It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.

After clinging to a two-point lead at halftime, Palmerton dominated the second half against Salisbury, en route to a 35-14 Colonial League victory on Friday night.

“Credit goes to our offense, moving the ball and establishing the running game,” said Bombers head coach Chris Walkowiak. “Aaron Stasko obviously had a good game, Lucas Heydt was doing a good job managing the game for us in the first half (at quarterback), and Cody Waterhouse had a big run.”

It was a tale of two halves for the Falcons, who opened up the game with a 13-play, 55-yard scoring drive. But the Bombers answered right back after a quick-four play drive. On Palmerton’s first offensive play of the contest, Tanner Burnett took a 37-yard handoff. Stasko eventually capped off the drive with a 16-yard scamper.

Later in the second quarter, Heydt tossed a pick-six to Delano McKenzie, which gave the Falcons a 14-8 advantage.

But on the very next play from scrimmage for Palmerton, Waterhouse took a handoff and went 60 yards for a score. Yet again, the Bombers threw a counter-punch.

“They have athletes all over the place tonight,” Walkowiak said of Salisbury. “They had our attention all week. We challenged our athletes to rise to the occasion this week, because I think we have a good crew of them too.”

And the Bombers took all of that momentum into halftime, as they would outscore the Falcons by a 19-0 margin across the final two periods.

Jordan Nelson checked into the game after halftime for Palmerton and was an immediate difference-maker. On the Bombers’ first play of the third frame, he ran for a 21-yard gain. Stasko then started the party with a 60-yard touchdown run of his own, which put his team up 22-14 early in the third frame. He finished with 125 rushing yards.

“That’s our offense,” said Walkowiak. “We have one ball and a bunch of athletes to get it around. We just spread it around to whoever we can, and they make the play; that’s the concept of our spread offense.”

Then, the Palmerton defense looked like a different team.

Immediately after Stasko’s big run, the Falcons put together a 12-play drive and attempted a 27-yard field goal, only to have it blocked. On Salisbury’s next possession, Kyle Killiri broke off a 34-yard run, deep into Bombers’ territory, with his team trailing by just one score. But Stasko had different ideas.

Before Killiri finished his run, Stasko stole the ball away from him, and before you knew it, Stasko made a few moves and bursted back to the Salisbury 16-yardline.

“I hit him and my hand kind of slipped right on the ball and I pulled it out,” Stasko said of the huge takeaway. “From then on, it was kind of playground football and I took it a far as I could.”

Two plays later, Nelson scored from 11 yards out to make it a 29-14 Palmerton lead, and the Bombers delivered a pair of game-changing plays within a minute of each other.

On Salisbury’s ensuing drive, Nelson intercepted quarterback Quintin Stephens, and then scored on a 17-yard run for the game’s final score. Nelson only played the final two quarters, but he was a clear difference maker on both sides of the ball.

“We’ve been playing through a lot of adversity through the year, through a bunch of difference things,” Walkowiak said. “I’m proud of my kids; coming off a tough loss last week. They could have really hung their heads, but it was big to get the seniors a win tonight.”

UP NEXT

… Palmerton has a rivalry game with Northern Lehigh to close out the regular season.

SENIOR NIGHT

… The Bombers got a win on their senior night. “Sometimes they drive me nuts, but other than that, I love them at the end of the day,” Walkowiak said with a laugh. “They’ve been here all four years, and rarely miss doing anything we needed them to. We asked everyone to play hard and get a win tonight for them. Every senior that goes through this program means a lot for us.”