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Vacation; Press Roundup; Game Balls; Weekend Roundup

Vacation
This week, we are going on vacation in the Poconos, where your correspondent has no access to the internet, or any access to any of the research he would need to write up a competent Lehigh/Yale preview. So the next post you'll see here is Friday.

However, your intrepid correspondent will be back on Friday with the Lehigh/Yale preview and weekend predictions, so, come back Friday fo rthe whole scoop!

Press Roundup
Looks like the press, and Holy Cross, have anointed Mark Borda as their player of the week (as he won Holy Cross' Johnny Turco Trophy as the MVP of Holy Cross' homecoming game):

Morning Call:
Borda borders on spectacular
Express-Times:
Borda collects win, hardware
Boston Globe:
Lehigh crashes Holy Cross' homecoming party

Your quotes:

"I may have added more fuel to the fire for Lehigh,'' [Tom Gilmore] said. ''I tried to approach it as just another game. Now that it's over, I admit it was emotional. I mean I coached and recruited a lot of those guys. They played hard for me, and they played hard again today. They executed well. We didn't.''

"I recruited a lot of those guys and you don't walk away and completely detach yourself," said Gilmore. "[But] it doesn't matter who we played today. We played a good team and we didn't execute and we lost the game. I don't want to put it any other way. I'm disappointed. We really need to start doing things better."

[Looks like a long long season for coach Gilmore this year.]

''I felt more comfortable because I had gone up against his defense for a year and a half in practice,'' Borda said. ''We felt like we knew what he was going to do. We knew his tendencies.''

''We have a lot of weapons, and the line was great again,'' Borda said. ''I felt like I was throwing downhill. It wasn't like I was hot. A lot of guys could stand there with that time and find open receivers.''

"Borda has never had five TD passes in a game — ''not even in the backyard,'' he said.

"I felt good," Borda said. "I felt like I was throwing downhill."

"Borda was named the Turco Memorial Trophy recipient. The award, which goes to the most outstanding player in the Homecoming game, hasn't been won by a Crusader in three years.

''I don't know what the award is about,'' Borda said, ''but I will find out about it.''

"I don't really feel I'm taking their award," said Borda... "I'd rather take the win rather than an award any day."

[I like that Borda's saying all the right things. Heaping praise on his offensive line. And it's hard not to like the fact that Borda didn't know what the Johnny Turco award was. Honesty.]

"What he did was, he came out and executed the game plan well," said Lehigh coach Pete Lembo, whose team improved to 4-1 overall. "The big question was, could Mark have the kind of day we hoped he could have? It was nice to come out and get off to a good start."

"There's a special sense of urgency that has to be present when you're playing a league game," Lembo said. "We still haven't played 60 full minutes the way I think we're capable of. I think we're taking baby steps forward.

"I think we took another step today."

Another step to the Patriot League title and the 1-AA playoffs, we hope.

Game Balls
Lots to go around:
Junior QB Mark Borda (Johnny Turco award-winner)
Senior TE Adam Bergen (101 yards receiving, 2 TDs)
Junior WR Gerran Walker (140 all-purpose yards, 1 TD)
Sophomore RB Eric Rath (88 rushing yards, 1 TD)
Sophomore RB Marques Thompson (85 all-purpose yards, 1 TD)
The entire 'O' Line: (for outstanding protection)
Sophomore RT Jason Russell
Senior RG Jason "Rocky" Morrell
Senior C Justin Terry
Junior LG Adam Selmasska
Senior LT Rob Sandie
Senior LB Anthony Graziani (5 tackles, 1 INT)
Junior LB Owen Breninger (5 tackles)
Junior DB Andrew Nelson (3 tackles, 1 INT)
Junior DT Josh Cooney (5 tackles, 1 sack)
Junior FS Kaloma Cardwell (5 tackles, 1 TFL)
Senior DT Tristan Lawrence (3 tackles, 2 sacks)

Congratulations!

Weekend Recap
A great week. I went 4-1 in the Patriot League, and 9-3 in the Top 25, with a lot of very accurate scores. That put me at an eye-popping 13-4 this week.

Really right:

Lehigh/Holy Cross. Predicted: Lehigh 49, HC 17. Real score: Lehigh 42, HC 14.

Lafayette/Columbia. Predicted: LC 35, Columbia 17. Real score: LC 35, Columbia 14.

Should have been right:

Penn/Bucknell. Bucknell game Penn everything they could handle, and had they been able to stop a 4th quarter Penn drive, I would have made it 5-0 in the Patriot this week.

Cal Poly at Sothern Utah. SUU just couldn't get it done against a Cal Poly team fighting for respect. They may just have got it with this win.

Was I ever wrong!:

Furman/Appalachian St. I vastly overrated the mettle of Furman in exorcising their App St. ghosts. App St. pulled off a 30-29 win, whereas I predicted a 30-10 Furman domination.

Stephen F. Austin/Florida International. I though SFA was miles better than FIU, but FIU pulled out a narrow game on the road. Made my 44-0 blowout prediction look foolish.

See you Friday!

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