Box Score 9/2/23

SCRANTON, Pa. -- Hamas Duren tossed four touchdown passes and Terez Worthy scored two more to help Lackawanna College football overcome five turnovers and give head football coach Mark Duda his 200^th career win in a 47-16 season-opening victory over Jireh Prep Post Grad on Saturday afternoon at PenFed Field at Scranton's Memorial Stadium.
 
The Falcons (1-0) suffered from five turnovers and multiple penalties throughout the afternoon, which let Jireh Prep (0-1) hang around and certainly make a game of it, but the Falcon offense stepped up when it needed to, and the defense harassed the Bandits in the backfield time and time again to keep them off balance.
 
Worthy (Sophomore; Salisbury, MD) went for 130 yards and two scores, while Duren (Sophomore; Sicklerville, NJ) passed for over 200 yards and four scores, while also tossing a pair of interceptions. The Falcons put up over 400 yards of total offense, but both teams combined for over 30 penalties n the game.
 
The scoring started early, when Worthy broke loose on the third play from scrimmage for a 61-yard touchdown run down the right sideline, putting Lackawanna in front just under 80 seconds into the game. The Falcons defense forced a punt, got a good return to the Jireh 24-yard line, then cashed in with a third-down 20-yard touchdown pass to Maxwell James (Sophomore; Burke, VA) to double the Lackawanna lead barely three minutes into the game.
 
The Bandits responded on their next drive, taking advantage of a Falcons penalty and a 50-yard pass play to get inside the Lackawanna ten-yard line. Jireh would bang through a 22-yard field goal to cut into the lead at 14-3 with just under 12 minutes to play in the first.
 
Both teams traded punts, but the Jireh punt was fumbled by Lackawanna trying to return it, giving the Bandits new life at the LC 48. A pair of 15-yard penalties on the Falcons moved the ball down around the 20, and Jireh cashed in with a nifty 22-yard touchdown pass in the left corner of the endzone to cut the deficit to 14-10 with under seven minutes to go, still in the opening quarter.
 
A promising Lackawanna drive was cut down inside the Jireh Prep ten-yard line, where the Falcons fumbled the ball for their second turnover. A sack from Antonio Alfano (Sophomore; Colonia, NJ) pinned Jireh Prep at its own one-yard line, but Cyncir Bowers took a swing pass 53 yards into Lackawanna territory, completely flipping the field. The Bandits wasted their opportunity, however, a few plays later, when Ambrose Fletcher (Sophomore; Bethlehem, PA) intercepted a pass at the Lackawanna 12 and returned it out to the 32-yard line. Lackawanna wasted little time, when Duren (Sophomore; Sicklerville, NJ) whipped a pass downfield to Kyree Hinton (Sophomore; Somerville, NJ) on an out-pattern and Hinton spun away from his defender, taking the 20-yard pass and turning into a 66-yard touchdown strike to make it 21-10, with 18 seconds left in the first quarter.
 
The Falcons tacked on another touchdown in the second quarter when Dewayne Johnson (Sophomore; Greensboro, NC) capped a solid drive with a 22-yard touchdown to extend the Falcons lead 28-10 early in the second frame. Lackawanna would get several opportunities to try to cash in, but Duren was picked off twice on drives that reached the Jireh Prep red zone.
 
The Bandits opened the second half with an impressive drive that was capped by an explosive 39-yard run from Bowers, who avoided an Alfano tackle in the backfield, buckled another Falcons defender's knees with a shimmy, then rocketed out to the left side and down the sideline for an impressive touchdown. The extra point missed, but just over three minutes into the third, it was 28-16.
 
Lackawanna re-asserted itself on the next drive, marching downfield against the Bandits and capping the drive off with a nine-yard rush up the middle from Worthy to make it 35-16 with just under 9:30 to play in the third. After the defense forced a punt, the Falcons moved the ball down the field again, capping an impressive drive with a three-yard touchdown pass to third-string tight end Jaehlan Joyner (Sophomore; Burlington, NJ) to push the lead to 42-16 Falcons with over three minutes to go in the third.
 
Through the rest of the game, the Falcons started cycling in some fresh faces, and managed to force a safety on an intentional grounding call in the endzone three minutes into the fourth quarter, before tacking on a Benjamin Paserk (Sophomore; Batavia, NY) 22-yard field goal to make it 47-16 with around 2:20 to play.
 
The win gives Mark Duda his 200^th career victory in his 30 seasons as head football coach for Lackawanna College, and gets the 12^th-ranked Falcons off to a 1-0 start on the 2023 campaign. Lackawanna College returns to action next Saturday, September 9^th, when the Falcons travel to Chesterfield, VA for a neutral site contest against Louisburg College. Kickoff is set for 5:00pm ET at L.C. Bird High School.