In this shortened league schedule, every game played had major importance as teams fought for playoff spots, even more so than it would have in normal years when teams would play up to 18 regular season games.

It turns out one game would be the deciding factor for the Salisbury girls’ soccer team.

The Lady Falcons (4-3-2 overall) recently closed out their regular season with a 4-1 setback against rival Southern Lehigh that dropped Salisbury to 3-3-1 in league play. The Lady Falcons finished as the seventh-lace team, with the top six advancing to the Colonial League tournament that began this week.

“With the shortened season, the margins were even slimmer than usual,” Salisbury head coach Rick Babyak said. “One goal to turn one tie into a win, or to turn one loss into a tie, would have made the difference for a league playoff spot for us this season.”

Northern Lehigh benefited with an extra league game, finishing 4-3-1 in league play and a half game above Salisbury. The two teams tied one another back in late September.

There’s no question that Salisbury had the cards stacked against them with a tough schedule this fall. With everything before September 21 canceled, the remaining games on the back half of its schedule included the top three teams: Northwestern (7-0), Southern Lehigh (7-1) and Moravian Academy (6-1).

And while the Lady Falcons did compete in each of those games, including 1-0 losses to both Northwestern and Moravian Academy, they needed a win elsewhere to keep pace with the rest of the pack.

“With the shortened season, I feel we haven’t yet been fully on track offensively,” Babyak said. “I am hoping we can make some adjustments and really let our offensive talent shine, and we can put together a good playoff run in districts.”

The good news is that Salisbury’s season is not over yet. The Lady Falcons are currently slated as the No. 6 seed in the District 11 Class 2A tournament, and will have at least one more game remaining.

They’ll be looking for junior Quinn Wittman (who leads the team with six goals) to lead an offensive attack that has been a bit bottled up this fall. Junior Kathy Medina has scored three times and added two assists.

In a year in which not much was certain in the summer, Babyak and the Lady Falcons are glad they’ve been able to take the field.

“I am very happy that we got in the season that we did under the current circumstances,” Babyak said. “We have a very talented team. Our defense has been particularly strong with great performances by Kayla Trenge, Chase Watto. Katie Seiler, Syrena Pope and Kerry Seiler. Sophomore Hannah Kamp has been tremendous for us in goal.”

Now they’ll have their eyes set on pulling off an upset or two in the postseason, which Babyak believes the Lady Falcons are more than capable of doing.

“It‘s always a good thing to still be playing in late October,” Babyak said. “I feel that we have the ability to compete with any team out there.”