7/15/24
SCRANTON, Pa. – The Lackawanna College Athletics Department is pleased to announce the official 2024 Lackawanna College football schedule, ahead of the 32
nd season of varsity competition for the program.
It's another challenging slate for the regional power, as Lackawanna looks to improve on a strong 7-3 season last year. The schedule features five home games, a neutral site contest, and three home-and-homes with east coast squads.
Mark Duda, entering his 31
st year as head football coach for the Falcons, says the schedule will feature national and local teams.
"It (the schedule) is challenging to say the least. The combination of local and national teams makes it one of the toughest schedules in the country," said Duda. "Snow College from Utah, as well as home and away games with Sussex County, Georgia Military, and Monroe makes the level of competition even higher.
"We can't wait to get the season underway."
The Falcons will officially commence their summer work-outs and practice when the team returns to Scranton in the first week of August. Those work-outs and practices will eventually culminate with a home scrimmage at PenFed Field at Scranton's Memorial Stadium on Sunday, August 25
th. The scrimmage will be against the Howard Huskies Post Grad squad out of Cleveland, Ohio.
Lackawanna will then kick the season off, properly, with a home game against Jireh Prep on Saturday, August 31
st, at 1:00pm ET. Lackawanna beat Jireh, out of North Carolina, by a 47-16 score last season to start the year, in what was Duda's 200
th career victory.
Three of the first six games for the Falcons will be at home, with national power Snow College coming to town for a 7:00pm ET start under the lights on September 14
th, and rival Monroe College coming to town on October 5
th for a 4:00pm ET start.
Lackawanna will also play a neutral site contest against Division III opponent Louisburg College on September 7
th in Dumfries, VA, and will also take the road to take on Georgia Military in Milledgeville, GA, and Region XIX foe Sussex County CC in New Jersey on back-to-back weekends to close out September.
After a bye week, the Falcons get back to work with a home game against their local rivals Sussex on October 19
th. Lackawanna then hits the road for the next two weeks, traveling to Hocking College in Nelsonville, OH on the 26
th, and then a 4:00pm ET kick on November 2
nd in New Rochelle against Monroe College. Lackawanna wraps up the 2024 regular season with its home game contest against Georgia Military in a match-up that, traditionally, has crowned the best Division I team in the east.
Last year, Lackawanna College enjoyed a 7-3 record, the third straight season where the Falcons had won seven games, and the eighth time in the last nine seasons where Lackawanna College has won seven or more games. The Falcons were led by All-American running back
Terrez Worthy (Salisbury, MD), who led the country in rushing last year with 1,492 yards on the ground. Worthy became just the sixth running back in Lackawanna history to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season, and finished second all-time with 2,341 yards rushing in his career.
Apart from Worthy, Lackawanna will need to replace 2023 starting quarterback
Hamas Duren (Sicklerville, NJ), who threw for 1,974 yards and 23 touchdowns, third all-time for a single-season in Lackawanna College history. The Falcons lost a good chunk of their offensive line, including All-American lineman
Alex Fox (New Castle, PA), and the defense will need to replace several upperclassmen that started in the front seven.
The Falcons, who first kicked off as a program in 1993, have 210 wins in their history, and
Mark Duda has been the head coach for 206 of those victories, the most all-time amongst active NJCAA coaches. Duda, who started as the defensive coordinator in Lackawanna's inaugural season, took the reins as head coach in 1994, and has gone on to lead the program to a .500 or better record in 27 of his 31 years. Duda hasn't had a losing season since 2013.
The full 2024 schedule can be found
HERE.
***
