OLYPHANT — The Lackawanna Football Conference season has the potential to develop into a trio of two-team races.
Rather than a clear favorite, each division appears set to have co-favorites with other teams considered to have the potential to develop into contenders.
Defending champion Delaware Valley and Scranton Prep look like the top teams in Division 1 where Valley View and a resurgent Abington Heights team could also be threats.
Western Wayne and Mid Valley are expected to battle it out for the championship in Division 2 where 2023 champion Dunmore could be headed for a rare down year. Lakeland, another traditionally strong program, had an off year last season and may make its way back to the top half of the division.
Lackawanna Trail is a threat to repeat in Division 3 where it will again have to get past Riverside. The Lions needed to break a fourth-quarter tie to win last year’s meeting 28-21 and otherwise cruised through a perfect regular season.
Old Forge, Lackawanna Trail’s yearly rival for postseason honors among small schools, has the potential to bounce back after winning five straight division titles from 2018 through 2022.
DIVISION 1
Both Delaware Valley (Class 5A) and Scranton Prep (3A) were district champions and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state quarterfinalists last season.
Delaware Valley features one of the LFC’s top returning linemen in Carter Faubel and returns Logan Olsommer, son of coach Keith Olsommer, at quarterback.
Scranton Prep is led by the return of quarterback Louis Paris, who has accounted for 3,652 yards and 51 touchdowns combined rushing and passing the past two seasons, and two-way lineman Ambrose Rossi.
Valley View has won 32 games combined in the past three seasons. Linebacker Gianni Marino and cornerback Nick Kucharski are back after leading a defense that ranked second only to Scranton Prep in points allowed among division teams last season.
Abington Heights brings back its entire offensive line, three receivers who combined for 60 catches and a 2,000-yard passer in Nick Bradley.
North Pocono also has veterans in just about every line spot both ways, but may have a hard time climbing far within a loaded division.
Scranton returns six starters on each side of the ball from a team that had a .500 regular season in 2023.
Matt Nawrocki, a former Penn State javelin thrower, takes over at Wallenpaupack, which has not won a game in the division the past two seasons.
DIVISION 2
Western Wayne went 8-3 overall in Shane Grodack’s first season as head coach.
The Wildcats return Josh Vinton, who ran for 1,467 yards last season, and Sean Owens, an outstanding defensive back who has 67 receptions and 15 touchdowns the past two seasons despite missing time in 2023 with a back injury.
Mid Valley returns 10 offensive starters, including Jakob Lesher, after improving from 2-8 in 2022 to 7-4 last season.
Lesher ran for 1,485 yards and 18 touchdowns while also catching 15 passes.
The passing combination of David Naniewicz-to-Chase Rosenkrans leads the hopes of a bounce-back season at Lakeland, which went from an unbeaten regular season and district championship in 2022 to a winless division record last season.
Honesdale will try to continue its progress after reaching .500 in the regular season last year.
Dunmore has one of its smallest and least experienced squads in the program’s storied history.
West Scranton was hit hard by graduation, adding to the challenges for Jake Manetti in his third season as head coach.
DIVISION 3
Lackawanna Trail returns six two-way starters from a team that won its first 13 games on the way to the state Class A quarterfinals.
Riverside features two-way lineman Tavian Branch, possibly the LFC’s top college prospect after receiving multiple National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I scholarship offers, including one from Penn State.
Even in a down year, Old Forge outscored the bottom three teams in the division by a total of 122-16.
Quarterback T.J. DiMattia is one of eight returning offensive starters for the Blue Devils.
Susquehanna should be improved with most of the line returning along with William Marcy and Weston Yannone. Marcy is trying to lead the Sabers in rushing for a third straight year. Yannone, who moved to quarterback late last year, scored 11 touchdowns as a freshman.
Holy Cross returns nine starters on each side of the ball. The Crusaders have not won an LFC game the last two seasons, but did pick up three non-league wins in 2023.
Carbondale has not won more than one LFC game in a season since 2017.
