Salem’s Josh Mayhew breaks up a pass to East Liverpool’s Meshach Harris on Friday. (The Review/Izzy Buchheit)

EAST LIVERPOOL — Salem scored 21 points on its first 12 offensive snaps to zip out to 21-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back in rolling to a 56-20 running clock win over longtime Columbiana County rival East Liverpool at Patterson Field Friday night.

“We knew that their offense had prolific potential,” said East Liverpool head coach Paul Cusick of the Quakers’ offensive explosion. “The quarterback (Cletis Monroy) does a great job and they’re so multi-talented that we knew that (could) happen.”

With the win, the Quakers are now 1-2, with their losses coming to unbeaten Poland and South Range, while East Liverpool is also 1-2.

How dominant were the Quakers in the first half? Consider this: They scored on all six offensive possessions while out-gaining the Potters 361-166.

That trend continued in the second half as Salem’s first-team offense scored on its seventh and eighth possessions in the third quarter before its backups finished out the game in the fourth quarter.

“We stated this week in practice that I would be really disappointed if we don’t score on every possession,” said a pleased Salem head coach Ron Johnson. “Our challenge to them tonight was to be the Salem team that we knew we could be. I’m really happy with our effort.”

Salem senior running back Brandon Kana had a half he won’t soon forget, rushing for 178 yards in the opening 24 minutes while scoring four touchdowns, three on rushes of 50, 70 and one yard, as well as hauling in a 36-yard scoring aerial from Monroy.

“Going into it, I wasn’t feeling the best, and then I got some water in me and I felt great,” said Kana. “I was moving and felt pretty good running — I think that was the fastest I ever ran in my life. Our line did really good moving them (the Potters) today.”

Meanwhile, Monroy, a three-year starting signal-caller, had two touchdowns in the opening half on a 19-yard scoring scamper, as well as his scoring aerial to Kana.

For the game, Salem rushed for 403 yards, with Kana leading the way with 225 yards on 14 carries, while Monroy added 148 yards on 13 carries with three rushing touchdowns and two passing scores. The Quakers racked up 511 yards of total offense, while holding the young Potters to 293 yards of offense.

“We have a big thing about the Kelly principal,” said Johnson. “The Kelly’s principle is this: You always hear about Murphy’s Law, and last year was kind of a Murphy’s Law year — anything that could go wrong would go wrong, but we said, OK, we’re going to have a Kelly principle and you’ve got to believe in that anything that can go right, you’ve got to make go right, and just keep believing. I don’t know who the heck Kelly is, it’s an Irish name, but by gosh, it works.”

Salem led 21-0 after one quarter and went up 28-0 before East Liverpool, which fumbled oin first snap from center and threw an interception on its second snap, finally cracked the end zone when quarterback Ben Myers scored up the middle from a yard out with 2:33 showing on the second-quarter clock. Camden Wright added the PAT boot and the Potters trailed 28-7.

Cusick said the key is remaining patient with a very young Potter team.

“We have a lot of young guys and we’re still going through growing pains, and that’s not easy,” he said. “But we have to stay positive and keep working hard. Those are growing pains and that’s just the reality of how you build a program. It’s always tough to go through those things, so that’s what we’re going through right now. We’ve got a lot of young guys playing, and guys out injured, and the younger guys have to step up, and that’s hard to do on Friday night.”

Salem answered with two scores in the final 2:33 of the first half on Monroy’s 19-yard run and his 36-yard touchdown pass to Kana with no time left on the clock. Kicker Gerson Samayoa added his fifth successful PAT kick of the half and the Quakers took a 42-7 lead into the locker room.

Johnson said a lot of positives were answered by his veteran team on Friday night.

“Will a really good offensive line become a dominant offensive line?,” he pondered. “Will a good high school back become a great high school back? Would we keep our composure? Would our defensive line be unblocked, would we make plays in the back end? We had a pick on the first play of the game,” he said of everything that worked perfectly.

With a running clock throughout the second half, Salem’s first unit scored two third-quarter touchdowns on a three-yard pass from Monroy to Bairon Exline, while Monroy closed Salem’s scoring on a 28-yard scoring jaunt as time expired in the third quarter. Samayoa added his eighth PAT successful PAT boot of the night, to make it 56-7.

With Salem’s backups playing in the fourth quarter, the Potters tallied two six-pointers on a 15-yard scoring pass from Myers to Dre’Keim Abercrombie and on a 19-yard run by Myers with 2:25 left. Kicker Camden Wright booted the PAT to close the final deficit to 36 points.

Myers, a junior, passed for 160 yards, including his 15-yard scoring strike to Abercrombie. He also scored on touchdown runs of one and 19 yards.

“That’s all we want,” said Cusick, whose young team continued to battle. “Give us effort and we’ll try and fix everything else and hopefully we get that done this week.”

Johnson made sure to praise his team’s defensive effort against the Potters.

Johnson praised his defensive staff.

“I can’t say enough about (defensive coaches) Jason Lude, our defensive coordinator, and our defensive staff,” lauded the Salem mentor. “They did an incredible job in what they did tonight against a very explosive football team. That’s a testament to them.”

Game notes

¯ According to fourseasonsfootball.com, the 101-year-old series between Salem and East Liverpool now has Salem leading the series, 50-49-2.

¯ Salem has now won 11 of the past 12 meetings with the Potters. The Quakers won the 2024 meeting with East Liverpool, 13-7.

¯ East Liverpool returns to action next Friday when the Potters travel to Beaver Local to play the arch-rival Beavers in a Buckeye 8 battle.

“It’s a rivalry game and it’s going to be one of those atmospheres that we’ve got to respond to with our young guys, and we’ll see what happens,” closed Cusick.

¯ Salem will also be on the road next Friday when the Quakers venture to Canton to play the Central Catholic Crusaders in an independent contest.

S: 21-21-14- 0–56

EL: 0- 7- 0-13–20

SCORING

S–Cletis Monroy, 1 run, 8:59 1st (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Brandon Kana, 50 run, 4:19 1st (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Brandon Kana, 70 run, 1:16 1st (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Brandon Kana, 1 run, 8:43 2nd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

EL–Ben Myers, 1 run, 2:38 2nd (Camden Wright kick)

S–Cletis Monroy, 19 run, 23.6 2nd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Brandon Kana, 36 pass from Cletis Monroy, :00 2nd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Bairon Exline, 3 pass from Celtis Monroy, 7:09 3rd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

S–Cletis Monroy, 28 run, :00 3rd (Gerson Samayoa kick)

EL–Dre’Keim Abercrombie, 15 pass from Ben Myers, 8:24 4th (Kick failed)

EL–Ben Myers, 19 run, 2:25 4th (Camden Wright kick)

——

S EL

First downs 23 14

Total Yards 511 293

Rushes-yards 33-403 30-139

Passing 110 160

Comp-Att-Int 6-8-0 8-16-1

Penalties-Yards 7-70 4-20

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1

——

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING — Salem, Cletis Monroy, 13-148, Brandon Kana, 14-225, Zander Kinsey, 2-30; East Liverpool, Amir Baker, 9-37 Ben Myers, 6-45, Tamar Tisdale, 11-40, Tyler Kirby, 1-8.

PASSING — Salem, Cletis Monroy, 6-8-110-2-0, Adrian Gelonese 0-1-0-0-0; East Liverpool, Ben Myers, 8-16-160-1-1.

RECEIVING — Salem, Brandon Kana, 1-36, Bairon Exline, 4-46, Owen Davidson, 1-8; East Liverpool, Dre’ Keim Abercrombie, 3-59, Meshach Harris, 5-83, Jaylen Smith, 1-5.