The 2024-25 boys basketball season had one major hurdle that Salisbury just couldn’t get over.

That hurdle came in the form of Saucon Valley.

Twice in the regular season and then in the quarterfinal rounds of both the Colonial League and District 11 playoffs, Saucon Valley came out on top in games against the Falcons.

The 14-10 overall record would look much different had even just a couple of those games gone in the Falcons’ favor.

Salisbury graduated just one senior from last year’s team in Josh Holler. The rest of the team returns for the 2025-26 season after it won a Lehigh Valley High School Summer League Small School title in August.

Leading scorers Steven Lozada (13.8 PPG) and Drew Petrie (11 PPG) return to lead the offense in their senior seasons along with Bryan Gonzalez and junior Julian Makhoul who also added some offense and could be in a position to step into bigger roles on the offense.

“We had success last year in the regular season, but we came up short in the postseason,” said Falcon head coach Jason Weaver. “I think this is a team that is going to advance in the postseason and that we should be able to win some playoff games and see where we go from there. That’s the next logical step for this team.”

The loss of Holler will be felt primarily on defense, which took another hit when the team lost Keaton Frye, who he suffered a broken leg on the football field.

Frye gave Salisbury a talented player who did a lot of the little things on the court that don’t always show up in box scores. His loss leaves Weaver looking for somebody to step up into a bigger role.

“That’s something that we’re going to have to adjust to and some other guys are really going to need to step up,” said Weaver. “Maybe it will be some guys coming off the bench that maybe aren’t going to start for us who we can look to for some of that production.”

Makhoul started last season as a sophomore and could be poised for a bigger season this year. Fellow juniors Garrett Leiner and Reilly Cady had nice summer league seasons for Salisbury and could find time on the court this season. Junior Mason Soria is also in line to see some time on the court for Salisbury.

Weaver is stressing communication. His team has the athletic ability to run an up-tempo style of play, but that also requires communication, something that slipped at times last season

“In order to play the type of game that we want to play,” said Weaver, “the communication and the talking needs to be there. We want to push tempo a little bit, but to do that, you have to fill spots on the floor, and you have to talk. You have to communicate. We have been working on improving that.”

As for Saucon Valley, Weaver isn’t shying away from any competition this season.

“Four straight times they beat us, so we would like to get them again in the playoffs,” he said. “They’ve lost a lot, but I would love to see them again. In the district game especially, we were winning most of the game and lost in overtime. These guys are hungry this year, which is cool, so we won’t shy away from facing them again.”