Winning their River Ridge District opener to move to 4-0 overall, the Salem Spartans jumped out to an early two-touchdown lead and stayed in firm control as they beat the Blacksburg Bruins, 35-21 on the final Thursday of September for 2019.

In a matchup between programs with a combined 12 state titles (9 for Salem, 3 by Blacksburg), the Spartans had a decisive 33:25 to 14:35 advantage in the Time of Possession category. As they rolled up 461 yards of offense on 74 plays from scrimmage, Salem got stellar rushing performances from Isaiah Persinger, Zavione Wood and Cameron Leftwich.

Persinger ran the ball 30 times for 192 yards and a touchdown. Wood and Leftwich combined for 145 yards rushing and 4TD's. Defensively, Jayden McDonald intercepted a pair of Blacksburg passes.

The Bruins amassed 320 total yards with 238 coming through the air from QB Luke Goforth. Brian Mitchell rushed for a pair of scores in the defeat.

Salem looks to remain unbeaten in their pursuit of a top seed for the Region 4D playoffs when they play host to Class 3 Christiansburg on October 4th.

Blacksburg dropped to 3-2 overall before their matchup at Patrick Henry-Roanoke on October 4th.

*** You can listen to Mark and Brad provide you play-by-play coverage of Blacksburg football games on ESPN Radio in Blacksburg here. ***