Last week’s theme for the Salisbury football team was about getting a little bit better each day. While the end result was another loss for the Falcons, the team showed signs up improvement in a 45-13 loss to Northern Lehigh.

“All week our theme was ability,” said Salisbury head coach Andy Cerco. “Ability is about getting one percent better, incrementally. Incremental improvement over time is the greatest power known to man. That was our goal this week. Every day we got one percent better.”

Northern Lehigh, a team that won a district title a year ago, had to work for every yard Friday night.

“On film, Northern Lehigh had an obnoxious amount of big plays,” said Cerco. “That didn’t happen tonight. They were frustrated and our kids did a good job on defense.

“We forced that team to do things they didn’t want to do. They had to go to different formations and change up what they wanted to do. They wanted to stay in two tight ends and they couldn’t do that because our kids played their tails off.”

Northern Lehigh (3-3) put on a clinic on its opening drive, which started at its own 37-yard line and ended over eight minutes later with senior Jack Tosh running into the end zone from four yards out. The Bulldogs converted twice on fourth down and twice on third down to keep the drive alive.

The Bulldogs’ next score came from their defense when Chris Frame returned an interception 35 yards for a14-0 lead in the first quarter.

Salisbury (0-6) nearly closed the gap to one score when it drove to the Bulldogs’ 5-yard line, but was stopped on fourth-and-three on an incompletion.

Frame went 68 yards on a screen pass from freshman Garrett Smoyer on the ensuing possession to give Northern Lehigh a 21-0 lead.

“The first drive, that was one like last year, where we kind of grinded a bit,” said Tout. “And then that (interception) was huge by Chris. Teams keep trying to go after him because he’s a freshman and they see his size (5-9, 155). But you come to a game you see what we see, which is the athleticism with the screen that he scored on. And he leads us in interceptions, but people are trying to go at him.”

Frame finished with three grabs for 108 yards, while Smoyer was 10-of-14 for 152 yards and two scores.

The first half ended with Chase Moffitt booting a 25-yard field goal to make it 24-6 after the Falcons’ Jason St. Leger broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown to get Salisbury on the board.

Smoyer hit sophomore Grady Newhard for a 30-yard TD on the first drive of the second half, and Bailey Smith came up with a pick to stop the Falcons’ first series.

Tosh powered in for his second score, this one from five yards out, on the next drive to push the lead to 38-6. After Northern Lehigh forced a three-and-out on the next Salisbury possession, Newhard (14 carries, 64 yards) capped an eight play, 29-yard drive with a 1-yard score to make it 45-6 with 0:35 left in the third quarter and bring the mercy rule into play.

The Falcons added another score when Derek Trinidad (11 carries, 147 yards) broke loose for a 68-yard touchdown with 2:36 to play in the game.

“They compete,” said Salisbury head coach Andy Cerco of his players. “They were really excited about playing football together. They just love playing the game of football. It doesn’t matter if we score a point or we score 60. I’m just really proud of our kids. They love playing football and they love being together.”