Skip to main content

Lehigh 32, Princeton 21, final

I couldn't be happier that Lehigh put in a much better performance this week than they did last week, proving me wrong in a 32-21 victory.

It's a game that shouldn't have been that close - after Princeton had argubaly one of their worst halves in the Roger Hughes era, Lehigh had a 23-0 lead that should easily have been 30-0. Four turnovers in the first half, the Tigers only had nine mnutes of possession time, and Lehigh ran 52 plays. 52! Two missed FG and a missed extra point meant the Tigers were in it at halftime.

In the second half, Princeton battled back and made it a much more interesting game, cutting it to 23-14 late in the 3rd quarter. But much to Lehigh's credit, they stomped on Princeton's throat early in the 4th quarter with a late drive to go up 32-14 and ending their hopes at a comeback.

Once again, Lehigh showed flashes of brilliance on offense, punching in the first two takeaways/gifts for touchdowns. Yet Lehigh had the chance to go for the jugular and simply blow them out of the building, and they couldn't do so. Still, it feels like complaining for the sake of complaining - Lehigh did a great job, especially in the secondary, against a team which is supposed to be in the running for an Ivy League title this year.

"We're obviously happy to get the win, but it wasn't a clean football game by any stretch of the imagination," coach Coen said in the postgame press conference. "We did well on the first two drives of the game, but then our offense kind of sputtered, and I wasn't pleased with the overall execution offensively. In the second half, defensively we gave up some big plays and let Princeton back into the game, but I've very pleased that we found that 'finishing mentality' on the 13-play drive to seal the game."

Statistically, senior QB Sedale Threatt didn't have the greatest day, going 14-for-33 passing with 149 yards and 1 TD. Two freshmen, however, did all the running at running back and both had great days considering they've been Lehigh students for less than a month: freshman RB Kwesi Kankam, with 73 yards and a TD (and converted a huge 3rd-and-15 screen play on the game-clinching drive), and freshman RB Jaren Walker, in his first game, getting 59 tough interior yards rushing getting bashed inside the tackles and 1 TD (which was set up with a big 4th-down conversion bby Walker with an outside sweep at the end of the 1st half.)

Overall, some flashes of brilliance in every phase of the game, some mistakes on offense and defense - but most importantly, a win and some momentum coming back home against VMI. This team is not there yet, but hopefully will continue to get better each week.

But today, we enjoy the win. We enjoy that Lehigh finally went for the jugular, and that we've righted the ship and started some winning ways. We celebrate.

Comments

Anonymous said…
An exciting win with a look to the future as the two frosh rb's certainly have deepened the stable. Threatt is hurting. Notice a knee brace on the left knee and coming off the field favoring his shoulder--maybe still beat up from 'nova? Defense was flying around the ball. Obviously the cool night was sharp contrast to last week's sauna when they wilted. While certainly a bunch of mistakes to be corrected, it was a good win to come back and beat one of our nemisis from last year.

--Ngineer
Anonymous said…
It was really a great win - a lot of promise if they continue to improve. Don't forget, if it wasn't for the bonehead play by Gasaway last week, Lehigh would probably be 2-0. Things weren't that clean, but the potential is there!

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.