Salisbury Press

Saturday’s game against rival Southern Lehigh ended the season’s toughest stretch to date for the Salisbury boys’ basketball team. Four of its last five games were against teams currently in the league playoffs or fighting for one of those spots.

The Falcons, while winning just one of those games, proved they could compete with the top teams in the Colonial League. That was shown during a close 56-49 loss to the unbeaten Spartans (11-1 overall; 9-0 in Colonial League) over the weekend.

The District 11 Class 2A Swimming Championships are set for the last two days of February at Parkland High School.

What swimmers around the area have been aiming for, including Salisbury’s athletes, is earning a district-qualifying time in their respective events for that meet in nearly two months. Despite coming up short in some recent meets in the team score, a number of individuals have captured that goal.

As it has at other times this season, the Salisbury girls’ basketball team didn’t let an early-game deficit deter the Lady Falcons from trying to compete. Despite Lehighton scoring the first nine points and leading 15-3 after the first quarter, Salisbury was able to cut the Indians’ lead to single digits early in the second.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough gas left in the tank. Lehighton staved off Salisbury’s run to lead by 13 at halftime, grow its lead to 20 in the third quarter and secure the 58-26 win last Thursday night at Salisbury High School.

Sophomore Ben Krauss is young and doesn’t have a ton of experience on the wrestling mat, especially at the varsity level. The same can be said for many of the other Falcon grapplers.

All but two wrestlers are either freshmen or sophomores for head coach Eric Snyder. And many of them have had success at the junior high level, with the hopes of accomplishing similar feats throughout their high school years.

“We have some talent on our team, but it’s just a matter of they are young and inexperienced,” Snyder said. “We’ll get better. We’ve gotten better since Day 1.

Patrick Foley’s only 3-point shot during the halftime break was off target. But for Foley, it didn’t seem to matter. And unfortunately for Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg, it was too late.

The senior point guard scored a career-high 34 points and hit nine 3-pointers to help Salisbury (4-3 overall, 3-1 Colonial League) secure a 64-49 over Notre Dame East Stroudsburg on Saturday afternoon. It was the Falcons’ third road win of the young season after winning just three away games in the past two seasons combined.

With the number of wrestlers that Salisbury took to Catasauqua last week, Falcon head coach Eric Snyder couldn’t have expected much more than what played out.

The Falcons were without one of their seven wrestlers during last week’s dual meet against the Rough Riders. And two others unexpectedly didn’t come out for the team at the beginning of the season, leaving Snyder with just six varsity grapplers last Wednesday night.

Over the past couple of seasons, an early 18-1 deficit is something the Salisbury boys basketball team might not have been able to overcome. That’s the situation the Falcons were in last Friday night on Northern Lehigh’s home court.

But Salisbury clawed its way back to even in the first half, and some clutch free throw shooting and execution down the stretch helped cement a 47-43 victory for Salisbury (3-2 overall, 3-0 in Colonial League).

Most teams will expect some sort of rust and inconsistency early in the season. The Salisbury boys basketball team, while it was within seven points late in the fourth quarter, could never get into a rhythm during its season opener against Blue Mountain.

Blue Mountain went 21-of-24 at the free throw line, making 16 from the charity stripe in the final quarter, to pull away with a 62-48 victory on Friday night at Salisbury High School. The Falcons (0-2) trailed 53-46 with 1:36 to play, but the Eagles finished the game on a 9-1 spurt.

The Salisbury swim team opened its season last Friday against Moravian Academy with a new look, starting at the top with first-year head coach Mackenzie Sikora. A number of first-year swimmers also made an impact for the Falcons in their first meet, despite coming up short on both the boys and girls sides.

The Moravian Academy girls defeated Salisbury, 117-53. The Lion boys came away with a 123-34 win at KidsPeace.

Despite the Salisbury girls basketball team’s 19-point loss to Pen Argyl on its home court to open the season, head coach Dan Reichenbach was pleased with the fight his team showed.

The Falcons, which trailed by 12 points after the first quarter and by as many as 16 in the second, fought their way back.

The hosts ultimately couldn’t take the lead, but were able to cut the Green Knights’ deficit to single digits on a number of occasions before suffering a 57-39 setback.