Like all coaches, Salisbury girls soccer head coach Rick Babyak doesn’t like giving his team the end-of-the-season speech. He’ll be able to put that speech off a bit longer this year than previous years.

Despite falling in last week’s District 11 Class 2A championship against unbeaten Pine Grove 1-0, Salisbury had at least one more game on its schedule. And the Falcons earned one more after qualifying for the state tournament via a 3-1 win over Dunmore, District 2’s second-place team, on Saturday.

Salisbury’s victory over Dunmore qualified the Lady Falcons for the PIAA tournament for the first time in program history. Caitlin Hoeing scored the first two goals, and Caylin Meikrantz put the final tally on the board in cementing their trip to states.

While Salisbury wasn’t able to secure its first district title last Tuesday at Emmaus High School, the Falcons will be moving on to an unfamiliar stage this week.

“It’s a bittersweet thing,” Babyak said. “We had two chances for championships this year, and we fell short on both of them. But as I settle down and look at this over time, it’s going to look like a great thing they achieved.

“It’s November and we’re still playing. We’re still practicing. Something is right if you’re playing in November.”

Their opening round game in states was on Tuesday against District 4 champion Montoursville. Results were not available at time of press. The winner will play again on Saturday in the quarterfinals.

In looking for its first district crown, Salisbury played Pine Grove to a scoreless match over the first 60 minutes. But it only took one slight mistake from the Lady Falcons that helped Pine Grove take advantage of the game.

Stephanie Aungst crossed a ball into Salisbury’s 18, and Mariah Lesh was there to get a foot on the ball and position it past Lady Falcon goalkeeper Kyra Bruns. That tally came with 18:20 remaining on the clock, and while the Lady Falcons certainly had their chances, there would be no late equalizer.

“They do a short corner, we don’t cover it well enough and they put that ball across,” Babyak said. “You get a broken play and there is a goal. That’s the difference in a one-goal game.”

“We definitely played nervous in the first half. We gave the ball away too quickly. Defensively I thought we were strong, we just gave the ball away after we won the ball away on defense.”

Although it did get off to a stagnant first half, Salisbury had plenty of opportunities over the final 40 minutes of the district title game. Just 11 minutes after Pine Grove went in front 1-0, Donaldson launched a deep free kick that flew just inches over the crossbar.

Donaldson positioned a solid cross in front of Pine Grove’s goal with less than three minutes to play for Salisbury’s second great opportunity in nine minutes. Her pass, however, trickled through a crowd of players and no Lady Falcon could get a shot on goal.

“Donaldson had a great crack and I thought that was going to slide under,” Babak said. “Towards the end she played a ball across here…people were moving towards that ball and we just didn’t the shot off unfortunately.

“Second half we got better with the offense. We started getting a little more confidence, but still not as good as we can play. And give them credit because they put us off-balanced.”

Pine Grove punched its ticket to states with the win as District 11’s top seed. They faced District 1 champion St. Basil on Tuesday as well in the first round of states.