Lehigh Football Nation

Just finished watching the replay on lehighsports.com . First of all, what a crowd! 13,000+ fans at the game is going to make a lot of people in the Lehigh athletic office extremely happy! It looked like a great gameday atmosphere - let me tell you, after spending the day at Hofstra, I can tell you I missed Goodman! A big hearty congratulations has to go out to all the fans that came to the game - if Lehigh is lucky enough to make the playoffs and get a home playoff game this year, every one of you can feel responsible. Second of all, don't let the 46 points fool you, this win was a direct result to the Lehigh "D" standing up really tall when the game was still on the line. They gave up only 2 first downs when the starters were still in the game, and if you subtract the Lehigh fumble giving the Hoyas a 9-yard field to work with, they basically pitched a shutout. I'm very pleased with the defensive effort. The "O" did come off to a slow start, but ultim...

No live blog of Georgetown/Lehigh today, since I'm off to Hofstra to cover the New Hampshire/Hofstra game for I-AA.org . I'd strongly suggest logging onto lehighsports.com to get the audio and video of the game if you can't make it - but with 70 degree weather, it should be a great day for football! Here's my predictions of other games this week: Patriot League: Bucknell at Fordham. The Rams beating a Steve Silva-less Holy Cross squad, is one thing. Stopping the triple-option with Dante Ross as the triggerman is quite another. Bucknell 27, Fordham 18. Colgate at Lafayette. A game which has Patriot League title implications, and which features two teams which need to answer questions. On paper, with two solid teams it should be a close game, and the winner of the turnover battle should win the game. History, though, points to Colgate having the Leopards' number in a big way, winning the last 9 games. It just seems difficult to see Colgate get up emotionally for ...

This will be a really quick one, since I'm extra-cranky from broken computers and general computer malaise. Georgetown is coming tomorrow to Murray Goodman in a game which every year means a lot to coach Lembo. Georgetown is coach Lembo's alma mater, and each year there's an extra bit of emotion and passion in the air for him. There should be a huge crowd on-hand tomorrow to cheer on the Mountain Hawks in our last home game of the year (before Lehigh/Lafayette, that is). I'm going to be interested in what Lehigh team shows up tomorrow. What you didn't read this week is from Hoya head coach Bob Benson: "We're real good up front. [Seinor DE Michael Ononibaku] and [junior DE Alex Buzbee] are tremendous players... and there aren't many better than junior DT Julius Griauzde. The guys on the edge have to keep us in these games.. we've got to have more success early in games. We have to start early and finish completely.. it's the only way [to ...

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's schools which don't release their game notes in a timely fashion. Normally my game previews come out on Wednesday, but foolishly I tried to wait for Georgetown to post their game notes on their website. These game notes are not only the lifeblood of something like this blog (where I'm able to write all sorts of free publicity about, say, Georgetown's football program), but it's also important to members of the mainstream media covering the game. The best way to have media members spell and pronounce the name "Ononibaku" correctly is to have game notes out by the middle of the week. Releasing them on a Friday doesn't help anybody - it's old news by then. Having got out all my excuses for my preview being late, I was able to scrounge up enough information to come up with a credible preview blog post of the Georgetown/Lehigh clash this weekend. Over at hoyasaxa.com there is a "behind enemy l...

Let's get to the good stuff first. Tonight at 9PM EST I will be on I-AA Waves , the only internet radio show devoted solely to I-AA football! Courtesy of the fine folks at I-AA.org , I'll be talking about this blog, my I-AA diaries, and the Patriot League tonight! It's not to be missed! In the media polls, Lehigh rose to #13 , (just as I not-so-humbly predicted), and in the Any Given Saturday poll we're at #12 . Voters obviously were impressed with our performance against Colgate. The key to our Patriot League title hopes (and I-AA playoff aspirations) will be to bring the "A" game the rest of the way. The first must-win game will be against a Georgetown team that would love nothing better than to secure their first three-win Patriot League season, as well as to possibly finish with a winning record for the first time since 1999 (when they were in the MAAC). I haven't decided on a new website poll just yet, but bear with me, I'll come up with som...

Here's a preview of something every Lehigh fan would not want to see this coming Saturday at Goodman - a fired-up Georgetown team, looking to finish at .500 in the Patriot League, and with a winning record - celebrating on our home field after a shock victory. As great as the Colgate victory was, seeing this on Saturday would shoot out Patriot League title hopes (and I-AA playoff hopes) squarely in the foot. Having said that, it's time to celebrate the Colgate victory, the inaugural "Engine 13" Cup win, the vital Patriot League win that puts us firmly back in control of our title destiny, by sharing Game Balls for this great game. On offense - what can you say. It's going to look a lot like Bucknell's game balls. As a matter of fact, it's going to be identical. The whole "O" line is getting another game ball - sophomore T Jimmy Kehs, senior T Tom Toth, junior G Jim Petrucelli, junior G Adam Selmasska, and junior C John Reese . Let's look at...

Why does it seem like after every game, I end up posting a picture of Eric "TNT" Rath, do you ask? (This week's Rath-o-rama has been brought to you by Tim Sofranko, c/o the Morning Call.) Well, his 4 TDs on the ground certainly go a long way towards justifying that this week. But it seems like every week he seems to have some sort of photographic moment. At least in this one, you can see pictures of the guys who helped Rath's TDs happen - the "O" line. Of course I'm really happy that Lehigh helped me take home the inaugural "Engine 13" cup this week by doing something no team has ever done before - score 50 points in Andy Kerr stadium. It's an offensive performance that leaves you running out of superlatives. Sophomore QB Sedale Threatt played like a senior, with 100 yards rushing and 187 yards passing. Rath - 4 TDs. Turnovers - zero. Importantly, we got the important yards when we needed to thanks to the inspired play of the ...