Despite last week’s shut-out loss that dropped Salisbury to 2-6 this season, the Falcons still took some positives away from the game.

Head coach Andy Cerco said most of his players gave a good effort and performed their roles successfully. But in football, all 11 players need to fulfill their assignments or the result will look like last week’s 28-0 loss to Northern Lehigh.

“Consistency in our blocking wasn’t there,” said Cerco. “We have three or four guys executing their blocks and one guy comes off his block. It’s just inconsistency in blocking. The reads were there. The quarterback made good reads tonight. Our offensive line improved. It’s just a story of missing one or two here or there.”

The Falcons moved the ball on a couple of drives as one stalled at the Bulldog 28-yard line after going 60 yards in 12 plays. They also had an early drive go 41 yards in 10 plays before ending with a field goal attempt, which was derailed by a bad snap.

The Bulldog defense had a lot to do with Salisbury’s offensive woes. Bulldog head coach Joe Tout called it his team’s best defensive effort of the season. Northern Lehigh kept Salisbury from making big plays. The Falcons had only two plays go for more than eight yards. One went for 10, the other was their biggest gain of the game, a 15-yard pickup by Tim Buda. Salisbury rushed for 106 yards on 40 carries, which is an average of 2.65 per carry.

Defensively, the Falcons were in position to make plays, but the slippery Northern Lehigh running backs found a way to gain yardage.

When Salisbury tried to stack the box and stop the run, Northern Lehigh spread out its offense and put the ball in quarterback Tekoah Guedes’ hands.

He carried the ball six times and completed two passes on an eight-play drive that was capped by his 16-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.

“The way they loaded up against us early, going spread was our answer,” said Tout. “[Guedes] made a lot of plays tonight. He did a nice job. He’s getting better week in and week out.”

The Bulldogs (3-5) made it 14-0 with a seven-play drive that was capped by Mason Seiler’s 3-yard scamper with 5:42 left in the first half.

The Bulldog defense was just getting settled in. After allowing the Falcons three first downs on their first drive, Northern Lehigh didn’t allow another the rest of the half.

“Best game by far,” Tout said his defense’s effort, adding that stopping the Salisbury flexbone offense is a tough task. “Every film we saw of Salisbury, they moved the ball.”

Salisbury (2-6) managed just 123 yards of offense and was averaging 19 points per game. It was the Bulldogs’ first shut out of the season.

Northern Lehigh made it 21-0 when Guedes found Damion Rodriguez behind Salisbury’s defense for a 70-yard touchdown pass with 8:06 left in the game.

Guedes completed five passes on 11 attempts and finished with 126 passing yards.

The Bulldogs capped the scoring when Austin Hemingway picked off a Cameron Vaka pass and ran it 62 yards for a touchdown and a 28-0 lead with 3:30 left to play.

Falcon head coach Tony Cerco thought his defense played well, but Northern Lehigh’s offense played better.

“We were maintaining our gaps and they were finding the smallest crease,” he said of the Bulldog running game. “They did a great job. They’ve got some good running backs. They’re a good team.”

Northern Lehigh did not turn the ball over and committed just one penalty in the game.