8/18/25
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – The preseason poll has arrived for the 2025 NJCAA Division I football season, and Lackawanna College slots in at #12 in the top 15 squads to begin its final season in the junior college ranks.
 
The Falcons finished 2024 at 7-3, with their only three losses coming to national semi-finalist Georgia Military College (2x) and #6 Snow College by a combined ten points. Lackawanna College either held a lead in the fourth quarter or had a chance to win the game in each of those contests. In 2026, Lackawanna College will transition to a four-year athletic institution and compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in the NCAA Division II.
 
Last year's national champion Hutchinson CC is the top team in the land to start the year, while runner-up and former two-time defending national champion Iowa Western comes in at second. Hutch overcame a late loss to Butler CC last season to make the playoffs, knocked off #2 Georgia Military College, then beat the Reivers, 28-23, in the national title game.
 
Georgia Military slots in at #5 in this year's preseason poll, fresh off a 2024 campaign that saw the Bulldogs go 10-2 and host an NJCAA semi-final contest.
 
Another semi-finalist from last year, Northwest Mississippi CC, is third in the preseason rankings this year, while Navarro College, which enjoyed a 9-2 record last year, gets a #4 ranking.
 
Snow College, which rallied to beat Lackawanna in Scranton last year with less than a minute to play, is #6 in this year's preseason rankings. Garden City CC, Copiah-Lincoln CC, Tyler JC, and Mississippi Gulf Coast round out the seven-through-ten rankings.
 
This season for Lackawanna College will see the Falcons face at least four highly-ranked teams. The first one will come on September 20^th, when Lackawanna travels to take on #5 Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, GA, where Lackawanna College has not won since November 2021. Lackawanna will get a home game against the Bulldogs later in the year on November 8^th.
 
The other early ranked contest comes for Lackawanna on September 27^th, when the Falcons hit the road to Ephraim, UT for one last clash with #6 Snow College. That game is set for a 9:00pm ET kickoff. Snow has not lost to the Falcons since dropping a home game in 2019, where Lackawanna won 17-10 on its way to a national championship game berth.
 
The fourth and final game against a preseason ranked opponent will see the Falcons face the four-time defending national champion College of DuPage, the Division III powerhouse, in the home and regular season finale on November 15^th. DuPage, ranked #1 in the preseason Division III poll, has gone 40-6 over its last four seasons, winning four-straight Division III national championships at the Red Grange Bowl. This will be the first time since 2017 that Lackawanna College and DuPage have linked up.
 
One year ago, Lackawanna College had four All-Americans, including offensive lineman Christian Bundra (Northampton, PA), kicker Keegan Hughes (Scranton, PA), long snapper Aron Reinhardt (Reading, PA), and linebacker Andrew Marshall (Carroll, OH). The Falcons had a nearly-1,000 yard season on the ground from Maurice Edwards (Mundelein, IL), who ran for 978 and eleven scores. Quarterback Wyatt Hagan (Chantilly, VA) threw for almost 1,600 yards and had 20 touchdown passes, while receivers Daryl Harper (Montgomery Village, MD) and Michael Hodge (Richmond, VA) had 40 and 34 catches, respectively, with Harper hauling in six touchdowns and Hodge going for a team-best 559 yards.
 
On defense, the trio of Marshall, Gene Townsel (Richmond, VA) and Nyair Graham (Camden, NJ) were very productive, leading the team in tackles from their linebacker spots. Marshall had 59 total tackles and 13.5 tackles-for-loss, along with 6.5 sacks. Townsel had 55 total tackles and ten TFLs, while also posting four fumble recoveries, a blocked kick, and a safety. Graham had 45 total tackles, 13.5 tackles-for-loss, and 3.5 sacks.
 
This year's Lackawanna squad returns receivers Carmelo Taylor (Roanoke, VA) and Christian Harrison (Temple Hills, MD) as their two top offensive threats. Taylor only played in six games last year, but had six touchdowns on just eleven catches and averaged 32.6 yards per catch. Harrison had eleven catches a season ago, which included six grabs and three scores in two of his final three games. The Falcons also bring back Jamal Jefferson Jr. (Euclid, OH), who switches from defensive back to wide out, giving LC a solid core of capable receivers.
 
Lackawanna will have a new signal caller, as well as a new back toting the rock. The only returning backs with any game experience are a pair of Garden State backs, Bernardo Henry (Maplewood, NJ) and Joseph Bivins (Barnegat, NJ). Transfer quarterback Jacob Tiberi (Smyrna, DE) looks to be the top option at QB1, but Lackawanna has a stable of capable QBs to throw in the mix. Up front, Jason Hoskins (Dover, DE) is the only returning offensive lineman with playing experience at Lackawanna College.
 
Defensively, safety Victor Holt (Olyphant, PA) returns, after posting 32 total tackles, 4.5 TFLs, and six pass break-ups. Linebacker Micah Brown (Stafford, VA) returns and will look to step into a more significant role on the defense. Brown had 17 tackles and 2.5 sacks a year ago.
 
Otherwise, it will be plenty of new but talented faces filling the gaps for Mark Duda's 32^nd season in charge.
 
Lackawanna College has one scheduled preseason scrimmage, set for Wednesday, September 27^th, at 7:00pm ET against Lycoming College at PenFed Field at Scranton Memorial Stadium. The season kicks off for real on Saturday, September 6^th, when the Falcons host Sussex County CC. That game will start at 1:00pm ET.
 
The full preseason rankings from the NJCAA Football Committee are below:
 
NJCAA Preseason Division I Football Poll 8-18-25

Rank	Team	Region	Pts.	1st Place Votes
#1	Hutchinson CC (KS)	6	150	12
#2	Iowa Western CC (IA)	11	140	0
#3	NW Mississippi CC (MS)	23	122	0
#4	Navarro College (TX)	14	117	0
#5	Georgia Military (GA)	17	106	0
#6	Snow College (UT)	18	105	0
#7	Garden City CC (KS)	6	87	0
#8	Copiah-Lincoln CC (MS)	23	68	0
#9	Tyler Junior College (TX)	14	64	0
#10	Mississippi Gulf Coast (MS)	23	47	0
#11	Kilgore College (TX)	14	46	0
#12	Lackawanna College (PA)	19	41	0
#13	Butler CC (KS)	6	30	0
#14	Trinity Valley CC (TX)	14	26	0
#15	Iowa Central CC (IA)	11	23	0