Salisbury threw for eight touchdowns in his first game back from injured reserve to lead the Rampage to a 66-53 win over the New York Dragons Saturday night.

“He was sharp, and I’m a perfectionist with Chad,” McEwen said. “He’s going to get better.”

Both New York (1-4) and Grand Rapids (2-3) traded touchdowns in the first quarter for a 14-14 tie after 15 minutes. But Salisbury – no relation to ESPN’s Sean Salisbury – outdueled Dragon signal-caller Rohan Davey in the second frame, throwing three touchdowns to just two for Davey to take a 35-27 lead into the locker room.

Salisbury found Timon Marshall from 10 yards out on the first drive of the second half to stake the Rampage to a 15-point lead, and the two teams traded touchdowns through the first 6:30 of the period.

But the game turned on a controversial fumble. Ja’Mar Toombs was about to be thrown for a two-yard rushing loss when Grand Rapids’ Bryan Henderson came out with the football and ran 41 yards for a touchdown.

Dragons coach Weylan Harding thought the Toombs was down on the play, but referee Dennis Lipski stood by the call.

New York would get no closer than 10 the rest of the game.

“We’re still fighting ourselves as far as things we can control,” Harding said. “I don’t think we did a lot in certain instances to help ourselves.”

Salisbury was named the offensive player of the game after a 20-of-31 night for 260 yards and eight touchdowns without an interception.

“He managed the game well,” McEwen said of Salisbury. “I thought Chad coming back after four weeks of being out was extremely sharp. Coming off those four weeks I was really concerned. But after a couple of days he started to look like the Chad Salisbury of old.”

Salisbury suffered a concussion in Week 1 against the Colorado Crush.

“I won’t take anything away from that offense,” Harding said of Grand Rapids. “Salisbury is a good quarterback and they have a decent receiving corps but at times the guys got to make plays.”

Davey ended up with better statistics than Salisbury, as he was 28-of-44 for 339 yards and seven touchdowns.

“He’s coming along. He’s getting better every week,” Harding said of Davey. “But like everything else it’s not the New York Daveys.”

Davey’s favorite target, Mike Horacek, caught five of the seven touchdowns as part of 11 catches for 157 yards.

But the Dragons hurt themselves with penalties. New York was flagged 17 times for 118 yards. Dragons media relations director Kerri Greisbeck didn’t know if that was a franchise record, but that was four off the Arena Football League record of 21 shared by three teams.

“When a team has penalties like that there has to be a reason for those penalties,” McEwen said. “Maybe it’s the team in the other colored jerseys.”

McEwen thought the bye week last week ended up being a blessing in disguise.

“At the beginning of the year I didn’t know if I liked the bye week being so early but it was just what the doctor ordered,” he said. “We were able to acquire some pass rushers and do some really good things.”

Next week the Dragons host Colorado.

“Like anything else in a time of struggle you have to come together,” Harding said. “I feel like we have the talent here. But it’s like anything else. You can’t do good work if you toss the ball back and you’re tripping over yourself. We’re going to assess what we did good and correct the things we did bad, get ready for the next game and push on.”

The Rampage get back into Central Division action next week at Kansas City.

Notes: Dragons play-by-play announcer Peter Schwartz spent an hour stuck in an elevator at Van Andel Arena with a concession worker before the game. The pair were rescued and no one was injured. … Toombs sprained an ankle late in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. … Grand Rapids’ dance team had a full squad for the first time this season. One of the dancers, whose name the Rampage would not divulge, broke her ankle while rehearsing for the first home game of the season in Week 2. She returned Saturday. … Rampage defensive back Chuck Wesley had two huge hits on Dragon Chris Anthony in the fourth quarter that brought the crowd to life.