It's not always easy to find positives in a 58-14 loss. But during parts of Friday night's loss to undefeated Catasauqua, Salisbury looked like a football team that could compete with the league's top times.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, more of the time they looked overmatched by the Rough Riders athleticism.

"There were positives in this game," said Salisbury head coach Andy Cerco. "Offensively we were able to move the ball at times. We've got to be better in our techniques. Effort wasn't lacking. It was about being in the right spot and doing the right thing."

No team in the league this year has slowed down the Rough Rider offense. Ra'Von Burton tore up Salisbury's defense for 212 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries. He also returned a kick 94 yards for a score.

On most of his long runs, the Falcons seemed to have him contained but failed to get him wrapped up and brought down.

"They have some good players," Cerco said. "We did not tackle well, which will be a focus of practice this week. It always is. We do some drills to work on trying to cage and athletic player. There were points in the game when we did that and [Burton] was tackled."

Salisbury proved it could move the ball on the opening drive of the game.

The Falcons made a couple first downs and moved the ball to the Rough Rider 24-yard line before turning it over on downs.

Catty took over and scored four times on its next five possessions. Salisbury's only defensive stop in the first half came when Devin Irwin picked off a Zach Bradley pass in the first quarter.

Catasauqua scored quickly throughout the first half. The Roughies' first two touchdown drives were three plays each, covering 76 and 61 yards, respectively. Their next two touchdowns came on one-play drives.

Salisbury got on the board with 10:04 left in the second quarter. Troy Parton's 85-yard kick off return put the Falcons five yards from the end zone. It took Shane Wittman two carries to hit pay dirt and cut into the Catty lead.

Burton's return touchdown made it 35-7 before the Falcons put together another touchdown drive.

After Irwin returned a kick off 62 yards to the 28-yard line, the Falcons took four plays to get to the end zone. Wittman scored from 10 yards out to make it 35-14 with 7:51 left in the first half.

The Salisbury defense came out and got its first stop of the game, thanks in part to a Teddy Denver sack on first down.

The Falcons seemed to have a bit of mementum before Catty's Jacob Stopay returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown and pushed the lead up to 42-14.

The Roughies added a safety with 2:51 left in the first half and another one-play drive for a touchdown that made it 51-14 with 2:36 left in the second quarter.

Wittman led the Falcons with nine carries for 38 yards.

"We have a lot of backs that are fairly equal," said Cerco. "Shane had a really good game. At that point in the game our offensive line was getting on some people and our perimeter people were getting on some people."

Despite the lopsided score, Cerco saw his team battle the league's best team until the final horn.

"Our kids never gave up and that's a positive. All the way through until the end our kids were out fighting and playing hard.

"Our starters fought the whole game and they've got some good players. It was tough to match up with them."