The Northwestern football team opened the season with a big 42-41 overtime win over Notre Dame last week.

The Tigers now have put that win behind them and are focused on the task at hand in week two, which takes them to Salisbury High School to face the Salisbury Falcons (0-1).

While the Tigers win was a bit of a surprise, the Falcons week one loss to Pen Argyl was also a surprise.

The game came down to the final five seconds when Green Knights quarterback Tadd Barr found tight end Connor Kupres for a five-yard touchdown pass that tied the game.

The extra point was good and Salisbury’s fate was left to a bunch of laterals on the kick-off return that didn’t get them anywhere near the Pen Argyl end zone as the Falcons fell 17-16.

The Tigers gave up 41 points to Notre Dame but coach Josh Snyder isn’t worried about the defense. He pointed out that the last two Crusader touchdowns came when they had a short field. The first time because of a snap that sailed over quarterback Devon Bollinger’s head and left Notre Dame at the Northwestern 20-yard line and the second when the Crusaders got the ball at Northwestern’s 10-yard line to start overtime.

“We were really happy with the defense,” said Snyder. “You know [Notre Dame quarterback Cole] DeFranco is going to get his yards and he did, but we got seven stops on them and that’s more than we planned on getting. There are always things you can do better, but I’m happy with the defense.”

Salisbury will present more of a balanced attack offensively. Of their 270 total yards against Pen Argyl, 145 came on the ground and 125 came on the arm of senior quarterback Jacob Kamp, whose big strike was a 51-yard toss to Delano McKenzie, who pulled in three catches.

The ground game was spread around with Chad Parton leading the team with 60 yards on eight carries while Tim Buda carried eight times (33 yards), Kyle Pingarelli had seven carries (24) yards and Kamp ran six times for 26 yards.

The Tigers defense could get another weapon back when Anthony Colucci returns to the lineup. The senior running back/linebacker has been nagged for over a year with a hamstring issue that has kept him sidelined. He can see some time in the backfield but will be especially important if they can mix him in for some plays defensively.

Snyder sees a Salisbury team that he believes can be dangerous and has plenty of motivation to play hard against the Tigers Friday night.

“It’s their home opener and they’re coming off that tough loss, so they’re going to be ready,” said Snyder. “I doubt that they’re hanging their heads because they can be a tough team and they have a lot of reasons to come out and play well. In the first half they really played well against Pen Argyl and we expect that’s what they’re going to give us.”

The Falcons had a 10-0 lead at the half but Pen Argyl made some adjustments and were able to come back to get the win, the 500th in the school’s history. As long as Northwestern can keep the Salisbury offense at bay, the Tigers offense should be a lot for the Falcons to handle.

The long-anticipated return of the Northwestern running game took place against the Crusaders as the Tigers picked up 300 yards on the ground and had two backs go over the 100-yard mark in the game.

Northwestern quarterback Devon Bollinger has a lot of weapons to go to both on the ground and in the air and the team will look to create opportunities by mixing things up offensively.

“I think we’re the deepest we’ve ever been at the skill positions,” said Snyder. “We can keep guys fresh. We can mix-up our play calling and do some different things with different guys. That’s going to be a key for our offense this season.”