There were congratulations being offered on the field. Hugs between coaches, players and others soon followed an emotion-filled atmosphere on Friday night at Southern Lehigh High School.

There was also the exchange of the historic Helmet from Southern Lehigh Athletic Director Kate Miller over to the Falcons, a prized possession that hasn’t been back to Salisbury’s confines since 2009.

Salisbury (7-3) used a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive to overtake Southern Lehigh (7-3), 24-20, to cement the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Class AA playoffs. A Tevon Weber-to-Nick Sikora 14-yard touchdown, their second scoring connection of the game, put the Falcons back in front with 43 seconds left on the clock, a lead they would never relinquish.

“It means everything because for the past few years I’ve always wanted that helmet,” Weber said after going 9-of-22 for 181 yards. “And finally doing it, finishing the game and getting the win, it’s awesome. I’m so happy right now.”

Momentum seemed to swing over to the Spartans in the fourth quarter. Despite being without wide receiver Ethan Price for the entire second half with an injury, the Spartans used an 11-play drive late in the fourth, capped by Steffen Lindsay’s 4-yard touchdown, to put them ahead for the first time at 20-17.

Three plays into Salisbury’s final drive, the Falcons looked dead in the water. But after an overthrown pass, Weber being tackled on the line of scrimmage, and a pass resulting in negative yardage, Weber’s heroics were on center stage.

“I tried to step up in the pocket, and I got hit,” Weber said. “I turned around and the kid had me by my feet. I just tried to stay up with all of my might, and once I got up I saw CJ [Wittman] with a little bit of space. I chucked it up and he made a play.”

But in the midst of Salisbury’s first win over their heated rivals since 2009, some will say there was controversy on that fourth down chuck. Television replays show that Weber appeared to be down and should have been down by contact on a 4th-and-12 play in which he used an incredible individual effort to evade a Spartan pass-rusher and keep a drive alive with a 32-yard strike down the field to Wittman. Four plays later, Weber was at his mastery once again, keeping a play alive despite being draped by another Spartan defender. His 14-yard flick pass to Sikora helped the Falcons retain a lead after falling behind for the first time just two minutes prior.

Even if Weber had been called down, there would have been around two minutes left on the clock, with timeouts at Salisbury’s disposal to stop the clock.

In the end, give credit to a team in Salisbury that prides itself as a unit that plays until the whistle is blown. One wasn’t on that miraculous Weber throw, and the Falcons’ signal caller put together a play that won’t be forgotten for quite some time.

“I don’t know if I have words to describe his [Weber’s] play,” head coach Andy Cerco said. “That’s all I have to say about that-guts, heart, determination and excellence.”

“The kid is amazing. I can’t say enough about him.”

Shortly after it was Sikora plunging over the goal line.

“He told me he was going to release out late,” Weber said. “I went through all of my reads, and he is my last one. Once I went through all of my reads and everyone was covered, there was a guy on me so I just tried to keep him off me with one hand. I saw Nick with a little bit of room.”

“I knew we didn’t have much time left, so it was a last-minute effort,” Sikora said. “I just tried not to go down and tried to put it in for us.”

In a game in which many expected an offensive shootout, points were hard to come by in the opening half. After Southern Lehigh punted on its first possession, return man Devin Irwin raced 45 yards into Spartan territory. Weber hit Mason Donaldson on a 23-yard touchdown strike three players later for his first of three passing scores.

The teams traded punts on the next four possessions before Southern Lehigh got on the scoreboard with 30-yard field goal early in the second half.

Salisbury, in particular, struggled to muster any rhythm offensively in the first half. Besides that opening drive, the Falcons were forced into three consecutive three-and-outs, followed by a turnover-on-downs on the next possession, and finally a kneel down to end the half. It was the defense the held stout all game long.

“We had to bring pressure the whole time,” said Sikora, who plays linebacker and recorded two sacks of Spartan quarterback Blake Levengood. “They have really hard running backs, and they run the ball tough. We just had to get after them and make plays. That’s what we did.”

After Donaldson hit a 44-yard field goal in the opening minutes of the second half, Levengood helped Southern Lehigh tie the game at 10 all with a 1-yard score midway through the third quarter.

Salisbury responded less than a minute later on Sikora’s first score, catching a 21-yard throw from Weber down the middle of Southern Lehigh’s defense. That put the Falcons ahead 17-10 with 5:13 to play in the third.

The Spartans’ next drive stretched three minutes into the fourth quarter. Another field goal got the Spartans to within 17-13, and six minutes later they took their first lead.

“It was like a roller coaster,” Cerco said. “You know how people love going on roller coasters, that’s what it was like. It was a fun game to coach. This is a great, competitive game at this point in time. Our kids do a great job. I can’t say enough about our players.”

“It’s been a long time,” Sikora said. “I haven’t beat them in my high school career, so that was a first. We’re very proud of that.”