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A Quick Press Roundup, and My Quick Thoughts


Lehigh left all their blood and spit on the field last night. We were without our starting cornerbacks, a top linebacker not at 100%, and defensive linemen banged up and bruised. Our top receiver was out. Yet we went into one of the toughest places to play in all of I-AA and were Delaware's equal the entire game. It is bitter; it is tough to swallow; but we can't forget that.

Someone ought to make a tape of the OT drive that resulted in the Lehigh TD, the one where senior RB Eric "TNT" Rath somehow managed to stretch and convert the 4th-and-2 for the first down, and found the drive to barrel around left and right for the TD - all the while when (I believe) Borda was concussed after receiving that (illegal?) helmet-to-helmet hit. We should play that before every game. That drive, more than any other, should typefy Lehigh football.

Yes, "TNT" is Rath's new nickname. Don't remember where I heard it, but it's perfect. You heard it here first. I won't do a full digest, but enough is below.

Finally, ngineer, K.C. Keeler and everyone else is right. We gotta do this again.

(Thanks to Any Given Saturday, and ngineer.)

Allentown Morning Call
Delaware rallies for 34-33 OT win over Lehigh
Mountain Hawks give Delaware a taste of the Patriot League

Easton Express Times
Lehigh denied in OT thriller

News Journal
Cuff's five TDs key Hens comeback
Blue Hen finds hometown motivation
After slow start, offense comes to life

Delaware State News
Hens rally for OT win

"I'm very confident that this team is resilient enough to recover emotionally from this, but we were getting quite banged up physically," Lehigh coach Pete Lembo said. "They'll walk out of this with their heads up. I think we saw tonight that we can be a pretty good football team if we make some plays."

"Unfortunately, when the pace picked up, we were running out of bodies," Lembo said. "Our receiving corps got pretty banged up in the fourth quarter and late in the third."

"I thought our defense had a heck of a day, but they may have gotten tired and Delaware seemed to start finding things late," Lehigh quarterback Mark Borda said. "Still, it was a great experience. I had fun out there tonight. The final result is very disappointing, but the experience of the crowd and this atmosphere was phenomenal."

Comments

Anonymous said…
Look out Keydets. I sense our boys will comeback from this with a vengeance. There's a lot left to prove this year.

-Ngineer
5:43 PM
Anonymous said…
That was one hell of a football game and I'm glad I made the trip down, but like JMU last year Lehigh came up just short. I didn't really realize how hard Borda had gotten hit last night until I got home and watched the tape, all I can say is wow hell of an effort. TNT's dive for the first down on our first set of downs in OT was a hell of a play and not a bad place for my recording to end, haha anyways hopefully this week off will allow for everybody to get healthy before the trip down to Lexington.

~ John G, '07
10:51 PM
Anonymous said…
please stop referring to the hit on borda as illegal. it wouldn't have been helmet-to-helmet if borda hadn't put his helmet down and tried to stand up an experienced defender. the replays clearly show that roger brown was aiming for borda's body, but borda put his head down and tried to play running back. POP. lesson learned, move on.
2:05 AM
Anonymous said…
What replay were you watching?
2:42 PM
Anonymous said…
It's pretty obvious Borda made a big mistake trying to take on an onrushing DB. Fortunately he came out of it OK this time. As the CN8 announcers suggested, the smart thing to do would have been to have slid. Hopefully that's a lesson learned.

I've watched the replay several times and the hit was clearly not an intentional helmet-to-helmet blow, as Chuck suggested. It was helmet-to-upper chest. Borda did tuck his head just before absorbing the blow. It appeared that his facemask may have grazed the top of Brown's helmet when he tucked.

Mark's a gutsy QB and was pounded hard in the second half. He earned a lot of respect for his hard-nosed play and the manner in which he conducted himself. Ditto the rest of LU.

Cheers,
henfan
10:42 PM
Anonymous said…
"What replay were you watching?"

I videotaped that play myself and have it on my computer.
12:15 AM
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