Special to T102SportsNow.com

By Mike Haines, Lehighton Times-News

SALISBURY TOWNSHIP — Salisbury’s Jason St. Leger scored four touchdowns all of last season.

The senior running back is on pace to score a few more than that this season.

He found pay dirt three times in the Falcons’ 28-7 win over Panther Valley as his team is off to its first 1-0 start since 2019.

Get complete coverage of Panther Valley and all of the schools in the Times-News coverage area online at tnonline.com.

“This is the first time I’ve won a real game in a long time, scoring three touchdowns was great,” said St. Leger, whose team was 0-10 last year in the regular season.

The Falcons broke a scoreless tie with St. Leger’s first score, a 15-yard run in the second quarter that was set up by a 40-yard running back pass from teammate Derek Trinidad to Caleb Gonzalez.

St. Leger broke off a 60-yard run on the Falcons’ next drive to give his team a 14-0 lead with 1:16 left before halftime.

The Panthers had two long first-quarter drives, but only got into the red zone once in the first half. Their opening drive went 12 plays and took over eight minutes off the clock, but it stalled  with a turnover on downs at the Salisbury 22-yard line.

A 10-play Panther drive in the second quarter ended with an interception in Salisbury territory.

“We had a long opening drive that we didn’t score,” Panther Valley head coach Mark Lavine said. “Then they get us on two trick plays and I think we lost a little bit of our confidence and they gained a ton of confidence. Then they got the long run. We didn’t tackle great on the long run. Now we’re down 14-0 and we get back to this mentality that we can’t do it. That’s what we’ve got to overcome.”

Salisbury rode the momentum in the second half, scoring in two plays on its second drive after intermission when St. Leger broke free from 28 yards out for a 21-0 lead with 4:31 left in the third quarter. St. Leger finished with 118 yards on 10 carries.

The Falcons started their final scoring drive at the Panther 16-yard line after a recovering a fumble. Three plays later Trinidad scampered in from 6-yards out to make it 28-0.

“We’re an explosive offense,” first-year Salisbury head coach Kevin DiZenzo said. “We have a stout defense. When we started rocking and rolling it was hard to stop us.”

The Salisbury defense allowed 200 yards in the game, but with the help of some booming punts and deep kick offs from Joshua Hudak, it mostly kept the Panthers on their own side of the field.

Panther Valley mounted three drives of 10-plays or more, earned more first downs (14-11), possessed the ball a lot longer and ran more plays in the game than Salisbury. But the Falcons’ big plays were the difference, as well as the two PV turnovers to Salisbury’s none.

Salisbury put up 286 of offense, with 99 of those yards coming on two big plays.

“We let them have that momentum and they ran with it,” Lavine said. “I give them credit. They came to play today.

“We knew St. Leger is a heck of a player. He was a heck of a player on both sides of the ball tonight.”

St. Leger made several big stops for the Falcons, along with Trinidad, whose fourth-down stop on the Panthers’ opening drive helped set the tone for the game.

Panther Valley broke the shut out with a long fourth-quarter drive that went 68 yards and 13 plays. Quarterback Brody Breiner hit Gavin Yuricheck with a 4-yard pass to make it 28-7 with 1:21 left in the game.

Breiner went 9-for-15 with one touchdown and one interception for the Panthers. The junior also ran for 51 yards on 14 carries. Brady Jones caught six passes for 57 yards.

Game Summary

Panther Valley (0-1) 0 0 0 6 – 6

Salisbury (1-0) 0 14 7 7 – 28

 S – St. Leger 15 run (Hudak kick)

S – St. Leger 60 run (Hudak kick)

S – St. Leger 31 run (Hudak kick)

S – Trinidad 6 run (Hudak kick)

PV – Yuricheck 4 pass from Breiner (kick failed)