Players of the Week, Holy Cross vs. Lehigh

The Players of the Week were pretty easy choices this time around.

Offensive Hawk of the Week: Junior RB Jay Campbell (131 yards rushing on 21 carries, 18 yard TD pass)

Defensive Hawks of the Week: (tie) Senior LB Troy Taylor (9 tackles, 1 1/2 tackles for loss including 1 sack, 1 key forced fumble) and junior FS John Venerio (7 tackles, 1 interception, 1 pass breakup)

Special Teams Hawk of the Week: Freshman PK Jake Peery (2/2 XP, 2/3 FGs, 23 yards, 38 yards, missed a long 45 yarder)

I've been remiss in reprinting the exclusive pieces that Lehighsports.Com has put out about members of the senior class. Here are two of them:

Senior LB Heath Brickner: Relentless the Books and Opposing Backs

Senior OL Frank Giacalone: Up for Any Challenge

Also, former Lehigh WR Sekou Yansane was named a winner of the 2009 Academic Momentum Award through the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS).

Press Roundup: Holy Cross 24, Lehigh 20

(Photo courtesy Denise Sanchez, the Morning Call)

Here are the press links for this weekend's heroic effort versus Holy Cross, but before I get to that I just wanted to reiterate how great it was to see Murray Goodman come to life this weekend. Have I become a sudden fan of moral victories? No; but I still feel like this effort was a step in the right direction. There were lessons in this game for the underclassmen, and I'm hoping those lessons will pay dividends next year.

Morning Call: Late TD Allows Holy Cross to Escape Lehigh

As he tried to come to grips with another agonizingly close loss for his Lehigh football team, coach Andy Coen scanned the stat sheet late Saturday afternoon in a tiny media room at Goodman Stadium and noted the similarities of the final numbers.

Both Lehigh and Holy Cross had run the same number of plays (70), had the same number of penalties (9) and had nearly the same total yards (375-372 Lehigh).

The difference wasn't on the sheet, but rather it was in the person who walked out of the same room about 15 minutes earlier.

'This is what you play for,'' said senior QB Dominic Randolph, who has rewritten the Holy Cross and league passing record book during his storied four-year career. ''A close game like that, coming out on top, it's a lot of fun. You remember wins like this.''

''Our kids played awesome - …they played hard, physical, they did what they needed to do to be right there to beat the No. 13 ranked team in the country,'' Coen said. ''Our defense contained one of the most high-powered offenses in the FCS.

''But the end was disappointing. I just feel bad for our kids. That's how I feel. That's the emotion I have right now.''

Express-Times: Lehigh Eliminated from Patriot League Title Contention

"We did a good job varying the coverages the whole game and we had him rattled for the most part," said senior LB Troy Taylor, who had a team-high nine tackles, one sack and a forced fumble. "We didn't give him what he wanted to do. I think it gives us great confidence.

"The whole year we've been able to get after the QB consistently."

"Our line was getting great pushes up front and making great blocks," said junior RB Jay Campbell, who rushed for a career-high 131 yards on 21 carries. "I was able to read the holes pretty well today and ran a lot of inside zones -- one of my better plays I like to run.

"We had practiced it (the pass) for a couple weeks and today was the first opportunity to use it."

"There's frustration," Coen said. "I'm sure our kids are frustrated. Sometimes I'd love to be hugging them after a win. How they keep coming back I'm so proud of how they keep doing that.

"I've been on the other end of a lot of these games in my career, getting paid back now, maybe. I want to keep being positive it's just happening a lot. It's tough."

Brown & White: Lehigh Football Fall to No. 14 Crusaders at Home

Sophomore WR Jake Drwal said the amount of penalties was the only negative thing he observed.

"We knew this week was going to be tough and that we'd have to keep the penalties down in order to compete. That holding penalty on the goal line really hurt us," Drwal said.

In addition to his first career passing touchdown, Campbell had a career day on the ground with 131 yards on 21 carries. The tail back credited his offensive line.

"I've always had confidence in our O-line, but as the weeks have gone on they've come together as a unit," Campbell said. "We're going to keep believing in ourselves, keep believing in the team and just never quit."

Senior DL BJ Benning said, "The record doesn't really show it, but we can play with anyone. We just need to keep preparing to win and fighting until the last play."

Groller's Corner: Lehigh Loses Another Heartbreaker

"I wasn't surprised with how [Lehigh] came out," Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore said. "They came out and made plays. I said before the game that I'd be happy getting out of here with a one-point win. It doesn't matter how much you win by as long as you get the job done and we did just enough to get the job done.

