Saturday football games aren’t a common occurrence for most high school teams, especially for Salisbury.

Last year’s lone Saturday game for the Falcons against Pen Argyl resulted in a 35-14 victory for the boys in blue and white. That game was played in rainy and cold conditions. Fast-forward to last Saturday, Week 3 of the Colonial League schedule, and the weather conditions were the exact opposite. But the hot, humid temperatures didn’t seem to have a big impact on the Falcons.

Salisbury (2-1) ran for 243 yards to defeat Wilson on Saturday afternoon, 31-21 at the Warriors’ Smith Field. The Falcons gained 143 of those yards in the second half.

“This was one of the worst games I’ve ever played in,” said fullback Eric Frankenfield, who scored two touchdowns. “Actually last year up in Pen Argyl it was the complete opposite. It was raining and it was probably negative five degrees. But then here on a Saturday, it was in the 90s, hot and humid.”

Despite the humidity and hot weather, Salisbury only seemed to get better as the game progressed. Leading 14-7 at halftime, the Falcons capped their first drive of the second half with a 2-yard touchdown from quarterback Cam Vaka. Not even three minutes into the fourth quarter, the Falcons’ lead was stretched to 24-7 after Oliver Stewart drilled a 30-yard field goal.

Wilson quarterback Ken Clark orchestrated a seven-play drive on the Warriors ensuing possession that resulted in a touchdown to cut Salisbury’s lead to 24-14. But it didn’t take long for the Falcons to respond. A six-play drive, which included rushes by CJ Wittman, Tim Buda, Christian Butz and Vaka, resulted in a 3-yard touchdown for Butz that gave Salisbury a commanding 31-14 lead.

“Any time you can get a win in the Colonial League it’s a positive for us because wins are tough to come by,” head Salisbury coach Andy Cerco said. “I don’t care who you’re playing. Week in an week out it’s a tough game.

“It’s about us and we know that we’re conditioned. That’s something that we take care of. We planned as a staff. We knew it was going to be really hot, and we planned substitutions early in the game so that some of our guys would be more fresh in the second half of the game.”

With two holding penalties and a lost fumble in the first quarter, Salisbury’s start to the game wasn’t necessarily what Cerco had hoped for. But the Falcons did enough to hold a 14-7 lead at halftime. And it had a lot to do with Frankenfield.

Frankenfield busted through the line on the first play of the second quarter for two yards to get Salisbury on the scoreboard with an early 7-0 lead. After Wilson running back Job Goobman scored on a 13-yard touchdown to even things up, Frankenfield went untouched from 17 yards out on Salisbury’s ensuing possession to make it a 14-7 advantage.

“This was a big game for us,” Frankenfield said. “It was a tough one last week [against Northwestern]. We went into the half leading 5-0, and then we just took our foot off the gas a little bit. We knew coming into this week that they’re a really good team. They were one play away from beating Palisades.”

Palisades, meanwhile, beat Northwestern last Friday, which shows how much parity there is this year in the Colonial League. The one main difference between the Falcons’ last two games was their ability to convert in the red zone.

“Last week we had a lot of good chances, and we just couldn’t convert them,” Frankenfield said. “All week in practice we knew that we had to finish drives. If we’re getting good field position, we have to be able to punch it in.”

Salisbury converted all five of its red zone trips against the Warriors. Another positive was the balanced rushing attack Salisbury possessed, led by Wittman’s 71 yards on 11 carries. Buda added 60 yards on seven attempts.

Wilson tacked on a touchdown in the final three minutes to get within 31-21.