Lehigh Football Nation

Speechless. Missed XP. Hard to tell if it was shanked or blocked - I say blocked. We had this game in our hands. We were up by 2 TDs - twice! - in the 4th quarter. But our weary defensive front seven gave up 3 TDs and the game was tied. Delaware kicked it into another gear I didn't think they had. I think a full-strength Matt Purdy might have helped. And in OT, in one of the most incredible drives *ever*, Borda was getting drilled every play and still standing after getting hit. He may have been concussed. And then Rath, who clearly said "Give the ball to me" after the timeout, went out there and got an incredible 4th down conversion, and took incredible punishment to convert the TD. And then, sad to say, the blocked XP. What can be said? I felt that Delaware was getting away with murder most of the game, though not in the biggest drives that counted. Missed holding, missed facemasks, incredible spots, the phantom fumble. Lehigh poured their blood out there tryi

Nervous. This still can be done. Delaware has been great. Got to give them credit. Now, let's just pull this out.

"Lehigh has sucked the life right out of this building" BWAH HAH HAH HAH! 2 point conversion - Borda - good!

Despite the egregiously missed calls by the officials; despite the horrible call on the "fumble"; despite some of the worst homer announcers on CN8 the land has ever seen; we find Lehigh driving at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Borda, please put this away now?

Despite CN8's version to the contrary, the blown snap by Delaware is actually good for Lehigh. Someone should fax a stat sheet to them saying that a safety is 2 points for Lehigh. Also, the stat that 9 points came off of Delaware tunrovers, whoop-ee. I ain't giving back the points.

More kissy-faces by the CN8 crew: "Two unfortunte plays by Delaware caused the punt". How about, great Lehigh defense and hard hard hitting? I hope we don't regret missing that FG. Come on, Lehigh, I like how we look here. Just got to keep things up defensively.

How bad in favor of Delaware are these announcers? Can they kissy-face Keeler and Delaware a bit more? I loved the stunned silence over the crowd when Lehigh was up 10-0. CN8 had one heck of a TV shot. I like what I've seen so far from Lehigh. It looks like this game will be a toss-up for all 4 quarters. Here's hoping for a good end of this half.

You are watching the game on channel 69 in the Lehigh Valley, CN8 up and down the eastern seaboard, right? Hard to picture a better start for Lehigh. A FG set up by dominating field position, 3 punts by Delaware's marginal punter, a nice Borda run up the middle set up by a turnover, and best of all total domination by Lehigh. We're establishing the run, we're making Delaware's mistakes pay, and, well, this is great. My Yuengling is tasting really good right now. Let's do the same next quarter, shall we?

From Tubby Raymond : Del Online: Who would a Lehigh fan enjoy beating more, Delaware or archrival Lafayette? Tubby: "Delaware, I would think. Here, I go again ... It's because of their selectivity of schedule. They really don't play anybody that could beat them. They've created a cloistered league [the Patriot] for themselves to play each other. So, when they play us, it's like the World Series. " After one interview, I all of a sudden remembered why I hated Delaware. Here's hoping a member of the "cloistered league" brings one home for the Patriot League. 7PM. I'll be here.

Here's my weekly prediction of games around I-AA. Hopefully I can do better than 17-7 last week. Patriot League Massachusetts at Colgate. I guarantee that Colgate will do better than most people think in this game. Not enough to guarantee a win, mind you, but I think they will regain some respect. UMass 27, Colgate 20. Fordham at Duquesne. This actually could be an interesting game. I think Fordham pulls this out, but it will be a barn-burner. Fordham 35, Duquesne 32. Georgetown at Holy Cross. If the Hoyas win, and all of a sudden they are 2-0 in the league and (please don't laugh) a PL title contender. No, really. If the Crusaders win, and their PL campaign will get off on the right track. I think the Hoyas win, and turn some heads. G'town 24, HC 21. Richmond at Lafayette. I relly don't see how the Leopards lose this game, especially since Spider coach Dave Clawson seems to be purposely marginalizing his most exciting player in Stacey Tutt. Lafayette 31, Richmond 7

