FOOTBALL: Saline Rolls to 4th Straight Win at Monroe

Saline rolled to a 56-21 win at Monroe as the Hornets improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the SEC Red.

James Rush ran for 119 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Hornet attack. QB Tommy Carr completed 17 of 18 passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver Austin Abbatte caught two TD passes and Cruz Hanson caught another. Isaiah Harris, who had three sacks and a fumble recovery, also ran for a touchdown. Tyler Parrish had a 99-yard kick-off return to cap the scoring.

Despite a long kickoff return on the game's first play that set up a rushing touchdown for Monroe, Saline head coach Kyle Short pointed to special teams as a major positive.

"We've got to fix that, but outside of that, we had good special teams, we had some good punt returns and it was good to see Tyler Parris with a good kick return - his elusiveness and burst is really special," coach Short said.

Saline bounced back in resounding fashion. Tommy Carr engineered a methodical touchdown drive that ended with Carr finding Abbatte open for a three-yard passing TD.

"We did a really good job. On the sideline we talked about controlling what you can control. For the offense to come back and score on an 8-10 play drive was pretty good," Short said.

From then on, it seemed like the menacing Saline defense kept giving Carr and the offense short fields - they made it count. Saline scored on all but one possession until the reserves entered the game in the third quarter.

Two things seemed to really impact Monroe. The Trojans had a pretty good kicker. And the Hornets seemed to get in his head with some rough play. Suddenly those punts weren't going very far. 

The other factor was Isaiah Harris. Harris had two sacks on Monroe's next possession - which forced a punt (a good one) and led to strong return by Abbatte to midfield. A pass to Cruz moved the Hornets upfield and then Carr passed to Abbatte again for a six-yard scoring play. Saline led 14-7 after the kick by Ethan Cotsonika. 

From there, it was off to the races.

Rush scored the first of his three touchdowns with a 40-yard run down the Monroe sideline.

Saline went up 28-7 on Carr's pass to Cruz Hanson.

Harris got into the scoring act with an 8-yard TD run.

Saline took a 42-7 lead into halftime after Rush's a second TD of the night. He and his line plowed through the Monroe defense for the score and Cotsonika made the extra point kick.

Monroe kicked to Saline to start the third quarter.

A few plays later, Carr handed off to Rush who made a devastating cut to bounce outside and score a 28-yard touchdown.

Saline led 56-7.

Saline got important experience for the Hornets' hard-working depth players and Monroe did score a couple of late TDs. Monroe made it 56-21 - and Saline bounced back with Parrish's TD run.

With about 11 minutes left, the game was suspended to a flash of lightning. The game resumed about an hour later and the Hornets held the Trojans off the board.

Saline visits Huron next week.

SEC RED Standings

This week's results

Saline 56, Monroe 21
Dexter 56, Huron 19
Bedford 49, Pioneer 14
Lincoln 41, Skyline 6

Next week's games

Skyline @ Dexter
Monroe @ Pioneer
Saline @ Huron
Bedford @ Lincoln

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