"Senior LB Matt Cohen is a great football player and B.J. Benning gave us trouble at times. Their secondary did a good job of locking down on our receivers. They changed things up well. A play would be there and we'd come back to it again, and they would have it defended the next time."

Gilmore did not hear the final score of the Lafayette game -- The Leopards' won an all-timer 56-49 over Colgate -- and said he didn't want to think about the matchup with the Leopards next weekend right away. "I'll probably start thinking about them on the way home," he said.

Morning Call: Lehigh Still Searching for a Signature Win

Lehigh had 171 yards rushing against Holy Cross, its second best total of the season behind only the 219 registered against Georgetown.

Junior tailback Jay Campbell ran for a career-high 131 yards. He also threw a TD pass on a halfback option.

''We were getting a great push and great blocks up front and our fullback, senior FB Anthony Fossati, also did a great job,'' Campbell said. ''I was able to read the holes well today. We ran a lot of inside zone, which I like, and it was working well.''

Troy Taylor led a spirited defensive effort with nine tackles, including a sack and a forced fumble on Holy Cross All-American quarterback Dominic Randolph. Randolph was out of sync all day.

''We played our hearts out on defense,'' Taylor said. ''Unfortunately, we came out with a loss, but we eliminated the third best passer in the FCS and didn't allow him to do what he wanted to do. We made him throw off his back foot and took him out of his game.''

And they'll try to do the same against Skelton.

''This gives us great confidence,'' Taylor said. ''The whole year we've been able to get after the quarterback consistently. We've had more sacks (28) than we've had in recent years. That lets our DBs know they don't have to cover the receives for eight seconds. We're either going to get a sack or force a bad throw.''

Worcester Telegram-Gazette: Randolph Rallies Crusaders

“We turned it around when we needed to,” said Randolph, who had thrown six straight incompletions on two prior possessions and turned over the ball on an interception and a fumble the two possessions before that.

“We had a few mishaps here or there,” Randolph said.

Much of the trouble was the pressure generated by Lehigh’s pass rush. The difficulty Holy Cross receivers were having getting off the line of scrimmage against Lehigh’s aggressive press coverage added to the struggles.

“It was tough getting open and finding spots,” said Holy Cross junior WR Freddie Santana, who caught two passes on the decisive drive, including the 4-yard touchdown toss with 1:03 left.“Their defensive schemes had our number for a while,” said Randolph, who finished 23 of 37 for 247 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. “It was a little frustrating. They were throwing off the timing a little bit.”

Sunday's Word: Horus

Yes, I've resorted to Egyptian gods for my "Sunday Word" now. It's a byproduct of following a 2-7 team, I think - the more tough losses I endure, the more creative I have to be.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, "Horus" is the son of gods Isis and Osis. He's the Egyptian god of the sky, the sun god, the god of life and the god of war. (Those Egyptian gods seemed pretty malleable, depending on how you felt that week, it seems.) Furthermore, while most translations depict "Horus" having a head of a falcon, the alternative spelling of his name, Nehkeny, means literally "one from Nehken", known as the "city of the Hawk".

So for the sake of my belief (and this "Word"), "Horus" is an Egyptian god, with the head of a hawk. (And contrary to popular belief, I do not have a life-sized statue of "Horus" on my nightstand with a Lehigh logo pasted on it.)

Bear with me. Trust me when I say this will make sense in the end.

*****

There was a time when it seemed like Lehigh, in terms of the Patriot League anyway, was like "Horus".

One of the gods, flying above the rest of the Patriot League. Millenia from now, the hieroglyphics would reveal Lehigh as the dominating force of the League.

During those glory years, the question if "Horus" would be competing for Patriot League championships were a given. The question was - posed in all seriousness - whether "Horus" could make a run at a national championship. The heck with beating "that school in Easton" - how do we beat Furman?

I got flak last year from Lafayette fans when I mentioned that the Leopards were much more defined by "The Rivalry" than Lehigh was. That's because "Horus" had a true aura around them when they were winning that the Patriot League that they could actually compete nationally for a national title.

While Lafayette has had a lot of success recently - and are a win against Holy Cross away from going to their fourth FCS playoffs in six years - they haven't been able to get out of the first round. They could probably get to that "Horus"-like status too if they can win one of these first-round games, but as of right now they're merely God Kings on Earth, like Pharaoh Ramses II, for example.

How tides have turned now, though: now that Lehigh has been out of any postseason picture for the third straight year, the mummified Mountain Hawks have been more defined by "The Rivalry" than ever. It's become Lehigh's Super Bowl, perhaps a chance to play spoiler to the Leopards' playoff chances if Lafayette loses to the Crusaders next weekend.

