8/23/24
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – Lackawanna College women's soccer will begin its 2024 campaign on Saturday, August 24^th, as the Falcons host the Hagerstown CC Hawks at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore. Kickoff is set for 12:00pm ET. Admission is free to the public. The game will serve as the season-opener for both squads.
 
About the Falcons
Lackawanna College enters the season with hopes of competing, after a 2023 that saw the Falcons only get to participate in three games, due to low roster numbers. Lackawanna College returns a few players from last year's team, which did not score in all three games.
 
Midfielders Sandra Diaz-Torres (Scranton, PA) and Chelsea Huegel (Scranton, PA), as well as defender Pamela Paulino (Scranton, PA) are all returning starters from a year ago. Also back with experience is defender Sophia Mandarano (Dunmore, PA), who did not play last season, but participated with the Falcons in 2022.
 
With that handful of experienced players, the Falcons will rely on a young group of first-year players. Goalkeeper Lindsey Tasker (Clarks Summit, PA) will be in-between the pipes for the Falcons. Tasker stepped into goal for her senior season at Abington Heights HS and helped lead the Lady Comets to the PIAA state championship game. She can also play out in the field for the Falcons.
 
Other first-year players include defenders Annie Sullivan (Forest City, PA) and Emma Scalese. Scalese was an all-star defender for Holy Cross HS in Northeast PA and was a multi-sport athlete for the Crusaders.
 
Also joining the Falcons are midfielder Autumn Frederick (Etters, PA) and forward Melanie Shumway (Rome, PA). Frederick is a versatile mid, who can also play defense and even played forward in high school. Shumway was a goal-scoring forward for Northeast Bradford HS, where she was a perennial all-star and helped NEB to district playoff victories and a league title her junior season.
 
The head coach, entering his second year at the helm, is Daniel Badyrka. Coach Badyrka took over the program mid-way through the 2022-2023 scholastic year, rehabbed the program to be able to compete in a trio of games last year, and now believes his squad is ready to take a step forward. Badyrka spent the previous three years as head coach for the Dunmore HS girls soccer program. Under his guidance, the Lady Bucks won 19 games and made the District 2 Class A Semi-Finals in all three years. Before his time at Dunmore, Badyrka was an assistant coach for the Abington Travel Club and has worked at various youth levels in soccer for nearly 15 years.
 
About Hagerstown CC
The Hawks were 11-5-0 last season, in an up-and-down campaign. Hagerstown won its first six games, outscoring their six opponents by a 21-5 margin, then dropped three of its next four games, before turning around and ripping off another four straight wins. The Hawks stood at 11-3 heading into their final home game of the season, but a 4-0 loss to Harford CC stopped that momentum, and a shut-out loss to Montgomery College (MD) by a 2-0 margin ended the year early.
 
Hagerstown scored 40 goals, at 2.5 goals per game, and had 31 assists last year, scoring 77.5% of their goals from open play. The Hawks only gave up 20 goals on the year, an average of 1.33 goals per game against. Hagerstown outshot its opponents 256-to-147 last year.
 
The Hawks graduated or lost six of their seven goal-scorers from last year, including top-scorer Kadenn Martin. The returning scorer is Alexis Linetty, who scored eight goals and had five assists last season. Linetty had a pair of games last year where she scored two goals. Her best game came in a 5-0 win against Frederick in October, scoring a pair of goals and dishing out two assists.
 
Arial Crawford is a midfielder that returns this season, having recorded two assists last season. Rachel Haymes, a forward, is set to come back, with defender Braelynn Whetsell. Haymes had an assist, while Whetsell had two last season.
 
Otherwise, much like Lackawanna, the rest of the squad is made up of first-year players, including the options at goalkeeper, which will either be Erika Thompson or Michaela Shindle. In all, there will be ten new faces on the squad for Hagerstown.
 
Hagerstown's head coach is Clifton Williams, now in his eighth year with Hagerstown. Last year's 11-5 mark was the best record the Hawks have had under Williams. Williams, a Hagerstown graduate from 1985, has been the head coach since the start of the program. He previously served as a head coach at Lord Fairfax CC club soccer and was a volunteer assistant coach with the men's program at Hagerstown for three seasons. For nearly four decades, Williams has had a hand in the local soccer community to Hagerstown. He was a successful boys coach at Martinsburg HS, grew the Tri-County Soccer Club to a 30+ team, 500+ player organization, coached at the youth level and earned state-wide rankings in West Virginia, and has been a volunteer coach in soccer through many organizations. In his time at Hagerstown, Williams is 38-52-3.
 
The Match-Up
The match is the season-opening contest for both Lackawanna and Hagerstown CC to start the 2024 campaign. Things are scheduled for a 12:00pm ET kickoff on Saturday, August 24^th, at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore, PA. Admission is free to the public. There is also a PPV video livestream available via the Lackawanna College Athletics Network at lackawannafalcons.com/LIVE.
 
The Falcons will be back in action on Thursday, September 12^th, when they take on the Cougars from Lehigh Carbon CC in Schnecksville, PA. Kickoff is set for 2:00pm ET.