Not many people walked into Salisbury High School’s football stadium last Friday night expecting the Falcons to defeat unbeaten Saucon Valley.

By the time the third quarter was just getting started, some of those people started to believe that perhaps the Falcons could pull off the upset.

In the end, Saucon Valley’s running game was too much to overcome for Salisbury. Senior running back Ian Csicsek ran for 280 yards and five touchdowns as the Panthers (4-0) scored the final two touchdowns to halt the Falcons’ comeback, 41-27.

“I told our guys that I have no words to describe how their belief and their love for each other has grown tonight alone,” head coach Andy Cerco said. “We said before the game that the people walking into the stadium tonight are anticipating that team to come up here and the score will be 61-3.

“At Salisbury, we’ve got great kids, too. We’re so proud of them. We’ll go up against any team in the league. I think they showed that tonight.”

Saucon Valley’s explosive offense struck first, and three touchdowns on their first eight plays from scrimmage helped the Panthers take a 27-14 lead into halftime.

The Falcons, however, came out of the locker room and wanted to make a statement. Timmy Buda’s 3-yard touchdown run on Salisbury’s opening drive of the second half got the Falcons within 27-21 just 1:26 into the third quarter. Quarterback Jacob Kamp recorded a 65-yard run on that drive as well.

After a muffed kickoff return for Saucon Valley, the Falcons were once again in business. Kamp orchestrated a four-play scoring drive, capped by a 10-yard touchdown run, which tied the game at 27 after a blocked extra point.

“They got some big plays early,” Cerco said. “In a football game you’re going to have some good plays and bad plays. They are a good football team. They are going to have good plays and big plays. But we are a pretty good football team, too, and we are going to have some big plays. They believe in that.”

There would be an answer from Csicsek and the unbeaten Panthers. Csicsek ran for 40 yards on the next drive, and a 20-yard touchdown scamper put Saucon Valley back in front, 35-27, after a successful two-point conversion.

Salisbury failed to score on its next drive, and the Panthers wasted little time in building up their lead. Set up by a 76-yard run from Csiscek, Curtis Clifford scored from 13 yards out to put Saucon Valley in front 42-27 with 11:38 to play.

The Falcons drove into Saucon Valley territory on each of their final two drives. One got all the way to the 7-yard line in the final moments, but neither drive finished in the end zone.

“When you are playing an undefeated team and we have some things that go wrong in that area, it doesn’t help our cause,” Cerco said. “It doesn’t help our situation whatsoever. But our kids have a pretty good mindset and mentality that when things like that happen, it doesn’t matter. What are they going to do about it? They are doing a really good job of using their skills and moving on from that.”

In trying to keep up with Saucon Valley’s high-powered offense in the first half, which included three touchdowns from Csicsek, a number of costly miscues hurt the Falcons.

Of its six drives in the first half, the Falcons scored on three of those possessions. The only ones it did not execute on came when two snaps over Kamp’s head resulted in 17- and 19-yard losses on two different possessions to pin the Falcons into unfavorable downs. Another came on a lost fumble.

But the offense held its own against one of the top ranked attacks in the league. Kamp hit Buda on a 44-yard screen pass for a touchdown on Salisbury’s second possessions, and then Buda scored on a 44-yard run minutes later to get the Falcons within 21-14 after finding themselves in a 14-0 hole.

“We are going to see teams that do this pretty often,” Cerco said. “They are going to commit to our guys on the outside because they are pretty fast, so that opens up other things.”

One thing that opened up was Kamp’s ability to run the ball out of the read option. He finished with 120 yards on the ground, while Buda added 76 and his two scores.

Up next is a matchup against Notre Dame of Green Pond (3-1) on Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Notre Dame High School.