Expand<\/a><\/p>\nSCRANTON \u2014 It didn\u2019t end the way Mark Duda and Lackawanna College hoped it would.<\/p>\n
Snow College spoiled the festivities with a 37-0 victory over the Falcons on a cold, windy and rainy Thursday night at Scranton Veterans Memorial Stadium in the final game of Duda\u2019s legendary career. Part of the program since its inception 33 years ago, he is retiring after 32 years as head coach due to being diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Also, it was the final game for Lackawanna at the junior college level; it is moving to NCAA Division II and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference next season.<\/p>\n
Running back Matt Wilson carried 28 times for 287 yards and two touchdowns and also had a 13-yard scoring reception for the Badgers (6-4), ranked No. 15 in NJCAA. Quarterback Jace Welsch threw for a touchdown and ran for another and the Utah school\u2019s defense handed Lackawanna its first shutout loss since Oct. 28, 2017, when the Falcons were blanked by the College of DuPage, 24-0.<\/p>\n
Jalen Fletcher had 115 yards on 17 carries for Lackawanna (4-6), which suffered its first losing season since 2014.<\/p>\n
It was a contentious game with players exchanging words and pushes and shoves after almost every play, resulting in several personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Snow was penalized 11 times for 115 yards and Lackawanna flagged 14 times for 144 yards.<\/p>\n
Despite the outcome, it couldn\u2019t ruin the evening for Duda.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s football,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take away from the fact that the guys played really hard all the way through and really hard every game this year. I appreciate them very much. Those hugs at the end mean everything to me. That matters the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore defensive back Victor Holt from Mid Valley said the players owed it to Duda to give their best effort in his final game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to think about the man you\u2019re doing it for,\u201d Holt said. \u201cCoach Duda is a legendary Hall of Fame coach. It would be a shame not to go 100 percent in his last game. I\u2019m glad everyone did and kept their word. We really played our hardest for coach Duda. Things might not have went our way, but I\u2019m happy we stuck together through everything and played out hearts out until the very last quarter. I couldn\u2019t be more proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not just his players showed him respect. After the game, during the handshake line, Snow players hugged Duda and offered him well-wishes in his retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor guys from Utah to have the foresight to congratulate me on my career, that really means a lot as an opponent. They appreciate you, too,\u201d Duda said. \u201cThat\u2019s really a special thing. You expect your own guys to be good to you, but not the opponent. That caught me off-guard a little bit to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before and after the game, Duda\u2019s message to his players was to keep loving and appreciating the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter cold, hot, win, lose, you play the game because you love it,\u201d Duda said. \u201cIf you keep loving it, then you\u2019ll be good players. Sometimes guys get lost in \u2018We didn\u2019t win a championship, so it\u2019s bad.\u2019 There are no bad football games. Being on the field should be the highlight of their week. I just told them that before and after and I hope I stressed that to them enough to where they\u2019re going to be that way. Appreciate the game for as glorious as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 15-minute video tribute was played on the scoreboard following the game. It featured shots of Duda through the years as a player and a coach, as well as congratulatory and thank you messages from former players, coaches and Lackawanna faculty and administration.<\/p>\n
There was even a message from NFL running back O.J. Anderson, who was a teammate with Duda with the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Juice to be on there and talk, that was fantastic,\u201d Duda said. \u201cI haven\u2019t talked to Juice in a while. That caught me off-guard for sure. That was really cool. It kind of links the beginning of my career with the end. It links the pro football with coming back here and doing things back here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those who came to see Duda\u2019s final game was Ron Solt. The two played against each other in high school \u2014 Duda at Wyoming Valley West, Solt at Wilkes-Barre Coughlin. They were teammates at the University of Maryland \u2014 Duda a year ahead of Solt. And they lined up against each other in the pros \u2014 Duda as a defensive lineman with the Cardinals, Solt as an offensive lineman with the Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are kids here who will go on to do some great things because of the opportunity that Mark gave them,\u201d Solt said. \u201cIf I\u2019m a school administrator, that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking at. I want somebody who is going to make a difference in kids\u2019 lives and that\u2019s exactly what he did. He did what they hired him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holt is an example of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed in me when a lot of coaches didn\u2019t believe in me,\u201d Holt said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t afraid to put me out there on the field. He trusted me my freshman year \u2014 I was a 10-game starter my freshman year and started all 10 games this year. I\u2019m just glad he believed in me. I just love coach. He\u2019s a great coach, a great man and I couldn\u2019t be happier to have played for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another person in attendance caught Duda by surprise: his neighbor Frank Leggat.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an awesome guy, but he doesn\u2019t go to sporting events,\u201d Duda said. \u201cI look up after the game\u2019s over and he\u2019s standing there. I said, \u2018Frank, what are you doing here?\u2019 He said, \u2018It\u2019s your last game.\u2019 That\u2019s like wild as hell to me. I see these other guys, I understand it. But him? You get taken aback by that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walking off the field for the last time is probably when the finality of it all will hit him, Duda said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a little getting used to for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI just have years and years of memories of kids doing great stuff and that will carry me through, for sure. For me it was always a calling, not a job. I told my daughter Taylor that I\u2019ve never had a job in my life. I\u2019m 64 years old, I never worked in my life. For me to be on one of these fields for that long, I\u2019ve just been blessed to do that. That\u2019s how I feel about it, I know it sounds cliche. But for me it\u2019s not. That\u2019s how I feel about all this. I\u2019ll miss it, but then again I understand the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duda finishes with a record of 217-105. He ranks third in NJCAA history in wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna College\u2019s head coach Mark Duda talks to his team after their defeat to Snow College at Veterans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2300,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-35553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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