Salisbury knew it wanted to get out to a quick lead. Much like its 15-point lead against Bangor earlier in the week, the Lady Falcons understood just how important a fast start would be in Friday’s game against Palmerton.

It turns out that game plan proved to be true. Salisbury scored the game’s first eight points, led 17-3 after just the first quarter, and held off Colonial League foe Palmerton the remainder of the contest. The Blue Bombers (1-3 overall; 1-2 in Colonial League) couldn’t crack Salisbury’s double-digit lead the rest of the way as the Lady Falcons (3-2, 2-1) routed Palmerton, 49-27, on Friday at Salisbury High School.

“Getting that first quarter-lead is always what we want to get, so we can keep that lead throughout the game,” senior Caylin Meikrantz said.

The win came just days after a tough 42-34 defeat to Bangor in the Colonial League opener, a game in which Salisbury was in full control for the first two quarters. Now, the Lady Falcons sit 2-1 in the Colonial League in the early going after back-to-back wins against Northern Lehigh (48-23) and Palmerton.

“The first half we played, we were up by 15 I think,” Meikrantz said of the Bangor game. “We had the momentum and we were playing really well in the first two quarters. I think our confidence kind of dropped a little when they started scoring more, and we weren’t finding opportunities and our shots weren’t dropping. We were struggling as a team. So it was good to finally get a good game back.”

Meikrantz, who recorded a career-high in the team’s season-opener, played a big part in helping Salisbury jump out to that key early advantage. She scored 10 of her new career-high 26 points in the opening frame against the Blue Bombers, including a 3-pointer with two seconds to go that ended a 17-3 spurt.

“I was really excited for this game,” Meikrantz said. “We definitely played really well as a team. We found openings and created good opportunities, which was really our main goal.”

Junior Sarah McGee hit a 3-pointer late in the second period to give Salisbury a 24-8 lead at intermission. The Falcon offense continued to flow into the final 16 minutes.

Salisbury scored six of the first eight points in the third to hold a comfortable 30-10 lead, and Kelly Gardus hit the first of two 3-pointers that made it 37-13.

The Falcons took a 37-17 lead into the final eight minutes and held a comfortable double-digit lead the rest of the way. In addition to Meikrantz’s 26, Salisbury got a balanced scoring effort with nine points from McGee and eight from Gardus.

“Definitely having multiple scorers is good,” Meikrantz said. “And playing well as a team and getting those scoring opportunities.”

The win helped Salisbury keep pace early in the season with the top teams in the league.

“Definitely going 2-1 in the league right now is a good confidence booster going into the next few games and the next Colonial League teams that we play next,” Meikrantz said.

Salisbury dropped Monday’s game against Notre Dame (Green Pond), 27-22. Up next is a road game at Moravian Academy (4-1 in Colonial League) on Thursday and a game against Saucon Valley next Tuesday. Tipoff against Moravian is at 7 p.m.