Lycoming hosts TCNJ in college football opener today | News, Sports, Jobs

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
Lycoming’s Terrence Oliver (7) outpaces a pack of Widener players into the end zone during a game last fall. The Warriors open the 2025 season by hosting TCNJ today at 1 p.m.

When Lycoming coach Mike Clark addressed media and panelists during this year’s Landmark Conference media day in early August, he noted that at a Lycoming sponsored golf outing over the summer, 200 golfers turned out and two courses were used for the event.

It showed the amount of support in the Williamsport area for the Lycoming College football team. This is Mike Clark’s 18th year as coach of the Warriors and he knows how passionate those fans are, be it former players or just Lycoming football fans.

And because of that, he knows how disappointed fans were after a 4-6 campaign in 2024 and a fifth-place finish in the Landmark Conference (2-4).

“People care. We haven’t met up or delivered a standard that us, our families, the college, can be proud of,” Clark said. “We’re going to do those things. We’re going to be a better team on and off the field. It’s cliche, but we’ve re-established some expectations this season and we’re going to be better. We’re going to be better across the board.”

Last year wasn’t great for Clark and the Warriors, who opened the year 2-4 before playing well down the stretch. But last year was last year. It’s 2025 and the team’s focused on the season in front of them, and that begins Saturday with a home game against TCNJ at 1 p.m.

TCNJ came in ranked fourth in the New Jersey Athletic Conference preseason poll this year, behind only Salisbury (1), Christopher Newport (2) and Rowan (1). This year TCNJ has a new coach in Tyler Moody, who enters after a 14-year run with Stonehill College where he was the offensive coordinator the previous nine seasons.

The Lions were 6-4 last year and averaged 32.1 points per game. Much of that success came from Jayson Schmidt at running back (1,071 yards, 13 touchdowns) and Trevor Bopp at quarterback (3,222 yards, 26 touchdowns). But both are gone as Schmidt was a senior last year and Bobb was a fifth-year player.

That means the team will have some question marks entering the year offensively.

“We had to tighten some things up (after last year), it was disappointing in a lot of ways, and ultimately that lies with me,” Clark said. “We worked hard to be a better and closer team this offseason.”

The Warriors have plenty back from last year’s team with experience. That includes junior running back Terrence Oliver and senior offensive lineman Braedon Hart, senior wide receiver Dawson Debebe, senior defensive back Ryan Pentz (a Central Mountain graduate) and junior tight end Brendan Clark (a Loyalsock graduate).

Debebe had a solid campaign last year. He reeled in 36 catches for 684 yards and caught eight touchdowns. He also had 10 catches in a 14-12 loss to Catholic. But he learned from last year’s mistakes and is hungry for 2025 to begin.

“We struggled with adversity sometimes and it was hard, but we were in position changes and a lot of young guys were in the game, but now we’re focused on keeping the young guys level-headed,” Debebe said. “Now that they’ve grown, it’s easier to stay level headed if things get hard. … We struggled to even get over that hump for most of that game (vs. Catholic).”

Debebe has 1,324 career receiving yards and needs just 100 more to move past Jeff Wert (1983) into the top 10 in program history. He’s also four touchdowns shy of being the sixth receiver to have 20 TD receptions in his career.

Defensively, the team will look to play better this year. Last year the Warriors struggled at times, which was evident in allowing 70 points to No. 2-ranked Cortland, 42 to Utica, 53 to Wilkes and 55 to No. 6-ranked Susquehanna.

The team knows it has to tighten things on the defensive side of the ball, and that was echoed by defensive back Mario Samoy.

“It’s more of trusting our scheme,” Samoy said at media day. “Last year, we had a lot of guys who wanted to do their own thing, and got a little nervous when we got down. This year, we’re more focused on playing and doing our job, and I think it’ll make us a more consistent defense.”

Samoney appeared in eight games last fall as a defensive back and finished seventh in the league with five pass breakups over the season.

The Warriors defense showed its strength at times last year, however, such as limiting Widener to 12 points and Catholic to 14. The team also had two shutouts last year, blanking Hilbert (48-0) and Juniata (45-0).

“We struggled with adversity last year, but over the offseason we’ve been really pounding into the guy’s heads that we have to work better and get better as a team,” Pentz, a Central Mountain graduate, said.