Skip to main content

Press Roundup; Game Balls

This picture, courtesy of the Morning Call, not surprisingly, shows us one of the recipients of this week's game balls.

Junior RB Marques Thompson got 127 all-purpose yards and did everything but get into the end zone. With a 40 yard and 30 yard scamper, he was a huge force in the running game this week. On the same note, I'm also going to give a big game ball to - who else - senior RB Eric "TNT" Rath for his 106 all-purpose yards and 1 TD. No pic of "TNT" this week, but he will get a game ball. Congratulations to all!

On defense, it was tough choosing players in what I considered a very solid team effort on defense. Ultimately, I felt senior FS Kaloma Cardwell and senior LB Matt Purdy deserved the nod with the big stops on 3rd down that spelled doom for the Hoyas offensively. The stat sheet may not reflect it - 12 tackles combined between the two of them - but when the game was on the line, it was them leading the way to a great defensive day. Congratulations!

Special teams game balls are going to be going to two freshmen. One won't be a surprise to regular readers of this blog: freshman P/K John Leo. 3 punts with a 44.3 average - all inside the 20- would probably be more than enough most weeks, but when you add a 43 yard FG, and a 47 yard FG that misses by about a foot - wow. The other freshman you may not have heard of, but I think you will in future years - freshman DB Brendan VanAckeren. The stat sheet says 2 special-teams tackles against Georgetown, but every week he is becoming an enforcer on special teams, including 3 versus Colgate 2 weeks ago. He's a big reason why our special teams unit is the best in the Patriot League. Congratulations!

Not much of a press roundup this week. We get the usual thorough coverage from the Morning Call (who have a very nice site update recently, by the way), but a lack of good coverage from the Hoya or the Washington Post leaves me with a much smaller press list than usual.

Allentown Morning Call:
Lehigh Downs Hoyas, Regains Share Of First
Lembo Won't Let Lehigh Relax Against Fordham

Easton Express-Times:
Thompson Gets His Chance

Brown & White:
Hawks Fly Past Hoyas Into First Place

Hoyasaxa.com:
Lehigh 46, Georgetown 14

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would, again, add kudos for the O-Line. 332 yards rushing also comes because of the blocking. Also, the 'great' GU DE's--where were they? At seasons' beginning, the 'big uglies' were the biggest question mark on this team,and IF we take care of business, as I know we can, then I would consider that group's improvement as the key to a successful year.
--Ngineer
Anonymous said…
Chuck,

The Offense runs for 332, shuts down Ononibaku,a 1-AA 1st Team All-American, does the same to Buzbee and the O-line doesn't get a game ball? I don't care how many tackles Ono had. Most of them were from persuit, chasing the play. Same with the Buzbee. Those 2 could have taken over the game and caused a very long day for Sedale.

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.