9/25/25
SCRANTON, Pa. -- Two teams in search of some positive momentum will meet in a veritable must-win for postseason bowl eligibility on Saturday, September 27th, as #15 Lackawanna College football will travel to take on #13 Snow College under the lights in Utah.
Kickoff is set for a 7:00pm MST start, 9:00pm EST, from Stoddard Field at Terry Foote Stadium in Ephraim, UT. Live coverage will be on the Snow College Badgers YouTube channel, linked
HERE. Tanner Wilikinson will have the play-by-play, while Greg Sterner will provide the color commentary.
Full Game Notes |
Watch |
Live Stats
Saturday's clash is the seventh and final edition between the Badgers and Falcons at the junior college level. It's a rivalry that started in 2019, and the only game that has been played every year since for the Falcons. Snow leads the series 5-1, winning the last five match-ups in a row, including a thrilling 43-40 victory in Scranton last September. That was a game that featured 755 yards of combined offense, 52 first downs, and 83 points It had five lead changes, including three in the final quarter. Snow trailed 33-22 with 1:30 to go in the third, then scored twice to take a 36-33 lead with 5:27 to play. Lackawanna answered with a touchdown drive with 56 seconds left to pull ahead 40-36, but Snow took advantage of a Lackawanna penalty on the ensuing kickoff and marched down the field for the game-winning score with seven seconds left. Read the full recap
HERE.
#13 Snow College (2-2) has two losses in September for the first time since 2019. The Badgers own wins over the Utah Islanders and Highland CC (KS) on the road, but they fell to then #8 Tyler JC by a 26-12 margin at home on September 4th, then lost again in a heartbreaker to Army JV, 31-29, in triple overtime at West Point on September 15th. Snow had led that game 16-6 initially, and took a 23-16 lead with five minutes to go, but Army marched down the field and scored on a 33-yard run to tie the game with 2:30 to play. Snow had a chance to potentially win in regulation, using a long pass play to get into field goal range at the ten-yard line with 24 seconds to go, but the game's first turnover, a fumble, came on the next play as Snow tried to run the football. Army recovered and kneeled it out to overtime. After trading field goals through the first two periods, Snow started on its two-point attempt in the third OT. A handoff was dropped, Army scooped it up, and the Black Knights returned it 97-yards for the walk-off two-pointer. Fans from Lackawanna certain remember how tough it is to play at Army JV, as the 2021 team escaped with a 35-33 win on a last second touchdown pass.
Snow is coached by Zac Erekson, now in his fifth season in charge of the Badgers. Erekson took the Badgers to the national title game in his first year, the spring 2021 season. He got the Badgers to the national semi-finals in 2022 and has won at least seven games in each of his first four seasons. Before his time at Snow, Erekson was the AD and head football coach at Skyline HS in Salt Lake City. Before that, he had spent eight seasons coaching high school football in Texas, most notably as the head coach at 5A Abilene Cooper in Abilene, TX. An accomplished high school athlete in Springville, Utah, Erekson played one season at Dixie State before graduating and transferring to Brigham Young, where he was a receiver on the 2006 Mountain West championship squad. Erekson is 43-12 in his time at Snow.
#15 Lackawanna College (2-1) took its first loss of the season last weekend, dropping a 49-34 decision at then-#8 Georgia Military College. The Bulldogs racked up nearly 480 yards of offense and scored 34 points through the first two quarters of play. Lackawanna managed to hang tough thanks to stellar play from quarterback
Jacob Tiberi (Smyrna, DE), who threw for 261 yards on the day and connected with receiver
Carmelo Taylor (Roanoke, VA) for a 69-yard touchdown pass right at the end of the half to make it 34-21 at recess. Running back
Hassan Akanbi (Winchester, VA) had a drive where he carried the ball eight times for 54 yards and a score to get the Falcons within six at 34-28 in the third quarter. GMC answered on a 67-yard swing pass for a touchdown to make it 42-28. The Falcons closed within a score early in the fourth at 42-34 on a
Riley Guiffre (Brooklyn, NY) 19-yard scamper, and they had the ball with a chance to tie with just under six minutes to go, but a fourth-down gamble didn't work, and GMC scored to stretch the lead back out to 49-34.
Lackawanna is coached by the legendary
Mark Duda, now in his 32nd season as the head football coach, and 33rd season overall with the Lackawanna College football program. Duda has 215 all-time wins in his tenure, the most among active coaches and third all-time in NJCAA history. Duda has had five undefeated, untied regular seasons at Lackawanna, including the 2018 squad that went 11-0 and defeated Arizona Western in the El Toro Bowl. Duda led the Falcons to a 2019 National Championship appearance against Mississippi Gulf Coast, where the Falcons fell 24-13. He has coached over 20 players that have signed professional contracts to play football, and there are currently seven active Lackawanna alumni either playing or coaching in the NFL, including two former players who went on to play in the secondary together at Penn State: Jaquan Brisker (Bears) and Ji'Ayir Brown (49ers). Duda made a name for himself with the 1979 Wyoming Valley West "Mad Dog" defense and went on to play college football at Maryland, where he set a then-school record for career sacks. He was drafted to the NFL by the then-St. Louis Cardinals and spent six years in the league. He was hired as the defensive coordinator for the Lackawanna Junior College football program ahead of the 1993 inaugural year, then took over as head coach in 1994, leading the Falcons to their first of 13 postseason bowls.
While Saturday's game isn't exactly a must-win, both teams would like a win for a shot at postseason play. Lackawanna risks being left out of any postseason conversations with a second loss at this point, especially given that Lackawanna's games against ranked opponents are limited. After Snow, the only other Division I ranked squad that the Falcons will face is Georgia Military on November 8th. Lackawanna does also play DIII #1 College of DuPage, the four-time defending national champion, at the end of the year. Still, two straight losses to ranked opponents could knock the Falcons out of the national rankings and severely hamper their postseason dreams. Snow, meanwhile, does have more opportunities against tough opponents, but the Badgers can likely kiss postseason play goodbye if they picks up a third loss before the calendar turns to October.
Lackawanna College is finally back home on Saturday, October 4th, when the Falcons are scheduled to host their rivals, the Monroe University Mustangs, at 4:00pm ET at PenFed Field at Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium. It'll be the first of two games between the two sides this season.
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