Salisbury Press

The Salisbury football team hadn’t gotten off to many fast starts this season. The Falcons had been a second-half team for much of the fall campaign.

But on Friday night in their first playoff game in two seasons, the Falcons raced out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Jim Thopre, however, was able to respond.

The Olympians scored 21 unanswered points and never trailed the rest of the way. They held off Salisbury in the fourth quarter for a 41-26 win in the Class 3A Eastern Conference championship game.

The last time the Salisbury girls’ soccer team found itself in penalty kicks was the 2016 Colonial League tournament semifinals. The Lady Falcons were fortunate enough to edge Saucon Valley, 5-3 in penalty kicks, for the victory.

Over three years later, Salisbury found itself one again in a similar situation. But the results weren’t as favorable.

The last time Salisbury won an Eastern Conference football championship was back in 2006. Current special teams coordinator and offensive/defensive line coach Chris Kretzman was a senior lineman on that Falcons team.

Now, 13 years later, the Falcons are returning to the Eastern Conference stage in hopes of bringing home more hardware to Salisbury High School. Salisbury (6-4) will take on Jim Thorpe (7-3) on the Olympians’ home field Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Salisbury walked into Southern Lehigh for its regular season finale and dominated time of possession in the first quarter. The Falcons, however, didn’t have any points to show for it.

And once Southern Lehigh’s offense got into a rhythm in the second quarter, it never looked back. It was highlighted by its star running back Asher Smith.

After qualifying for the District 11 tournament in each of the past two seasons, the Salisbury field hockey team found itself on the outside looking in at the Class 2A tournament this past fall.

The Falcons (5-13 overall; 4-12 in Colonial League) did win two of their final three games to close out the fall season.

After a shutout 4-0 win over Catasauqua on October 3, Salisbury closed the regular season with a 3-0 victory over Pen Argyl six days later.

The Salisbury football team has come up with many impressive offensive drives through the first nine weeks of the regular season. But its most notable may have come last Friday night.

Holding a one-touchdown lead over Palmerton midway through the fourth quarter, Salisbury used a 13-play drive that drained nearly the entire game clock and lifted the Falcons (6-3) to a 28-14 win on Senior Night. It was the team’s second straight win.

With only one more week left in the high school football regular season, Salisbury (6-3) won’t have to travel far for its final game of October. And the Falcons are very familiar with their Week 10 opponent.

Salisbury travels to rival Southern Lehigh (8-1) on Friday night for a matchup of teams separated by a few miles on Route 309.

The Spartans are one of two teams in the Colonial League with only one loss, and have already qualified for the District 11 tournament.

With a strong core of the 2018 team back this past fall for the Salisbury boys soccer team, head coach Mark Allinson had high hopes for the Falcons. But unfortunately, a large number of injuries derailed the team from achieving those goals.

At one point midway through the season, Salisbury was without eight regular starters. The result was a 2-15-1 record for a Falcon team that struggled to generate enough scoring opportunities on offense.

Unlike last season, Salisbury has been fortunate enough to avoid a bunch of injuries to key players. The starting offensive line the past few games has not only stayed free of injury, but it’s been a key piece to the Falcons’ success.

That unit was instrumental on Friday night in helping Salisbury rebound from its worse loss of the season. The Falcons ran for 198 yards and dominated in the trenches en route to a 46-14 win over Bangor last week at Paul Farnan Field at Bangor Memorial Park Stadium.

The scoreboard may have looked nearly identical to its regular season win over Saucon Valley, but Salisbury’s victory over the Panthers in the Colonial League girls soccer semifinals was anything but similar to that late-September win.

Kerry Seiler scored Salisbury’s first goal, and Quinn Wittman added the final two in a 3-0 victory for the No. 4 seeded Lady Falcons on Saturday at Northern Lehigh High School.

Salisbury scored three goals in the regular season meeting as it defeated Saucon Valley back on September 28, 3-1.