BY DAVE CHOATE

Memorial High School had little margin for error against Salem High School. The team quickly trimmed that margin to zero with a bevy of mistakes and penalties.

The Crusaders were blown out by the visiting Blue Devils on Friday, Sept. 7, 42-7.

Memorial head coach Dante Laurendi said his team was doomed by turnovers. The most glaring was a botched snap into Memorial’s end zone that resulted in a hurried throw, an intentional grounding penalty and a safety.

“We just didn’t come to play mentally. We can’t make a lot of mistakes against a team that good,” Laurendi said.

Memorial, 1-1, managed its one score in the third quarter on a 5-yard run by halfback Chris Tomlinson. The Crusaders also briefly threatened late in the second quarter after running back Ben Copp broke off a 72-yard run, but the clock ran out shortly thereafter.

The score might have been more lopsided if Memorial hadn’t come up with a nice defensive stop in the second quarter. Defensive back Domingo Cruz picked off a floater in the end zone from Salem backup quarterback Peter Allain.

Memorial visits Concord next time out. Laurendi said the team must work on mental focus and run defense in practice this week because Concord is also a team with a physical running style.

“We’ll keep plugging away. Hopefully, we’ll be able to stop the run a bit better against Concord, but we’ll have to clean up the mental errors first,” Laurendi said.