By Erin Meehan
Lycourier Staff
The Lycoming Warriors football team started its 2011 season off with a bang with two straight victories.
This is the first time in six years that the team has started out the season with back-to-back wins.
On Saturday the Warriors posted a 41-3 victory over Westminster College.
The previous Saturday the Warriors opened its season with a victory over Rowan University, who was voted to be the No. 22 seed in Division III football, on Sept. 3. The Warriors concluded the game with a score of 8-6 in their favor.
According to Head Coach Mike Clark, this year’s team is “the best team in four years.” Some highlighted players of the game were Anthony Marascio senior defensive line, Parker Showers, junior running back, Zack Czap, sophomore kicker, and Craig Needhammer, freshman running back.
Starting the season off with a record of 2-0 is encouraging and now that the Warriors look to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2003 when they head to Widener for a 1 p.m. game on Sept. 17.
Saturday, Lycoming defeated Westminster with an impressive score of 41-3. In the course of this game Warren Oliver, sophomore wide receiver, broke a 25-year old school most recently held by James O’Malley. The record held by O’Malley was running 214 yards and Oliver broke that record by running 215 yards as well as scoring three touchdowns.
The last time that the Warriors captured the MAC division title was three years ago.
With a great start this year, Clark is “confident we’ll be able get the division title.”
This is an extremely encouraging statement and it is obvious that the Lycoming football team is confident in its abilities to win the division title by the way they played two weeks ago.
Although the program is off to a promising start there are still going to be some challenges against other Division III football programs such as Delaware Valley College and Widener University.
Clark said that even though the team won its first game at home, the Warriors won’t be playing at home again until October. The Warriors return to their home turf, David Person Field, on Oct.1, during Family Weekend and it is the Tackle Breast Cancer game.
This is easily the most highly attended game of the regular season and with plenty of support coming from Lycoming students and their families and Lycoming alumni, it is possible that there will be plenty of fans standing behind their Warriors.
Lycoming College football has many different strengths in multiple aspects of the team. The defensive line is especially strong and is receiving some spotlight ever since the Warriors’ victory over Rowan, where the defensive line played a major part in the win.
The Lycoming offense is also stepping up to the plate after losing two key players last year: Josh Kleinfelter and Ryan Wagaman. The majority of Lycoming’s offensive line and quarterback is returning to the team and the running backs and wide receivers are working hard to compensate for the seniors that the team lost.
According to Clark there are three returning starters and for the most part the secondary is also full of returning players and so are the majority of their linebackers.
Clark said, “Kabongo Bukasa has become a great player.” Bukasa is a returning sophomore linebacker for the Warriors. Clark said other Warrior football players to watch include Matt Atkinson and Warren Oliver both sophomore wide receivers; Jarrin Campman, junior wide receiver; Parker Showers, junior running back, and Ray Bierbach, senior, defensive back.
“Parker Showers played a nice game the other day ... after being in the shadow of Josh Kleinfelter and Ryan Wagaman last year,” Clark said. This season seems to be a great time for players to step out of the shadows of former Lycoming football players and enjoy their own deserved time in the spotlight.
Something that is for certain to the fans of the Lycoming College Warriors football team is that they have quite an optimistic and successful season ahead of them. With the encouraging words from Clark, it is clear that the football team itself is feeling confident about the direction that it’s headed.
The Warriors will build off those emotions throughout the games that are played over the next couple of months.
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