Then the Warriors took a lead with 5:08 to play in the game on a 40-yard field goal that just cleared the bar by Vasco Granitto.

Momentum was on Lycoming’s side, but disaster struck late and everything slipped away.

TCNJ had a 42-yard touchdown pass thanks to Lycoming players jumping off sides and converted on the free play down field for a 27-24 lead.

The Warriors had the ball with 2 minutes to play and started to mount a drive, but a third-down interception gave TCNJ the ball back.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lycoming quarterback Jay Huber drops back to pass during a college football game at David Person Field on Saturday.

Then, on a third-and-long, Lycoming needed a big stop. The Lions went to what was working all day for them: the ground game. TCNJ picked up a huge 11 yards and you could feel the excitement evaporate from Lycoming’s crowd.

The possibility of a third-down stop and getting the ball back for a dramatic final-minute rally was no longer in the cards and TCNJ walked out of David Persons Field at Girardi Stadium with the 27-24 win.

It was a disappointing start to the 2025 season for Lycoming, especially for a team that has playmakers and had hopes for a strong start to begin 1-0.

Instead, they’re now 0-1 with a road trip in Week 2.

“There’s no moral victories, you know what I mean? We have to execute better on offense. I thought we ran the ball pretty well but not anywhere close to throwing it well enough to have a real chance. If you look at the tail backs, our rushing yards, we ran it 30 times for 130 yards, that’s OK. It’s not great,” Lycoming coach Mike Clark said. “But we have to be more effective throwing the football and we have to sustain drives. When you play option teams — and that was the good part about making it or tying it in the third quarter — our defense played a lot of snaps.”

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lycoming's Terrence Oliver picks up yardage during a college football game against TCNJ at David Person Field on Saturday.

The Warriors’ defense played well on Saturday overall despite the loss. Take away the deep touchdown strike due to an offsides penalty and the third-down huge run to ice the game, and the result Saturday easily could have been different.

But the game isn’t played with what if’s or could-have-been’s, but rather the play on the field itself.

Khalil Johnson had 13 total tackles on Saturday and a sack and Daniel Atsou had 11 tackles. Matt Trolinger and Braden Baum recorded nine tackles for Lycoming and Central Mountain graduate Ryan Pentz had eight and Hughesville graduate Aiden Barlett added eight.

Lycoming was gouged on the ground for nearly 300 rushing yards (282) and Joe Visaggio accounted for 125 of those yards while Jordan Morrell ran for 65.

Clark knows going into Week 2’s game this upcoming Saturday at Montclair State means the Warriors have to defend the run better and play better offensively with the aerial attack.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Lycoming head coach Mike Clark reacts along the sidelines during a college football game against TCNJ at David Person Field on Saturday.

“We’ll have to be better against the run. They’re outstanding at running the football,” Clark said. “They ran it today for well over 200 yards, almost 300 yards. So we have to get better at stopping the run.”

“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 don’t know which team is better, they won the game. The team that played better today won, they played better than we did, that’s why they won,” Clark added. “I think we have to play the way we’re capable of playing. I thought we did that some of today, but certainly not all of today.”

Clark knows too if Lycoming plays the way they’re capable of, they can be tough to beat, and Saturday’s loss didn’t showcase what Lycoming’s team is capable of.

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

Week 2 awaits to fix those mistakes.

Jon Gerardi is the sports editor at the Sun-Gazette. He can be reached at jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JonGerardi.