Your press roundup is just below, just in case you weren't pumped up enough for the "Blue Route Battle". Tomorrow I'll be blogging about the game from the comfort of my home, with Yuengling in hand. Why? It's not because I couldn't get a ticket - you'll just have to check on I-AA.org on Sunday to see why. Sure is strange to not go to Delaware for such a big game, though. Permit me to go on a little bit before my press roundup. I'm a Lehigh guy, and I want to see Delaware beaten like nobody's business. I sense a lot of bravado on Lehigh's side, and there is an eerie quiet on the Blue Hen side. But make no bones about it - this is going to be a dogfight. Delaware will have more talent on the field than Lehigh. It will take a perfect team effort to win, even a flawed Delaware team, in the Tub. It's going to be a sellout crowd down there, and it will absolutely be electric. There will be a lot of TVs tuned to Channel 69 and CN8 as well on Satur

As promised, here's your Lehigh/Delaware preview. About Lehigh and Delaware Lehigh and Delaware are physically separated by about 100 miles - 60 of which are on I-476, or the "Blue Route". However, Delaware and Lehigh are separated by more than the Blue Route. They're also separated by the number of scholarships - the Hens have 63 full scholarships versus Lehigh's 50 or so grants-in-aid. They're also separated by the number of transfer students - though I'm not sure how many Delaware has currently, they do have more than Lehigh's 2 transfers. They're separated by quality of their conference -- the A-10 claims the last two I-AA championship winners (one of whom was Delaware), while the Patriot League is still looking for its first I-AA championship in their history. Finally, Delaware has owned Lehigh in the "Blue Route Battle" - they have won 9 of the last 10 meetings, including a 47-22 mauling in 2000 in the latest game in this rivalry (i

At 20-7, you'd think I'd be really happy, but I lost some doozies this week. Really Right Troy 27, Cal Poly 10. My score: Troy 27, Cal Poly 17. Troy was just too much for a game Mustang squad. Should Have Been Right San Jose St. 35, Eastern Washington 24. My score: EWU 28, SJSU 17. Had QB Erik Meyer not gotten injured, I think the Eagles would have pulled this one out. Was I Ever Wrong Central Connecticut St. 24, Colgate 22. My score: Colgate 56, CCSU 10. With so many poor scores to choose from, this game has to win the Giant Turkey award. No way did I think the Devils could run with the Raiders, and I was oh-so-wrong.

There's plenty of time to get hyped up for Lehigh/Delaware on Saturday. (If you haven't got your tickets yet, better head to your friendly neighborhood scalper, as it's already sold out.) In the meantime, let's wrap up last week's business first, starting with last week's game balls. It's no secret that one game ball will be going to the gentleman on your left, senior WR Gerran "G" Walker . With 311 all-purpose yards, including 144 returning yards, and 2 receiving TDs, he was a lock. On special teams and offense, he was a monster out there. (Photo courtesy of the Brown & White, Doug Moquet.) Also on offense, I'd be remiss in not giving a ball to QB Mark Borda for his 22 for 31 day with 344 yards passing, 21 yards rushing and 6 TD passes. His 6 TDs tied a record held by Scott Semptimphelter ('95) and Kyle Keating ('04). He torched the Monmouth secondary and was the reason why Monmouth's upset bid wasn't meant to be. Finally,

As much as I'd like to talk about Lehigh's unbelievable offensive performance on Saturday, on a perfect day in Murray Goodman, my thoughts keep drifing back to another score on the day: Central Connecticut State 24, Colgate 22. Yes, Mark Borda played like a champ with 6 TDs going 22 for 31. Yeah, Gerran Walker had one of those days that receivers just dream about. But Colgate, losing to Central Connecticut State, could be the most significant development of the week. When I picked CCSU to be beaten by Colgate 56 to 3, I obviously did no research on the Devils whatsoever. What did I know? I knew they played in the Northeast Conference. I knew that they were #6 in the Sports Network I-AA mid-major poll, and that's about it. I felt like they weren't as good as Monmouth. I also knew that even though Colgate has some question marks on offense, they always seem to have a Chris Brown or a Jamaal Branch hiding in the wings just waiting to get into the starting lineup, an