9/10/22
 
NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Despite another sluggish performance on offense, Lackawanna College got the points it needed in the second and third quarters, and the defense made it stand up, as the 13^th ranked Falcons came away with a 28-13 victory against their rival Monroe College on Saturday afternoon in New York. 
 
The Falcons (2-0) were less than impressive on offense, getting outgained through the air (196 to 27) and overall (238 to 175). Monroe (0-2) had a 35:53 to 24:07 advantage in possession, but the Falcon defense made them work for every yard, going 2-for-13 on third downs, forcing three punts and four fourth down stops, and holding the Mustangs to just one touchdown in five red zone attempts. Ultimately, the special teams for the Falcons were the difference, as twice Lackawanna used big kick returns to get into field position, and a bad snap on a Mustang punt attempt put them in good field position for another score.
 
Barry Brown finished 6-for-16 for just 27 yards, a career low, but he also had a touchdown, which moved him to a tie with David Pindell (2015-2016) for most all-time touchdown passes in Lackawanna College history at 31. Brown also had 54 yards rushing on seven carries with a touchdown. Terez Worthy (Salisbury, MD) had four carries for 56 yards and a touchdown, and Jordan Sellers (Paterson, NJ) added 13 carries for 38 yards and a score.
 
Lonnie Rice (Philadelphia, PA) led the defense with five solo tackles, seven overall, and a tackle-for-loss. Kealey Davis (Woodbridge, VA) had a team-high 2.5 tackles-for-loss, all sacks, and four total tackles, while Avanti Lockhart (Sinking Spring, PA) and Ambrose Fletcher (Bethlehem, PA) each had six total tackles for the Falcons. Overall, Lackawanna had nine tackles-for-loss, and five sacks. The defense held Monroe to just 42 yards rushing on the day.
 
Monroe got a solid return to start the game, getting the opening kick and taking it all the way to the Falcons' 49-yard line. A 14-yard run, followed by three straight completions, had the Mustangs with a 1^st and 10 at the Falcon 13-yard line. Lackawanna had Monroe in 3^rd and 15 from the 18-yard line, but a pass interference put the ball on the three with a fresh set of downs for the Mustangs. Backed up to the end zone, the defense did what they do best, corralling runners and not giving anything easy, forcing a 4^th-and-goal from the two-yard line, where Monroe decided to kick a 20-yard field goal to make it 3-0 after an almost eleven-minute opening drive.
 
On their first possession, the Falcons found success on the ground, helped by a galloping Brown 33-yard run down the left side, but Lackawanna stalled out at the Monroe 20, losing yardage on fourth down and turning the ball over. The Falcons forced a punt on the next Monroe possession, and the offense had it back, but a 3^rd and 5 completion at the Lackawanna 30 ended in disaster when the receiver fumbled, and the Mustangs recovered and returned it to the Lackawanna 15. That gave the defense another chance to show their worth, holding on at the start of the second quarter to force another field goal.
 
Trailing 6-0 at the start of the second quarter, Worthy raced down the left sideline on a 52 yard return before getting tackled at the Monroe 40. The Falcon ground game methodically moved down the field to the Monroe 20, before Brown connected with Worthy for 12 yards to give Lackawanna a first-and-goal at the Monroe 8. Brown would connect with Justin Thompson (Ambridge, PA) for the 8-yard score, knotting the score at 6-all with 9:55 to go in the first half.
 
Lackawanna would tack on another score when Monroe, punting on 4^th and 3 from its own 32, had a snap go through the hands of the punter and skip back to the 18-yard line, setting the Falcons up in the red zone. An unsportsmanlike penalty on the Mustangs put the Falcons with 1^st-and-goal at the 9, and it took two runs from Sellers to put the Falcons up 12-6 with just over 7:30 to play in the half.
 
The Falcons had another opportunity when, after a three-and-out, followed by a kick-catch interference call on the ensuing punt, put the ball at the Monroe 40 with 5:53 to go in the second. Lackawanna got it to the Monroe 29, but couldn't get any further, turning it over on downs after an incomplete pass.
 
In the third, the Falcons took a short kickoff to their own 47 to start the second half. Worthy then ran for 36 yards, and followed that up with a 17-yard burst to the end zone, his first touchdown of the season. Brown's rush attempt for two made it 20-6 just over one minute into the half.  
 
Monroe responded with its best drive of the game, going 65 yards in ten plays before Ernest Blackshear ran in from the one-yard line. After the extra point, the score stood at 20-13, Falcons, with a little over ten minutes to go in the third.
 
James Westry (Newark, NJ) immediately put the Falcons back in scoring position, when he returned the kickoff 69 yards to the Monroe five-yard line. The Mustangs pushed the Falcons to fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line, and initially looked to have the Falcons bottled up, but Brown broke out to his left side and scooted just inside the pylon for the touchdown. Brown hit Thompson on the 2-point conversion to stretch the lead to28-13 with a little over eight minutes to go in the third quarter.
 
Monroe had another stellar drive in the making on the ensuing possession, taking the ball all the way to the Lackawanna six-yard line, but the first play of the fourth quarter was an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal, giving the Falcons a massive boost.  
 
Backed up into the shadow of their own goalposts, the Falcons, for the second straight week, put together a crucial drive that ate up nearly eight minutes of time, pushing the ball all the way out to their own 41-yard line before being forced to punt away.
 
With 7:03 to go, and still trailing 28-13, the Mustangs went back to work at their own 21-yard line, and immediately moved the ball on a 15-yard pass play, but a Davis sack, one of five total sacks from the Falcons on the day, put Monroe in a 2^nd and 17 situation. The Mustangs got it to 4^th and 6 at their own 40, but another incomplete pass turned the ball back to the Falcons with 4:20 remaining, but Lackawanna gave it right back on a bad snap on second down, when the ball skipped on the turf and eluded Brown, allowing Monroe to scoop it up and return the ball to the Falcon 36-yard line.
 
Trailing by two scores with 3:43 to go, Monroe again tried to mount a drive. A nine-yard run made it 3^rd and 1, but a sack by Jay Wright (Glassboro, NJ) knocked Monroe back to 4^th and 10. The Mustangs converted on a crossing route that put them on the Falcon 14-yard line. But, again, as they had done all afternoon long, the Lackawanna defense stood firm, forcing three incompletions and a two-yard loss on four downs, giving the ball back to the offense to kneel it out for the win.
 
#13 Lackawanna College moves to 2-0 on the year, and is now within two wins of the 200-win plateau as a program. The Falcons now lead the all-time series with Monroe 7-3, and will host the Mustangs later this year on October 29^th at Scranton's Memorial Stadium.
 
The Falcons will continue their road trip with a ride down south to take on another old rival of theirs: Georgia Military College. The Bulldogs are 2-0, with wins over both Monroe and ASA Miami, and were ranked one spot in front of Lackawanna, at 12^th, in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) polls. Kickoff is set for 1:00pm ET at Davenport Field in Milledgeville, Georgia.