RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lycoming's Brenden Clark (88) connects with a pass and goes on to score during a college football game at David Person Field on Saturday.

To say Lycoming’s season-opening home loss to The College of New Jersey last Saturday was disappointing wouldn’t do it justice.

The players were upset after the 27-24 loss.

The coaches were upset.

Fans in attendance were upset.

Lycoming played solid, especially on the defensive end, last week but couldn’t secure the win. Lycoming’s hoping to have cleaned up those mistakes and misfortunes as the Warriors (0-1) head to Montclair State (0-1) for a noon kickoff today as both teams are eyeing their first win.

One big takeaway for coach Mike Clark from Saturday was the team’s lack of a successful passing attack. Lycoming went just 10 for 24 last week with two interceptions and started the game 0 for 5.

“We have to throw and catch better. At the end of the day, gosh, we’re 10 for 24 and two turnovers. You can’t do that. Seven of them lead to points I think. Let’s not beat ourselves,” Clark said.

“Jay (Huber) played five games last year. He shouldn’t be nervous. He has to figure out how, and we have to help him by calling some things. We dropped the first pass of the game, but we made some tough catches on throws that were probably more open than they should have been. We have to be more accurate,” Clark said of quarterback Jay Huber. “We have to call plays and I think we did this some of today with call plays to give the quarterback the best chance to be successful. But when we do that, the quarterback has to be accurate.”

The Warriors moved the ball well last week. Huber only threw the ball for 61 yards, but quarterback Terrence Oliver had 93 rushing yards before Spencer Ferguson took over ballcarrying duties in the second half and had eight for 32. Both backs also had touchdown runs.

“I do feel like being able to spread the ball around opens it up, big opportunities for everybody,” Oliver said. “When I went down, they were able to still go down and score. I believe we breathe through the running back, you’ll never hear pass the ball to open up the run. I like to see that Spencer Ferguson came in and picked up where I left off. Lots of heart.”

Oliver also noted, like Clark, that there were areas the team can work on but also said he was looking forward to getting back at it in Week 2.

“I’m more of a positive person, so I’m really excited for the season. We saw some things we need to work on, there’s always things that you need to get better at,” Oliver said. “So I’m just excited to keep building this dream team we have. This is the best team we’ve had here in my three years and I’m excited. I just want to run the rock.”

Montclair State lost its season opener to the United States Merchant Marine Academy, 29-15. Like Lycoming last week, Montclair State struggled to throw the ball as Luke Henrich went 8 for 18 for 60 yards and had four interceptions. And Montclair State’s ground game didn’t fare much better, rushing for 112 yards as a team as Diante Wilson had a team-high 41 rushing yards on 11 carries.

Lycoming knows defensively it has to stop the run this week after allowing TCNJ to rush it 69 times for 279 yards and pick up 18 first downs on the ground. Lycoming did play well against the pass, however, forcing an interception by Hughesville graduate Aiden Barlett and only giving up 101 passing yards on 6 of 10 passing.

“I feel like there were some things we showed light of, some things we have to work on,” Oliver said last week. “It’s football, there’s always things to get better at. I’m excited for the season. I feel like we have it in us.”

Lycoming will look to head back to David Person Field at Girardi Stadium with a .500 record next week as Lycoming hosts Dickinson on Saturday, Sept. 20 and Rowan on Saturday, Sept. 27. Those games are at 1 p.m. and noon, respectively.