But nothing came easy for head coach Jake Burkholder’s team on Friday night at Charles A. Lawson Field.

The Trojans did enough to come out on top of a 15-10 slugfest, and now they sit alone in first place.

Sam Arrington Jr. scored on a 5-yard touchdown run with 10:19 remaining and Southwestern stopped three Warriors drives in the fourth quarter to improve to 4-1 overall and, more importantly, 3-0 in the division.

“I think our kids are battle tested,” Burkholder said. “This was another test that we were able to successfully get through.”

Salamanca’s Jesse Stahlman (47) rushes for yardage against Southwestern on Friday. P-J photo by Valory S. Isaacson

Next up for the Trojans is another home game against Fredonia (4-1, 2-1) next Friday night in West Ellicott. The Hillbillies, who lost to Salamanca last week, beat Silver Creek/Forestville at the Orange Bowl on Friday night and sit a game back of Southwestern.

“We had a lot of intensity this week,” senior Trojans co-captain Mitch Pike said. “The boys were working hard. We need to keep the momentum going.”

The Trojans held the Warriors to 13 yards on 25 rushes and forced three turnovers.

“It was a game of trying to find weaknesses, left and right, deep and short,” Salamanca head coach Chad Bartoszek said. “I think they were more physical than us up front and I think that set the tone.”

The Warriors had their chances down the stretch to make themselves the lone 3-0 team in the division, but each time the Trojans had an answer.

On fourth-and-8 from the Southwestern 45-yard line early in the final period, Maddox Isaac threw incomplete and turned the ball back over to the Trojans. Four plays later, Southwestern’s Jameson Walsh’s left-footed punt rolled out of bounds at the 1-yard line, forcing Salamanca to go 99 yards if it hoped to take the lead.

“That punt that Jameson had where he dropped it inside the 1, you can’t ask for anything better than that,” Bartoszek said. “Special teams were huge for us.”

Isaac completed a 41-yard pass to Jason McGraw and a 23-yard pass to Arlen Newark on the Warriors’ first two plays. Four plays later, on first-and-10 from the 20-yard line, a high snap sent Salamanca back to the 37-yard line. A personal foul on the Trojans moved the ball back to the 22-yard line, but the Warriors fumbled the ball away on a third-and-14 reverse well short of the line to gain.

“You’re still second-and-10 or second-and-12,” Bartoszek said. “You’ve got to make something happen.”

With 1:44 remaining, Southwestern was unable to run out the clock as Salamanca used all three of its timeouts and forced another Walsh punt. But with 1:16 remaining, on first-and-10 from the Warriors’ 48-yard line, Isaac dropped back to pass and was intercepted by Pike at the Trojans’ 30-yard line.

“My responsibility was a hook-curl. It was in the middle of the field,” Pike said. “I dropped and it just so happened that I was there. Right place, right time I guess.”

“He’s a heads-up player. He’s been playing backer and playing tackle,” Burkholder said of Pike. “To see a tackle make an interception at the end of the game … he wants to be a receiver. It looks like it paid off for him.”

Southwestern missed a 35-yard field goal attempt off the crossbar with 4:36 left in the first quarter, but was still able to score the first points of the game when Walsh powered into the end zone from 3 yards out with 10:08 left in the second quarter. The Warriors blocked the point-after kick, but still trailed 6-0.

“We knew what this was going to be. We were expecting a dog fight. It was going to be a close game,” Bartoszek said. ” … We knew we had to play a field-position game. We completely lost that game today.”

Salamanca didn’t get on the scoreboard until the final seconds of the first half. A 14-play, 62-yard drive ended on Newark’s 23-yard field goal as time expired.

The Warriors then stopped Southwestern on its first drive of the second half and were the beneficiaries of a fortunate bounce on their first drive of the second half. Isaac dropped back to pass and threw to Tayoni Galante over the middle, but the ball went off Galante’s hands as well as the hands of the Trojans’ Brody Larson before it was secured by McGraw, who raced 59 yards for the tying score. Newark added the point-after kick to give Salamanca its first lead at 10-9.

But the Warriors returned the favor on Southwestern’s next drive. On third-and-17 from the Trojans’ 35-yard line, Walsh threw deep to Cameron Lemk, who looked like we was well covered by a pair of Salamanca defenders, but somehow came away with the 41-yard catch to set up Arrington’s eventual go-ahead score.

“It was like ‘we just caught a break, let’s go.’ Then they came back and it’s a similar play,” Bartoszek said. “We’re very similar teams right now. I think both of us can make some noise and both of us are pretty dangerous.”

“This was like football from 30 years ago. It was a lot of running, a lot of physicality,” Burkholder said. “That’s a style of football that we haven’t played the last several years. That’s kind of the way today went and we were able to step up to the challenge.”

NOTES: Jesse Stahlman had 10 tackles, including two for a loss for Salamanca. … Pike had seven tackles and Colton Holbrook had six for Southwestern.

Salamanca 0 3 7 0 — 10

Southwestern 0 6 3 6 — 15

Sou–Walsh 3 run (kick blocked)

Sal–ArlNewark 23 FG

Sou–Hoose 29 FG

Sal–McGraw 59 pass from Isaac (ArlNewark kick)

Sou–Arrington 5 run (pass failed)