CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Mount St. Joseph University football team announces 2023 football schedule. The Lions will go into the 2023 season riding high after a 10-0 regular season, Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship and a trip to the NCAA D3 Playoffs.
Once again the Lions will open the season with a matchup with Baldwin-Wallace out of the OAC. After opening at home last season this year they will head north to Berea, Ohio on September 2
nd to get the season going. Last season the Mount got off to a great start with a 31-28 upset victory over the Yellow Jackets.
Rounding out the non-conference slate will be a home game vs. Hiram on September 9 and a rematch with Hope on September 16 as a part of the HCAC-MIAA crossover event. The Lions beat the Flying Dutchmen 33-28 at Schueler Field last year, but will be on the road this season heading to Holland, Michigan.
They will open HCAC play on September 30 at home vs. Manchester, that weekend will be family weekend for the MSJ Football program.
The following weekend they will hit the road to take on Defiance, before returning home for three straight. Anderson comes to town on October 14, Hanover will be in town the following weekend for Homecoming and then on October 28 they wrap up their home schedule with Franklin on Senior Day.
A pair of road contests will wrap up the regular season, a November 4 trip to Bluffton followed by a November 11 trip to Rose-Hulman. The final game of the season could once again be for all the marbles in the HCAC, as the Lions and Fightin' Engineers will likely go into the season as the prohibitive favorites in the league.
Coach Hopperton and the Lions will be looking to expand on that success from a season ago. They return 19 of 22 starters, 9 on offense and 10 on defense.
"This season's schedule will once again be very challenging, especially the potential playoff-like atmospheres on the road at Baldwin Wallace and Hope early in the year" Said coach Hopperton. "We have a lot of guys coming back that have played big meaningful snaps for us all over the field, we will be relying heavily on their leadership especially early in the season."