It's amazing in "The Rivalry" how the power ebbs and flows. For a seven year stretch "Horus" was dominating, but then the Evil Empire has won five of the last seven against a Lehigh team that has fallen back to earth. It's no secret Lafayette will be favored on November 21st.

*****

But back to the weekend that was. Obviously, the days of "Horus" are long gone now. For the third straight year, Lehigh will not be competing for a Patriot League championship. And it's natural for folks to ask why.

This weekend, I said that it would have been the biggest Lehigh upset in two decades if the Mountain Hawks beat Holy Cross. Seven years ago, the idea that Lehigh's Patriot League opponent could be a prohibitive favorite would have been unheard of.

That's because Lehigh was "Horus". One of the gods. Lehigh seemed to get all the athletes, the biggest and the best high-academic players on offer. The academic index allowed enough room to get the pick of local talent - and, thanks to Kevin Higgins, more national talent as well. While Holy Cross and Lafayette were in the doldrums wondering if they wanted to compete, Lehigh was doing things they could only dream of doing.

But now, in 2009, Lehigh no longer has that advantage from the "Horus" days. Colgate, the Anubis to Lehigh's "Horus", has continued their success and Patriot League titles - though they had a brief down period, too. Lafayette lost a president that frankly brought their football program down, got a new president and some alumni with big checkbooks and the Leopards are now fixtures atop the league. Tom Gilmore took over a Holy Cross program and made them into a great program in the last four years, and are on the cusp of a championship and their first postseason appearance since 1983. And Fordham, who has had playoff success more recently, has gone down the road of football scholarships and aren't coming back, which may promise more athletes choosing the Rams.

"Horus" doesn't get all the high-academic athletes anymore, either. Two potential NFL prospects at quarterback, senior QB Dominic Randolph and senior QB John Skelton, are at Holy Cross and Fordham. Senior DT Andrew Poulson is a giant kid at Lafayette, and I keep thinking about what might have happened if Holy Cross senior OT Aaron Jones, himself a possible invite to an NFL camp, had gone to his original choice, Lehigh, instead of Holy Cross.

The playing field is much more level. Not tilted against Lehigh at this point - Lehigh still gets great athletes, obviously - but even. "Horus" used to be so stacked that when QB Brant Hall went down, we had a QB Luke Cianello right behind him who could have been a starter for more than half the teams in the league. That's not true anymore of any Patriot League team - no team is that loaded, at quarterback or any other position.

*****

That's not to make excuses for losing. If the playing field is level, then Lehigh should be winning their fair share of these close games somehow, not sitting at 2-7. And every week it seems to be something new - giving up big plays against Colgate, penalties here, turnovers there that are preventing wins. And when Lehigh plays well against Colgate and Holy Cross but fall just short, it's frustrating. Where were these teams against Princeton and Yale, two games you can't help but wish could be do-overs?

But it's important to realize Lehigh ain't "Horus" anymore, and never will be again. That era is as dead as ancient Egypt. The new era of Lehigh football will need a different way to win championships. Looking at the years of "Horus" is interesting, but it won't make Lehigh into a national power tomorrow.

Lehigh 20, Holy Cross 24, Final

I was there to see what was almost the biggest Lehigh upset in two decades.

The No. 13 team in the country. The Mountain Hawks written off by pretty much everyone, including me. And Lehigh didn't just put forth a great effort, they very nearly shocked the world, pressuring Holy Cross senior QB Dominic Randolph intensely and making the superhuman Crusader QB look a lot more like a regular human being.

You got the feeling this one would be different from the opening drive. Lehigh got the ball first and junior QB J.B. Clark led the offense right down the field, punctuated by big runs by junior RB Jay Campbell and a 14 yard TD pass to junior TE Alex Wojdowski.

When the Lehigh defense would stop Holy Cross' initial drive at the 7 yard line, forcing the Crusaders to settle for a short FG, you got the feeling that this was going to be a game.

It would never be beyond one score all afternoon, with two ties and four lead changes. Against a team that had scored over 30 points six times, over 40 points four times and over 50 points once this year, Lehigh held them to ten first-half points.

The playbook was emptied -we discovered that junior RB Jay Campbell is a lefty, as he took a pitch from Clark, and then completed a pass to a wide-open Wojdowski to tie the game at 17. Aside from his first-ever TD pass, he had a fantastic day running the football with 131 yards on 21 carries as well and was the engine that made the Mountain Hawks go.

There were big 4th down conversions, including a big one to junior WR Craig Zurn to keep a drive alive. There was a 4th and inches on our own 30 yard line - that junior RB Jaren Walker converted.

