Ever since the second game of the season, the Salisbury football team has been shorthanded and often times undermanned.

The Falcons saw 10 players go down with injuries in that game back in late August, including six with broken bones.

Just when some players started coming back from injuries, the team’s starting quarterback suffered a season-ending injury in the eighth week of the season.

But the Falcons keep coming out each Friday night and doing their best to try to win a game.

“We have no quit in this program,” said Salisbury head coach Kevin DiZenzo. “The excitement we have seen in wins turns into attitude during losses and adversity. We score in each game. We’re in each game.

“The injury bug bit us hard this year. We have not had our whole first-team offense the entire season. Last week at halftime we had to entirely recreate our offense in 15 minutes. We had to recreate a wildcat offense and we’ve scored four times on it in six quarters.”

When quarterback Keaton Frye went down against Palmerton, the Falcons employed a wildcat offense in the second half. It kept them in a game they eventually lost by one point.

Last Friday night when Northern Lehigh visited Salisbury, the running back Jacob Watson was again back in the shotgun for most of the game in the wildcat. But the Bulldogs game-planned for it and held the Falcons to one score in a 27-7 Northern Lehigh win.

“I was happy with the way we came out tonight,” said Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout. “We really got off to a good start. I thought defensively we played lights out.”

Tout’s team scored on its first three possessions of the game.

The Bulldogs Keith Lectora took a handoff on the second play of the game and broke free up the middle for a 65-yard touchdown run.

Garrett Smoyer hit Colin Karetsky with a 5-yard touchdown pass to cap a 9-play, 62-yard drive and give Northern Lehigh a 13-0 lead.

Smoyer threw for another score on his team’s third possession, which finished a 10-play drive. Smoyer found Ryan Zambo with an 8-yard touchdown pass to take a 20-0 lead with 10:38 remaining in the first half.

Salisbury didn’t record a first down until its third possession of the game.

After going three-and-out on their first two possessions, the Falcons mounted long drives on each of their remaining possessions.

But only one of those long drives resulted in points.

Salisbury had the ball for over eight minutes in the second quarter, but it only got to the Bulldog 40-yard line before punting.

Salisbury opened the second half with a long drive that ended with a turnover on downs at the Northern Lehigh 25.

The Falcons (2-7) forced a Bulldog punt for the first time in the game before mounting their only scoring drive.

Salisbury used 11 plays to go 57 yards, with Jordan Tocci-Wachter scoring from 9-yards out to cut his team’s margin to 20-7 with 11:05 left in the game.

The Falcons forced another punt, but a Karetsky interception ended their next possession.

Northern Lehigh (6-3) took over with 5:04 left on the clock and finished the scoring on a 1-yard Garrett Smoyer touchdown with 8 seconds left on the game clock.

Northern Lehigh ran for 228 yards on 33 carries in the game.

Lectora led the Bulldogs with 88 yards on four carries, with most of it coming on the touchdown run.

Smoyer ran the ball 11 times for 73 yards while completing four of 12 passes for 50 yards. Grady Newhard added 44 yards on 12 carries.

Salisbury’s Jacob Watson, who took snaps in their wildcat look, piled up 80 yards on 12 totes. The Falcons ran for 125 yards on 44 carries. They threw just three passes and completed only one for 19 yards.

The Falcons have one game remaining in the regular season when they travel to Palisades Friday night.

The Pirates have already secured their Class 2A playoff spot.

The Falcons have a sizable lead over Pine Grove for the eighth and final playoff spot in Class 3A. The Cardinals (1-8) play Williams Valley (8-1) in their season finale.