Box Score 9/21/24
 
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – In a game that featured plenty of offense, the #7 Georgia Military defense got two straight crucial stops with a late fourth quarter lead, denying Lackawanna College football its chance at an upset on the road in a 40-35 defeat of the Falcons on Saturday afternoon at Davenport Field in the Georgia heat.
 
The #13 Falcons (2-2) had already gone three-and-out on their previous possession when the Bulldogs (4-1) hit a 59-yard touchdown to re-take the lead at 40-35. So, with 7:45 remaining, Lackawanna hoped to mount a season-defining drive. But the Falcons went a quick three-and-out. After the Falcon defense held up its end of the bargain on the next drive, the offense got the ball again, this time at its own seven, with 5:22 to play. A defensive pass interference on third down moved the ball to the Lackawanna 22, but a sack on third-and-eight set the offense back, and Lackawanna punted away. GMC would force the Falcons to burn all three of their timeouts on defense and rushed ten times in a row to run the clock out for the win.
 
It was a game where Lackawanna came back from two separate 13-point deficits and held three separate one-point leads. The third time the Falcons took the lead came early in the fourth, when Wyatt Hagan (Chantilly, VA) found Galamama Mulbah (Fairless Hills, PA) in the corner of the endzone for a seven-yard score with 13 minutes to play. GMC would re-take the lead six minutes later on a pass-play down the right side, where the running back stiff-armed a Falcons defender on his way for a 59-yard touchdown. A missed two-point conversion kept it at 40-35, giving Lackawanna an opening with 7:45 to play, but the GMC defense was unfazed, denying the Falcons the chance at the road upset.
 
Hagan finished 23-for-25 for 235 yards and three scores. Maurice Edwards (Mundelein, IL) ran 27 times for 93 yards and two touchdowns against the rugged GMC defense. Receiver Daryl Harper (Montgomery Village, MD) had ten catches for 100 yards and a touchdown, while Michael Hodge (Richmond, VA) had six grabs for 73 yards. Both Mulbah and Edwards had touchdown grabs.
 
Defensively, Andrew Marshall (Carroll, OH) led the way with eleven total tackles, five solos, and a tackle-for-loss. Gene Townsel (Richmond, VA) had seven tackles, including three solo stops, and Nyair Graham (Camden, NJ) had six tackles, three solos, and a tackle-for-loss.
 
Like last week's loss to Snow, Lackawanna fell behind early in the first quarter. Georgia Military got a big kickoff return near midfield to start the game, then scored three plays later on a 28-yard run up the middle to take a 6-0 lead less than two minutes in.
 
Military would score 41 seconds later, after the Falcons fumbled the ball away on their own 13. The Bulldogs recovered at the ten, then ran in from ten yards out to make it 13-0, not even three minutes in.
 
The Falcons mounted a 12-play, 78-yard drive that was capped by a Hagan pass to Maurice Edwards (Mundelein, IL) to make it 13-7. A second score happened a few minutes into the second quarter, when Lackawanna marched from its own 39 to the GMC 5, where it faced a fourth-and-three. Initially, Lackawanna settled for three points, but a running-into-the-kicker penalty moved the ball an extra yard-and-a-half. The Falcons gambled with a fourth down rush, converted, then scored on a two-yard dive from Edwards to take a 14-13 lead with eleven minutes to go in the second.
 
GMC, aided by 30-yards in Falcons' penalties, scored on a 35-yard touchdown run 58 seconds later, reclaiming a 20-14 lead, which would hold into halftime.
 
The Bulldogs intercepted the Falcons on the third play of the second half, then scored on an acrobatic 10-yard catch in the left corner of the endzone to go ahead 27-14 just 2:30 into the third. A personal foul penalty on the celebration made it so GMC kicked off from its own 20, and the Falcons' Jamal Jefferson, Jr. (Euclid, OH) returned it 34 yards to the GMC 39. One play later, Edwards exploded up the middle for a 39-yard touchdown run, and the deficit was cut to 27-21 with 12:13 remaining in the third.
 
Jefferson made another play on the subsequent defensive series, picking off a second-down pass at the Lackawanna 46 and returning it to the GMC 30. The Falcons faced a fourth-down, but an eleven-yard pass to Daryl Harper (Montgomery Village, MD) moved the chains. Two plays later, Harper caught a pass over the middle, darted towards the sideline, and streamed down the left side for an 18-yard score, giving Lackawanna a 28-27 lead with seven to play in the third.
 
Just like the last time they fell behind, the Bulldogs responded quickly. A solid kick return to midfield set up GMC, and the Bulldogs converted on a wild third-down play. The quarterback Chip Cooper darted to his right and seemed, initially, to be held for a short gain and a third-down stop. However, Cooper pitched the ball backwards to the waiting arms of his running back, who sprinted down the right sideline for a 48-yard touchdown, putting GMC up 34-28 with 5:56 remaining in the third.
 
Later, a Lackawanna drive that started in the third ended early in the fourth, when Hagan found Mulbah for the seven-yard touchdown, giving Lackawanna its final score and lead at 13:04 to go, and setting up the dramatic finish for Georgia Military.
 
Lackawanna will look to pick up the pieces with a rivalry match-up next weekend, as the Falcons travel to nearby Newton, NJ for the Region XIX clash with Sussex County CC. Kickoff is set for 1:00pm ET on Saturday, September 28^th.