The Salisbury football dropped its third game of the season, 48-12 to Jim Thorpe last Friday night in Carbon County.

The Falcons struggled on offense the entire game and didn’t cross the goal line until late in the fourth quarter when quarterback Nick Beck plunged in for a touchdown from two yards out. The scoring drive was set up by a 65-yard pass play from Beck to wide receiver Josh Brooks.

The Falcons scored again on the last play of the game when Jason St. Leger returned a kick off 75 yards for a TD. Derek Trinidad led the Falcons’ rushing attack with 70 yards and Brooks caught two passes in the game for a total of 71 yards. Beck completed six passes for 96 yards in the defeat that left Salisbury with a record of 0-3 this season.

After the game, Falcon’s coach, Andrew Cerco challenged his team to come together and play better.

“It starts with everybody being coachable at practice,” he told them in the postgame huddle. “Everybody needs to contribute for us to get better.”

Cerco then pointed to the scoreboard and then to his team and said “That doesn’t change if this doesn’t change.”

The Falcons host the Crusaders from Notre Dame (Green Pond) next Friday night at 7 p.m.

The Crusaders, which lost to Jim Thorpe in last year’s District 11 Class 3A semifinals, are 2-1 this season. They opened with a 41-34 win over Saucon Valley and followed that with a 29-28 loss to Southern Lehigh before rolling over Tamaqua last week, 41-26.