The defense, led by senior LB Troy Taylor's 9 tackles and 1 1/2 tackles for loss, were effective in disrupting Randolph all day - and Taylors forced fumble in the 4th quarter (recovered by senior DT B.J. Benning) led to a 4th quarter lead against the Crusaders - after a drive ended in a 38 yard FG by freshman PK Jake Peery to make the score 20-17.

"The whole game he was running with the ball out," Taylor said in the post-game press conference. "I just used a move we've been working on since training camp to dump the ball out for a big play in the game, give our offense the momentum."

"The Lehigh kids came out and they blitzed," a relieved Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore said after the game. "They did a good job changing things up. One time, a play would be there, and the next time we'd get back to it, they had it defended. I thought they did a good job changing things up."

And yet Lehigh, with their first fourth-quarter lead against a team not named Bucknell or Georgetown this year, couldn't make the big 4th quarter play to actually seal the deal and pull off the upset.

Twice, the defense stopped Randolph, with senior LB Matt Cohen in his face the whole time, pressuring him. But twice the offense couldn't drive to get that score that would have sealed the deal. You can only give Randolph so many opportunities to beat you, and the third time for him was the charm.

"Coach McKenzie told me [at the beginning of the last drive] 'forget what whatever you've done, just go out there and play football'. It kind of brought me back down to realize that it's just a game, and we were a little more loose during that last drive. That gave us the opportunity to move the ball."

Two big passes to Holy Cross junior WR Freddie Santana - one a 32 yarder to get into Lehigh territory, and his final catch on the afternoon - a catch in between two Lehigh defenders, crunching him, but still holding onto the winning score - were what ultimately did Lehigh in this afternoon.

The effort wasn't as good as pulling off the upset of the decade, but still ought not to be fogotten. It should be an important building block for this young team for the future. If Lehigh plays like this the last two games, they will have a chance to win both.

"There's a lot of young kids playing, and they're good players," coach Coen said afterwards. "JThey keep working hard every week, and they've gotten better. "

I was at the game two years ago when Randolph and the Crusader offense put up 59 on Lehigh, and I remember the post game interview. That afternoon, Randolph didn't have a lot of respect for the Lehigh defense, and it showed - he said that they could do "pretty much what they wanted to all day". And to be fair, Lehigh's defense didn't earn the respect.

This weekend, Lehigh got the respect back.

Game Preview: Holy Cross at Lehigh

It's three weeks until the end of the regular season. At 2-6, the Mountain Hawks don't really deserve to have any hope - however infinitesimal - for competing for the Patriot League title.

If your record says what you are, Lehigh is an under-.500 team. The record says that Mountain Hawks are a team that beat Georgetown and Bucknell and nobody else. They are a team that didn't score a single point in their last appearance at home three weeks ago. They are a team that played better last week, but still lost a tough game to Colgate 27-20.

2-6. The record tells you what you are, and it's not pretty. This isn't the world of Shallow Hal, where we can be hypnotized like Jack Black into thinking that 2-6 is actually 6-2.

And yet, the tiniest hope still exists that Colgate loses this weekend - eighteen miles away from Murray Goodman Stadium - and Lehigh pulls off what would be considered the biggest Mountain Hawk upset of this decade.

As improbable as that might be, if that were to happen Lehigh would - of all things - be in control of their own title destiny.

But make no mistake about it - it would honestly be the biggest upset this decade for Mountain Hawk football, perhaps the biggest upset in the past twenty years. That's because Holy Cross in 2009 has looked so far like one of those all-decade sort of teams, with an offense that hasn't been able to be slowed down all year and a defense that has - scarily - been getting better week to week.

The No. 13-ranked Crusaders see Lehigh as a speed bump to their ultimate goal: their first Patriot League championship since 1991. They should, too. Two years ago at Murray Goodman, Lehigh's flat 59-10 loss to Holy Cross rocked the Mountain Hawk program and their fans to the core, causing me to plead for "emotion". (It also signaled an inauspicious quarterbacking debut

from junior QB J.B. Clark, going 1-2 with a fumble and INT). Last year in Worcester, the Crusaders jumped to a 21-0 lead before Lehigh battled back and made it a game before falling 35-21.

Looking at my recap of that game, the comments could have been pulled from today's headlines. "Work and heart aside, what we have before us a 2-5 team. A team that's worked hard and played tough - but lost. A team that is one loss away from being under .500 for the second straight year. A team that may very well go 4-7. Or maybe even 3-8. This team, for whatever reason, is not consistent enough - unable to put everything together in one game - to be Patriot League champions this year."

If your record is what you are, 7-1 Holy Cross is looking like Gwenyth Paltrow without the fat suit, let's just say. They have the look of this year's Patriot League champions. Their offense is clicking, and their defense is getting better. It's easy to see their squad give a team some trouble in the first round of the FCS playoffs - could they cause Villanova grief, for example?

