Falling behind by 14 points early in Saturday’s game at Pen Argyl wasn’t part of Salisbury’s plan.

But plans change quickly in high school football games. The Falcons remained calm despite the adversity and quickly turned the game around. By halftime they pulled into a tie. When the final horn sounded, Salisbury celebrated a 35-14 win and a 3-2 record at the halfway point of the season.

“When we were down 14-0 it was tough,” said wide receiver Mason Donaldson, who caught five passes for 54 yards and a touchdown against Pen Argyl. “We have a bunch of people on our team who are leaders. Everybody looks up to certain kids – our quarterback, tight end, running back. When they’re on the sidelines and they’re able to say stuff, it’s just a matter of keeping our heads up and staying in the game. If we stay in the game and we play our game, we’re good to go.”

The Knights (0-5) scored on their first possession, a 13-play drive that took six minutes off the clock. They made it 14-0 just two plays later when Logan Ruppert picked off Tevon Weber’s pass and took it 28 yards for a touchdown to give Pen Argyl a 14-0 lead with 3:34 left in the first quarter.

Weber threw another interception on the Falcons’ next possession, but the Salisbury defense got a stop.

After the Knights converted each of their first five third downs, Donaldson deflected a pass in the end zone on Pen Argyl’s sixth third down of the game. Then Devin Irwin and Nick Sikora came up with a sack to end the Knights’ drive.

Salisbury got the ball back at its own 28-yard line and five plays later Alex Kubinec found an opening and raced 30 yards for Salisbury’s first touchdown.

Salisbury’s next drive started at Pen Argyl’s 37-yard line after Kubinec blocked a punt.

The Falcons (3-2) needed just five plays to get into the end zone as Shane Wittman ran eight yards to pay dirt to make it 14-14 with 59 seconds left in the first half.

“When our offense clicks it’s really hard to stop,” said Wittman. “We have threats everywhere. We have multiple running backs. We have a receiver on track for 1,000 yards.”

And those offensive weapons are all dependent on their quarterback getting them the ball, which Weber did effectively on Saturday.

The senior signal caller shook off the interceptions and went right back to work. He completed his next six passes and led the team to a win. He finished the game with 85 passing yards and a touchdown on 8-for-13 passing.

“I’m extremely proud of our team,” said Salisbury head coach Andy Cerco. “We have great leadership. We talk about everyone being responsible for leadership. That spreads throughout our program. That starts at the top and spreads to everybody else. We put a lot of time and effort into talking to our players about being leaders and what that means and the different character traits that are required to be a leader.”

Salisbury came out of haftime ready to put the game away. On the Knights’ second play of the half, CJ Wittman picked off an Jake Holden pass. Two plays later Irwin broke a 53-yard touchdown to give his team a 20-14 lead less than a minute and a half into the third.

After allowing the Knights to convert on six of eight third downs in the first half, the Falcons didn’t let them convert one on three second-half possessions. They allowed just one Pen Argyl first down and the Knights went 0-for-3 on third downs.

“The defense, we looked good for once,” said Shane Wittman. “It was rough some other games. We held a good team to 14 points. I’m happy about that.”

“The defense played awesome,” said Donaldson. “Those first two touchdowns we gave up were just mistakes. That happens. After that it was awesome to see how everybody turned it around. The defensive line played a heck of a game. The kids were getting in the backfield. That opened it up for the linebackers. The linebackers had an amazing game.”

Salisbury started its next possession at the Pen Argyl 40-yard line. It took seven plays for Weber to find Donaldson for a 4-yard touchdown pass. He then hit Wittman for the two-point conversion pass and the Falcons held a 28-14 lead with 6:42 left in the game.

After forcing another three-and-out, Salisbury got the ball on its own 29-yard line and drove 71 yards in nine plays, capped by Wittman’s 9-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring. “After it was 14-0, there was nothing that could stop us,” said Donaldson.

Irwin led the Salisbury offense with 72 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. Kubinec had 66 yards and a score on seven carries. Wittman ran 10 times for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

The Falcons move above .500 for the first time this season and are second in the District 11 Class AA rankings with five more games to play. They’ll have a chance to solidify that position over the next few weeks as they’ll face Northwestern and Northern Lehigh. Those two teams are just behind Salisbury in the Class AA rankings.

“We like being 3-2,” said Donaldson “But then again those two losses still sting. We know we could have played better in both those games and it stings us every day. We remember those every game. We like where we are, but we know that’s not where we should be.”

Salisbury’s only two losses this season came against undefeated teams in Saucon Valley and Notre Dame (Green Pond). The Tigers and Bulldogs are also 3-2 with losses to those same two teams.