fairhaven recovered the onside kick.
Salem was down 6-0 in the first quarter when the Witches had a big response as Devante Ozuna tore off a 50-yard run to the goal line and scored on a 1-yard burst. An errant snap on the extra point went to Grimes, who hit Logan Abboud for a two-point conversion pass and Salem 8-6 lead.
Fairhaven, which was last in a Super Bowl in 2000, retook the lead late in the half on a second Marques TD run for a 13-8 lead in the half.
A day of big plays saw its biggest under the Foxboro lights in the third quarter when Grimes found Rocco Ryan for a 74-yard TD and a 15-13 lead. Then it was Fairhaven answering with the long run as Marques scored for the third time from 50 yards out.
Salem’s defense held strong with a goal-line stand after a long Fairhaven drive early in the fourth quarter and the Witches got out of the shadow of their end zone as Ozuna hit Grimes with a halfback option pass to the 30 before Fairhaven got the ball back on the fumble midway through the fourth quarter and went on to make it a two-score game with 3:48 to go.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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