But games are not won on looks alone. Holy Cross needs to get by Lehigh first. And it's the Mountain Hawks' job to stop them.

Game Notes

This week's game notes show one interesting change: a bit of a reshuffled "O" line. Two sophomores that started last week - sophomore C Jim Liebler and sophomore OL Troy McKenna - are now behind junior C Keith Schauder and junior OL R.J. McNamara. Part of the reason might be that sophomore OL Vinny Pellegrini is off the depth chart (I believe due to injury), but it's quite possible that with such a young team the presence of more veterans may help the "O" line. Worthy of note is that Schauder's return on the line gives us three 300 lb linemen, which might help us.

The other interesting item is the inclusion of freshman RB Zach Barket on the depth chart alongside junior RB Jaren Walker backing up junior RB Jay Campbell. Sparingly used last week, Barket may be more of a presence in this week's game plan. We'll see.

Weather Report

Whether this helps Lehigh, I don't know, but this family weekend will feature some great November weather. The forecast calls for a high of 52 with 5 to 10 mph winds at gametime.

A Word on Holy Cross

In the 1920s and 1930s, Holy Cross was a consistent national powerhouse and, along with schools like Fordham, NYU and Manhattan, came to symbolize big-time "Eastern Football". With a backyard rivalry with nearby Boston College, things looked rosy for the boys in purple, especially after they appeared in the Orange Bowl in 1946 (losing to Miami (FL) 13-6).

In the 1950s, when many religious colleges were abandoning the sport, Holy Cross survived behind the steady coaching hand of Dr. Eddie Anderson. Form 1933 to 1964, Anderson's twenty-one year career coaching record was an amazing 129-67-8 - and he also, incredibly, maintained a medical practice as well as the head of the eye, ear, nose, and throat clinic at Boston's Veterans Hospital.

Holy Cross and Boston College would continue to be joined at the hip as Division I independents, but the Eagles' taste for big time football, and Holy Cross' more modest ambitions, would mean that Boston College would dominate the football series in the 1970's and early 1980s. Holy Cross' scholarship football program's fate would be sealed when Fr. Brooks, the then-president of Holy Cross, got together with the presidents of Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell and Colgate to form the core of the Patriot League.

This made the football program, who also had good local rivalries with UMass, Boston University, wither. But in those early years of the Patriot League Holy Cross (with a host of grandfathered scholarship players) wreaked havoc on their Patriot opponents. The 1987 and 1991 teams are considered to be some of the best Patriot League teams ever, both undefeated. Had Holy Cross in 1987, behind two-way star Gordie Lockbaum, chosen to play in the I-AA playoffs instead of abiding by the then-post season ban imposed by the new league, they certainly would have done some damage, if not won the whole thing.

One of the most significant games in Patriot League history involving Holy Cross came in 1991. A battle for the Patriot League championship that year, going into Murray Goodman stadium that year the Engineers and Crusaders were both 6-0. In the exhilerating 43-42 defeat, the game featured six lead changes and not one but two "fumblerooski" plays by then-Lehigh coach Hank Small to try to get the win. That game that did wonders for establishing the Patriot League as "big-time". (The Crusaders won the Patriot League title that year and also finished 11-0, but once again did not go to the I-AA playoffs despite wins over Harvard, BU, and UMass.)

From 1991 to 2003, Holy Cross really struggled at times as the Holy Cross athletic department actively chose to pursue basketball while phasing out football scholarships and implementing stringent academic stadards.

Then in 2004, fortunes changed. Then-Lehigh defensive coordinator Tom Gilmore, fresh from the Lehigh coaching staff, took on the job of rebuilding the Crusader football program essentially from scratch. Adding insult to the injury of Gilmore hightailing to Holy Cross in the middle of recruiting season, Gilmore also convinced defensive backs coach Issac Collins to follow him in his rebuilding effort - after Collins had already been promoted to defensive coordinator. This caused some bad blood between the Lehigh and Holy Cross coaching staffs. Over the years there has been some movement between the coaching staffs at Holy Cross and Lehigh - when coach Coen took over at Lehigh, for example, one of his first hires was Dick Kotulski, defensive coordinator at Holy Cross.

Tom Gilmore deserves all the credit in the world in rebuilding a Holy Cross program that had been in serious disarray before he arrived. Five years ago, he inherited a 1-11 team that had enjoyed only one winning season since 1993. Since Gilmore has arrived, he's guided his "Purple Army" to three straight winning seasons. All that's missing for him is a Patriot League championship - and he's on the brink of that right now.

