The South Salem Saxons will be playing in front of their home fans against the North Salem Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in South Salem's favor is that they have now posted big point totals every time they've taken the field this season.
South Salem stacked a seventh blowout onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Sprague 50-14 on the road. Given South Salem's advantage in MaxPreps' Oregon football rankings (they are ranked fifth, while Sprague is ranked 59th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
South Salem had a senior duo take command as Athan Palmateer threw for 238 yards and two touchdowns and Esteban Mendez picked up 85 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Mendez hasn't dropped below two receiving touchdowns for three straight games.
Meanwhile, North Salem fell victim to West Salem's stalwart defense on Friday and couldn't make it onto the board. They were outmatched by the Titans on the road and fell 42-0. Having soared to a lofty 47 points in the game before, North Salem couldn't push the score so high this time.
South Salem's victory was their eighth straight on the road, which bumped their overall record up to 8-0. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 0-8 McNary and 1-7 Sprague (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 32.8% over those games). As for North Salem, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-3.
South Salem strolled past North Salem when the teams last played back in October of 2022 by a score of 33-14. Will South Salem repeat their success, or does North Salem have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
