10/19/24
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – Lackawanna College football was stellar on special teams and great on defense, as the Falcons took a 28-12 victory on Saturday afternoon at PenFed Field at Scranton's Memorial Stadium over Region XIX foe Sussex County CC.
 
The Falcons (5-2) didn't have their best stuff on offense, struggling at times to take advantage of short fields and only managing 79 yards passing for the day, but the defense held serve, holding a potent Sussex pass attack to just 115 yards and 157 yards of total offense, while holding the Skylanders (1-4) to just 4-for-16 on third down conversions.
 
Meanwhile, the special teams may have been the true hero unit for the Falcons, as Keegan Hughes (Scranton, PA) went 4-for-4 on field goals, including two beyond 40 yards, and Michael Hartshorn (Clarks Summit, PA) had four punts downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Even the return game was dangerous, with Carrington Nickens-Yzer (Centreville, VA) returning a punt to the 1-yard line to set up a score in the first quarter.
 
Hughes had four field goals, all in the first half, and hit a pair of kicks from 42 and 43 yards out to keep the offense scoring. Hughes finished with 14 points on the day, the second straight week where he scored 14 points for the Falcons. Galamama Mulbah (Levittown, PA) led the offensive attack, gaining 125 yards on 27 carries, while Maurice Edwards (Mundelein, IL) ran for 85 yards and a score. The Falcons rushed for 228 yards as a team, but managed just 79 through the air, all from Wyatt Hagan (Chantilly, VA), who threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Daryl Harper (Montgomery Village, MD) in the third quarter. Nickens-Yzer had two catches for 17 yards.
 
Defensively, linebacker Damonte Foreman (Elizabeth City, NC) led the way with eight tackles, three for loss and two sacks. His fellow backer, Andrew Marshall (Carroll, OH) had five stops, four tackles-for-loss, and two sacks on the day. Olyphant native Victor Holt had five stops and a pass break-up.
 
After the Falcons intercepted a pass at the Sussex 26 on the second play of the game, it seemed like Lackawanna was poised for an early score, but the Falcons went three-and-out, then fell short on fourth down to turn the ball back over on downs. The Sussex drive stalled out after an intentional grounding penalty, and the punt made it only to the Sussex 41, where Nickens-Yzer darted to his right and scooted down the sideline for 40-yards to set up Lackawanna on the 1-yard line. Edwards punched it in two plays later to make it 7-0, Falcons, with 11:50 to go in the first.
 
A Sussex drive deep in its own territory went three-and-out, and the punt only went 14 yards to the 19-yard line. Lackawanna couldn't cash in for a touchdown, however, and settled on a 42-yard field goal from Hughes that made it 10-0 at 9:11 in the first quarter.
 
A short kick was returned to the Sussex 43, and four straight rushes from the Skylanders had the visitors in business at the Lackawanna 32. A personal foul penalty because of a late hit moved the ball to the Lackawanna 18-yard line, and Sussex scored on the next play. The extra point was blocked by Chris Campanelli (Kenoza Lake, NY), and the Falcons led 10-6 at the 5:18 mark.
 
The teams traded possessions over the next few drives. Sussex had the ball at the Lackawanna 40 after a 28-yard pass play in the second quarter, but an illegal substitution, followed by a Marshall sack and a tackle-for-loss in back-to-back plays, had the Skylanders facing 3^rd-and-30 from their own 40, where they threw an incomplete pass and punted away.
 
The Falcons started a drive up 10-6 at 10:58 in the second from their own 39, working the ball down the field to the Sussex 4-yard line, but they were turned away on three straight plays, and settled for a 22-yard field goal from Hughes that made it 13-6 with 6:51 to play in the half.
 
Sussex faced a 4^th-and-2 at the Lackawanna 35 on the next drive, but Campanelli held the rusher to just a one-yard gain, turning the ball over to the offense. Edwards took a 3^rd down handoff and raced 44 yards to the Sussex 14 to get the Falcons in scoring position, but Lackawanna couldn't get a touchdown and settled for the third Hughes field goal of the day, this a 30-yarder, and Lackawanna took a 16-6 lead with 1:14 to play.
 
The visitors had a quick three-and-out and punted to Lackawanna, which had the ball at its own 32 with 35 seconds to go in the half. The Falcons drew two separate pass interference penalties that helped get the Falcons to the Sussex 25-yard line. With six seconds to go, Hughes trotted out for the 43-yard attempt. The right-footer took it from the right hash and buried the field goal, the longest of the season, making it 19-6 Falcons at the break.
 
The third quarter saw the Falcons winning the field position battle, but not scoring. Sussex kept starting deep in its own territory, while the Falcons were near midfield or even in plus territory on nearly every possession. A Lackawanna drive that started at the Sussex 35 ended in an interception in the endzone, but the Sussex defender inexplicably returned the ball out, pushed out of bounds at the four-yard line. Lackawanna got the next possession at the Sussex 49, but went three-and-out and punted away. Sussex was set to punt on fourth down on the next drive from its own 29, but the punter saw an opening and sped away to his right to stretch for the first down. Lackawanna defender Foreman tracked the punter and hit him a yard shy of the line-to-gain, giving Lackawanna possession at the Sussex 40 with 1:54 to play in the third.
 
The Lackawanna possession stalled at the Sussex 37-yard line, and the Falcons punted away again in plus territory, but the punt was down at the Sussex 1-yard line. The Lackawanna defense came after the Skylanders on the next possession, getting to the running back in the end zone on second down for the safety to make it 21-6 just before the end of the quarter.
 
The offense got the ball at the end of the third near midfield on the free kick, and started the drive into the fourth quarter with six straight rushes from Mulbah. Mulbah had a seventh carry that took the Falcons to the Sussex 22-yard line, and Hagan finally got himself going in the pass game on the third-down play, when he rolled to his left and hit Harper with a strike to the Sussex 3-yard line. Harper spun one defender away, juked another, and darted to his right into the end zone for the score, making it 28-6 at the 10:11 mark of the fourth.
 
Sussex used a three-minute drive that started at midfield to score in seven plays on a four-yard rush, making it 28-12 after a failed two-point conversion at 6:46.
 
The Falcons watched the onside kick sail out of bounds and started with possession at the Sussex 44-yard line, but Lackawanna was turned away and forced to punt, giving Sussex the ball on its own 20-yard line with 5:19 to go. The Skylanders threw an incomplete pass on 3^rd-and-4 from their own 26, then punted away to Lackawanna with 4:26 to go, hoping their defense would give them another chance at possession. The Lackawanna offense made sure that didn't happen, featuring Mulbah on six runs and even a passing play to move the ball inside the Sussex 20-yard line and run out the clock.
 
The win is the third straight for the Falcons, and it makes Lackawanna 6-0 all-time against Sussex County CC. Lackawanna now turns its attention to next weekend's opponent, Hocking College. Kickoff is set for Saturday, October 26^th, at 2:00pm ET in Nelsonville, OH.