LFN's Drink of the Week

When times get tough - when you need a win, against all logic or common sense - you pull out Lord Chesterfield. Lord Chesterfield Ale, that is: with its dry, sharp finish, it's a tasty beer for any sort of tailgating food to be sure. I'm more interested, however, in it's luck-bringing properties to the Mountain Hawks. Let's just say if Lord Chesterfield helps Lehigh win this week, you'll see it again. (Hell, you'll see it every week.)

As always, Drinks of the Week have a place in responsible tailgates, but only if you drink responsibly and are over 21. Pleas do that. (And, no, Yuengling does not pay me for the free advertising - I'm just a fan!)

Breaking Down Holy Cross

Offense

If something is working for you Payton Award-nominated quarterback, don't change it - that would sum up the Crusader offensive philosophy this year. Unsurprisingly, Holy Cross will yet again be the bubble-screening, pass-happy team we've (unfortunately) seen up close the last three years. They will be relentless on offense, and if you slip you can find yourself down by three touchdowns.

When senior QB Dominc Randolph (pictured) decided to return for his final year of eligibility, defensive coordinators around the Patriot League undoubtedly threw their arms up in disgust. They know all about his accuracy (65.4% completion percentage) and nose for the end zone (26 TD passes). If he's allowed to pick you apart, you're done. However, he has made his share of errant throws: opponents have 11 interceptions against him, and he has bee intercepted in six of his eight games this year. Any Lehigh success will come from getting at least one interception this weekend, and many more if possible.

Randolph has an exceptionally quick release and is also extremely quick with receiver reads. Already a great decision maker, Randolph has made life even more frustrating for defenses by simply tucking the ball and running if defenses simply sit in dime coverage all afternoon hoping for picks. One of the more interesting - and revealing - stats for Randolph is that he also leads Holy Cross in rushing with 410 yards. Lehigh will find a way to force Randolph to make errors - yet still punish him if he takes off to try to get first downs on the ground.

Randolph also has no end of targets to hit: junior WR Luke Chleminski (568 yards, 3 TDs), senior WR Bill Edger (527 yards, 4 TDs), junior WR Freddie Santana (406 yards, 5 TDs), senior WR Nick Cole (209 yards, 5 TDs). The H-Back/Tight End, an afterthought in most college offensive schemes in terms of offense, becomes a frightening issue in coach Gilmore's offense with 6'7 sophomore TE Alex Schnieder (103 yards, 3 TDs). All speedsters, there's an awful lot to cover back there - and if Randolph gets the time to hit them, it usually spells a long day. The passing gets spread around to everyone - Randolph doesn't focus on one receiver. On any play, all are targets.

That also includes sophomore RB Matt Bellomo, who is second on the team in rushing (365 yards, 4 TDs) but is also - surprise - a target in the passing game, too, with 226 yards. Freshman RB Eddie Houghton also gets a fair amount of carries too (243 yards, 3 TDs), but the pass sets up the run in this offense.

Want more to worry about? Try senior OL Aaron Brown, the 360 lb left tackle that almost went to Lehigh (and might, along with Randolph, get some sniffs from NFL scouts). The large "O" line have only allowed eight sacks all year - one a game - and obviously are excellent in pass-first protection.

Defense

Holy Cross plays a base 3-4 defense that has improved a lot from last year's squad that gave up points in bunches. They're better at stopping the run, and they've only allowed more than thirty points once - to a powerful Brown offense in their only loss of the year, 34-31 to the Bears.

Holy Cross boasts a small front seven, anchored by 6'0 249 lb senior DT Alex Carson (18tackles, 1/2 sack) on the defensive line. But the emergence of a pass-rushing threat on the line in the form of junior DL Mude Ohimor (48 tackles, 4 1/2 sacks) is a massive improvement over last year. This "D" line is solid.

Once again the linebacking unit is led by senior LB Marcus Rodruiguez (68 tackles, 6 passes defended) but this unit misses senior LB Sean Lamkin, injured in Week 3 against Harvard and out of action this week. Senior LB Andrew Cialino has done well in his place, however, notching 53 tackles and 3 tackles for loss. One thing they haven't done a lot of this year is force turnovers, only recovering four fumbles all year and nabbing 5 interceptions.

Senior CB Michel Wright (40 tackles, 13 passes defended, 2 INTs) is Holy Cross' shutdown corner, while junior SS Anthony DiMichele (54 tackles, 1 INT) is solid in run support as well. They can, however, be caught through the air: their pass defense is averaging 275 yards per game, or 112th/125 FCS teams.

