The Salisbury boys soccer team opened the season with three straight losses.

It started against nonleague opponent Northampton, a powerhouse from the EPC, and the Falcons lost 9-0. Then, the Colonial League portion of the schedule opened, and Salisbury was much more competitive.

Some mix-ups cost Salisbury a win against Northern Lehigh and let the Bulldogs back into the game, eventually falling 5-2. They played a strong game against Saucon Valley until another mistake led to a penalty kick for the Panthers, who won the game 3-2.

Last Thursday, Salisbury was beating Lehighton when lightning shut down the game, which will be continued later in the season.

If you see a trend, so does Falcon head coach Barry Frick.

Mistakes have cost Salisbury, but the team continues to fight and is making progress.

Saturday the Falcons hosted Tamaqua for another nonleague game, and for the first time this season, played a complete game without making any mistakes that cost them too much.

There were a few miscues, but none that Salisbury couldn’t overcome.

“We’re close, and I’m seeing the progress that our guys are making,” said Frick. “We got it all together today and I think the kids saw what we can do. I’m proud of the kids for how hard they’re working and their refusal to quit.”

Passing has been one of the areas that Salisbury has struggled with this season.

In Saturday’s 3-1 win, the passing was one of the strong points for the Falcons. Senior Christian Marinos had defenders beat and got into a one-on-one against goalie Jakin Tamagini and as Marinos saw him lean just a little to the right, Marinos fired to the left for a 1-0 lead.

The play was set up by a pass from Brian Soita that put Marinos in perfect position to make his move.

Salisbury came out in the second half and with 35:17 left, Marinos was again breaking down the field when a through-pass came to him and again left him in position to make a play.

“I knew I had a defender on my right side, and I made sure that I got the ball and took the shot before he came in,” remembered Marinos. “I saw the keeper a little to the right, so I went to the bottom corner and put it in.”

Exactly one minute after Marinos scored his second goal, Aidon Elston put a low shot on goal from about 30 yards away and it rolled into the goal to make it a 2-1 game.

It was a point in the game where Salisbury could have thought ‘oh no, not again,’ but instead, they simply stayed together as the defense regrouped and kept Tamaqua from getting any good looks at the goal.

“We definitely need to work on clearing the ball out of the back,” said Marinos, who serves as a senior captain. “We had trouble with that today and it’s been a problem in the past as well. We have to make sure that teams can’t capitalize on second chances.”

The game went under the 10 minute mark with Salisbury still up 2-1, and finally, with 8:01 left in regulation, Salisbury bought themselves some insurance when junior Tommy Pojanowski chipped a shot toward the right front corner of the goal and found his mark to put Salisbury up by two goals.

“We’ve worked on finding feet on our passes instead of just kicking the ball into the middle and not really finding or connecting to anyone,” Marinos noted. “We did that better today, but there is still room for improvement.”

Salisbury has a tough week ahead with games against three strong Colonial League teams. The Falcons travel to Palisades (2-1 Colonial, 3-1 overall) before hosting Jim Thorpe (2-1, 4-1) and Wilson (3-0-1, 3-2-1).