Sometimes even 100 minutes of play isn’t enough time to declare a winner on the pitch. Sometimes it’s not even enough to see either team score a goal.

That’s the position the Salisbury girls’ soccer team found itself in over the weekend as it hosted Minersville in a nonleague matchup. Despite out-shooting Minersville 20-10, both teams were held without a goal, leading to an 0-0 draw after two overtime sessions on Saturday at Salisbury High School.

“[Minersville] has a lot of players that play for premier teams out of Harrisburg actually, so they are a good team,” Babyak said. “They moved the ball well. I still think we dominated the game today. We just couldn’t finish. We’re going to work on that.”

The tie game one day after Salisbury opened the season with a 1-0 win over Notre Dame (East Stroudsburg).

A year ago, Minersville finished as the second-best team in the Schuylkill League. Blue Mountain was the only team that finished above Minersville, and the Lady Falcons had their chance against the Eagles on Tuesday with their third nonleague match to open the season.

Early on against Notre Dame East Stroudsburg, Salisbury found it tough to generate quality shots on goal. The Lady Falcons found more opportunities over the final 40 minutes, but if not for Rylee Donaldson’s penalty kick there could have been two ties marked up in the record book through two games.

“I don’t want to say it’s a good problem to have, but it’s a workable problem. It’s something we can fix,” Babyak said. “We have a lot of good things going on out there-defensively, through the midfield, and even offensively. There is a lot good movement out there, we just have to work a little bit more on how we generate shots.”

While there weren’t any goals against Minersville, Babyak saw steps in the right direction. There were solid opportunities on target, but Minersville goalie Marlena Purcell (12 saves) played a big part in keeping the Lady Falcons scoreless.

Not even three minutes into the second half, Salisbury’s Kelly Gardus had a solid attempt on goal that was saved by a diving Purcell. Not even three minutes later, Minersville had its best look at the net but Lady Falcon goalie Kyra Bruns (6 saves) dove on the ground to keep the Olympians scoreless.

The chances kept coming in the two overtime periods. In the final minute of the first session, Salisbury’s Caylin Meikrantz put a shot on the ground that was on target, but Purcell was there for another save. Donaldson had the Lady Falcons’ best shot on goal, a deep strike that hit the top right corner of Minersville’s goal but bounced out of harm’s way.

“I have to give credit to that goalkeeper, she was a very good goalkeeper,” Babyak said. “Having said that, our goalkeeper is just phenomenal. I’m very happy with the way she is playing.

“We generated a ton of shots. That’s a heck of a lot of shots. Now we have to get some of those converted. And we will.”

There may have been little offense through two games, at least in terms of scoring, but Babyak has seen plenty of bright spots across the field. One of the biggest improvements he’s seen has come on the back line for a defense that is replacing many of last year’s starters.

“Defensively we worked some things out today,” Babyak said. “Through the midfield we were working some things out. It’s not perfect. It’s a work in progress. But we’re going in the right direction.

“Don’t get me wrong, if we could have put a goal in I would have been ecstatic. But when I step back and think about this through the next couple of days like I will, I’m going to say there are a lot of positives and things to build on.”

After Tuesday’s match against Blue Mountain, Salisbury will get its league schedule underway with a 4 p.m. start at Pen Argyl on Friday.