Special Teams

Junior PK Rob Dornfried has his best weekend of the year last week, getting Special Teams Player of the Week honors with FGs of 21 and 30 yards. His longest of the year is 34 yards, so he might be able to be forced into errors. His earlier inaccuracy may have been because he was also doing double-duty as punter - now that junior P Don Lemieux is there (8 punts with a whopping 43.9 average), Holy Cross appears to have an excellent kicking duo.

Kick returns are solid, too, with junior WR Freddie Santana (7.9 average) and junior RS Alex Johnson (23.2 average).

Keys to the Game

1. Disguise those blitzes. You can't sit back against this offense. Your best bet is to mix up the blitzing and - somehow - keep Randolph out of rhythm. Let him get a few big gainers, but always make sure to make him pay if he does. If senior LB Matt Cohen can disrupt Randolph enough to force a few picks or get just a few sacks, Lehigh could have a chance.

2. Ball Control. As tempting as it might be to try to pass your way to victory, grinding the clock gives Lehigh their best shot at the "W". Hopefully Campbell, Barket and Walker can get enough yards on the ground to keep that Holy Cross offense off the field.

3. Win the Turnover Battle. Holy Cross is too good to keep giving them opportunities. The Mountain Hawks will need to get in the plus in turnovers and reduce their opportunities to have a chance to pull off the upset.

4. Lunchpail time. The linemen need to bring out their lunchpails and out-work the Crusaders. If Lehigh gets out the lunchpails, they'll have a chance.

Fearless Prediction

I'm not going to lie: this is a huge challenge for this Lehigh football team. Should Lehigh win, it would be their greatest upset in two decades without question. This Lehigh team has only scored more than 30 points once all year, and that came against Bucknell. In contrast, Holy Cross has scored more than 30 points six times, and more than 40 points three times.

If they somehow manage to slow down the Dominic Express to only score four touchdowns, it will give Lehigh a chance to build off their success in the last two games and pull off an upset. But it's hard to see Lehigh keeping Holy Cross under 28 points. The Crusaders will almost certainly win this weekend, and the Mountain Hawks will need to find answers for Lafayette in two weeks.

Holy Cross 45, Lehigh 10

Players of the Week, Lehigh vs. Colgate

Last week's valiant effort versus the Raiders results in these players getting nominations for LFN's "Players of the Week":

Offensive Hawk: Junior QB J.B. Clark (54 yards rushing, 151 yards passing, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 0 turnovers)

Defensive Hawk: Senior LB Troy Taylor (8 tackles, 3 tackles for loss)

Special Teams Hawk: Freshman PK Jake Peery, who went 2-2 on field goals (25, 35 yards) and extra points - no mean feat in 20-30 mph winds.

Something to think about, with Holy Cross coming to town: the 1969 Lehigh football season. Forty years ago, the Engineers started at 2-5-1 (including losses to The Citadel, Delaware, Wittenburg and Gattysburg). But Lehigh would win their last two games versus Bucknell and Lafayette to become "Middle Three" Champions and would get votes for the Lambert Cup. (Matter of fact, Lehigh's 36-19 victory would come two days before I was born.)

That season, RB Jack Rizzo would debut, and soon thereafter Lehigh was playing in the Division II playoffs, cumulating with a D-II national championship later in the 1970s. Championships can happen with losing records - and perhaps some forty-year-old inspiration might be good to recall for this weekend.

FCS East Wrapup: Minute Hens Fall, Clarify CAA Playoff Bids

(Photo courtesy Fred Comegys/The Delaware News Journal)

Going into last weekend, the specter of five CAA teams in the playoffs loomed large. But with James Madison's 20-8 upset of Delaware and Maine's 19-9 upset of UMass made it that much more likely that the CAA only puts three at-large teams into the playoffs.

If there was any thought that Mickey Matthews' James Madison team was going to roll over the rest of the year, that was dispelled this past weekend on the road against the Blue Hens. Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Dukes' long-dormant offense finally came alive, with freshman QB Justin Thorpe breaking a ten quarter touchdown-less streak with a 12 yard run. Add to that a smothering defensive performance - forcing Hen junior QB Pat Devlin into a 19-for-42, 2 interception day, and only allowing the Hens a paltry 9 yards rushing.

Since beating New Hampshire and remaining in the hunt for a playoff spot, UMass has self-destructed. There's no other way to describe it, having committed an amazing 13 turnovers in two games. No, that's not a typo: seven turnovers against No. 1 Richmond, ands six against Maine. Black Bear sophomore LB Donte Dennis nabbed two of the interceptions, broke up two passes, recovered a fumble, and got 11 tackles in the afternoon. One of his interceptions set up what would end up being Maine's go-ahead touchown, a 7 yard TD pass to freshman WR Derrick Johnson.

