Two juniors lead Falcon offense
With the amount of offense that was lost from last season's team, the Salisbury boys soccer squad would have new leaders in the scoring department this year.
And as the Falcons have two regular season matches two go, it's been two junior forwards that have paid huge dividends on the scoring attack this season.
Through 15 matches, including 11 in the Colonial League, Connor Wagner leads the Falcons (11-4 overall; 7-4 in Colonial League) with a team-high 14 goals and one assist. His teammate, Danny Walters, has nine goals and seven assists on the season.
"I think we've done really well in spots," Salisbury head coach Mark Allinson said. "We lost, I think like 99 goals from last year in terms of seniors graduating and one junior who transferred.
"Connor and Danny have certainly stepped up. Certainly our midfielders are feeding them balls, but they're getting onto them and being able to finish them."
Both Wagner and Walters have taken on significantly greater roles than they occupied during last season's run to the Colonial League championship game.
"Connor was a reserve off the bench last year, and he did a phenomenal job as a sophomore," Allinson said. "We were expecting some good things out of him.
"Danny was a person that we had as a flank midfielder [last year]. He worked into the position that Joe [Reilly] vacated, and it worked out well. Both of them are very technical players and capable of scoring at will."
While the Falcons' hopes at reaching the league tournament were halted with last week's 4-0 defeat to Southern Lehigh, Allinson is certainly pleased with their season thus far. Brett Spencer has been one of those flank-midfielders feeding Wagner and Walters. He's tallied eight assists on the season.
Compared to past seasons, Allinson has been extremely pleased with the amount of depth the Falcons possess at a number of positions. Not only does that provide to be beneficial this season, but the outlook looking forward is positive as well.
"I don't think we've had a whole lot of depth in the years past and that's sort of been our Achilles' heel," Allinson said. "With this group of kids that we have, we're able to put some people in, and we don't really miss a beat that much."
The Falcons still have two league matches and one out of conference match remaining before districts begin in roughly two weeks. Until then, the Falcons will continue to take steps forward.
"That's what we're working for right now," Allinson said. "We've got a couple kids banged up a little bit. We'll have a little bit of a break and get those kids back. I'm happy with the way we've played.
"We're going to be seeing these AA teams that we've already played, and I'm happy with the way that we've played them."
Monday's match against Notre Dame-Green Pond was postponed until Monday, October 14, due to heavy rain.
The Falcons will next host Palisades on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The next day, the Falcons will travel to Brandywine Heights for a 7 p.m. start.