Folks around the country will continue to be huge JMU fans. With four losses, UMass is an unlikely (but not impossible) at-large choice - but if JMU beats them in two weeks, they will definitely be out with five losses. Delaware only has three losses - but with a win over Division II West Chester, they would have to run the table - including against FBS Navy, who is the front-runner for the Commander-in-Chief trophy (and not to mention No. 4 Villanova as well, who was idle last week).

If UMass and Delaware don't survive, that leaves 7-1 Villanova, 8-0 Richmond (who just won their seventeenth straight game with a 42-14 throttling of Towson) 7-1 William & Mary (who took out Rhode Island last weekend 39-14) and 7-1 New Hampshire (who pounded Northeastern 48-21).

Fortunately for the CAA, there are going to be some great games coming up - including No. 4 Villanova at No. 1 Richmond this weekend. New Hampshire at William & Mary next weekend, and the "Oldest Rivalry of the South," Richmond and William & Mary, play for the 119th time on November 21st. Still, barring a meltdown in the next three weeks by one of these four teams, the Patriot League Champion - and possibly a Patriot League at-large team as well - seems likely that they will be playing at one of these four venues.

Other big games this past weekend:

• Last year, 7-1 Central Connecticut State saw their dreams of a NEC title go up in smoke in Albany when they missed a late two-point conversion. This time at home, the tables were turned as the Blue Devils stopped the Danes' two-point try - and stopped Albany's 18 game NEC winning streak with a gutty 31-29 win. Senior RB James Mallory had his best-ever day running the ball - 204 yards, and 3 TDs. "I felt good about the game the whole week," Mallory said. "I just followed my blocks. I have to give all the credit to my offensive line. I did the easy part, running the ball. They did the hard part." The Blue Devils look like a shoo-in for the NEC title - with a weak schedule remaining - and if they go 10-1 and get a lot of help, might even be playing in the playoffs instead of the "Gridiron Classic", the postseason game between the NEC and Pioneer League champions.
• The Big South became a two-team race this weekend. One of the teams was expected: 6-2 Liberty, with a predictable 55-19 burying of Presbyterian last weekend. The other team, not so much: 5-4 Stony Brook, whose 24-14 win over Gardner-Webb gives the Seawolves a real shot. As long as the Seawolves take care of business against Charleston Southern in two weeks, when they host Liberty the final week of the season it may very well be for the championship. If the Flames win, at 9-2 will be prime candidates for an at-large bid (especially if Lafayette, whom they beat 19-13, finishes strong). If the Seawolves win, at least one at-large team might be sending Seawolf senior RB Conte Cuttino and senior RB Ed Gowins Christmas cards.
• Not many teams can only eclipse the 21 point barrier two times during the course of the season and still be in the title race, but that's exactly where Penn finds themselves this year. The Quakers hadn't beaten Brown since 2004 nor had they won an overtime game since 2004, but both streaks were broken with their 14-7 overtime victory over the Bears. If their offense isn't doing it, it must be their defense, led by senior DL Joe Goniprow and senior LB Jake Lewko - giving up only 66 rushing yards per game (good for No. 2 in FCS). Undefeated in Ivy play, their game at Harvard in two weeks looks like it will be the Ivy League championship game, barring any major surprises.
• Finally, Lehigh's three final opponents - Lafayette, Fordham and Holy Cross - all showed that they are teams to fear. 7-1 Lafayette's 35-14 win over Bucknell featured a near-perfect game by senior QB Rob Curley that was so amazing he won Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week - 30 for 35 passing, 3 TDs, no interceptions. And Fordham and Holy Cross combined for over 1,000 yards of offense - fitting a matchup between two NFL prospects, Holy Cross senior QB Dominic Randolph and Fordham senior QB John Skelton - as the Crusaders avenged their loss at Fordham two years ago by beating the Rams 41-27. Amazingly, if Lehigh were to run this gauntlet of hell - and if Lafayette beats Colgate this weekend - Lehigh would win the Patriot League at 5-6 and win the Patriot League's autobid, and would become the first-ever team to play in the playoffs with a losing record.
• PS. It is conceivable that Lehigh will have played the NEC champion (Central Connecticut State), Ivy League Champion (Harvard) and CAA Champion (Villanova) all in the same year (and, might I add, all in the first four weeks of the season!). That's not an excuse for a losing record, but in retrospect this has been Lehigh's toughest schedule in recent memory. Furthermore, if the Blue Devils end up in the Top 25 - and they very well might - that means that Lehigh will have played six teams that spent time this year in the Sports Network Top 25. Six! And one huge purple one, of course, looms ahead this weekend.