Skip to main content

Press Roundup: Bucknell/Lehigh

The press was kind to the Mountain Hawks this week as we roll towards the most important Lehigh/Holy Cross game since 1991. Normally I don't have recaps from "that school from Easton" included here, but this week I did since they played this week's opponent last week and I thought it was worthwhile to look at a quote or two from that postgame press conference as well. Something for you, the Lehigh fan, to chew on as we head towards next Saturday.

This week's game balls will be going to some guys that may be surprising. On offense, rather than go with the new kid Yansane, I'm going to go with the underappreciated senior RB Marques Thompson. I think sometimes folks forget about him whem he "only" gets over 100 yards rushing, 144 all-purpose yards, and 1 TD. He also got key first downs with a lot of these yards, as well as the TD that really put the game in the "W" column for Lehigh. Marques "Barry Sanders" Thompson deserves a game ball this week.

On defense, no question it's sophomore DE Brad Thomas with eight tackles and some big stops in the first half. The defense is really playing very selflessly, with different guys making the big plays every week, but this week it's definitely Thomas. Not bad for someone in his first start on the "D" line - I think with this week's performance, he's a good chance at starting next week too.

There wasn't much to do for Lehigh in special teams this week; Bucknell frequently went for it on 4th down and wanted to kick the ball out of bounds rather than kick to WR Frank "Al Del Greco" Trovato on punts. That leaves not too many candidates, but sophomore PK Jason Leo will get his overdue props with a game ball here. 5-for-5 on extra points, one 25 yard FG, and two 42 yard punts are, happily, a regular day at the office for Leo. It's as much a pat of the back for an error-free Bucknell game as a nod to his great year so far for the Mountain Hawks. Congratulations to all!

Enjoy the press clippings today; be ready for the Holy Cross preview tomorrow.

Allentown Morning Call:
Lehigh Feels At Home In Win Over Bison
Upshot: Now that's more like it. That's what the Lehigh faithful among the 10,673 at Goodman Stadium were thinking Saturday afternoon after watching their favorite team roll to a 38-7 Patriot League win over Bucknell. "It was, flat out, a team effort," said Threatt, who was the model of efficiency with a 14-for-19, 126-yard passing performance to go with 35 rushing yards. "The offense really jelled together today. We're on a mission. We know the task ahead of us. We all understand it's league play now. You want to win every week, but at this point, we know we have to win them all."

Hawks Share the Load
Upshot: "Lee [Thomas] and Frankie [Trovato] were down all week [with injuries], so Mike Fitzgerald and I had to step up and take advantage of the opportunity to make some plays," said [sophomore WR Sekou] Yansane. "It felt great to score a touchdown. That was my first one. Hopefully, there are more to come." QB Sedale Threatt agreed. "All of these guys were here all summer working out. Sekou was one of them. These guys are hungry. [Assistant] coach [Donnie] Roberts always says 'When an opportunity knocks on the door, you better open it up,' and that's what Sekou did today."

Easton Express-Times:
Holy Cross Crossing Up Contenders
Upshot: [QB Dominic] Randolph [against Lafayette] had ample time to throw, often checking down to his second and third options. His line doused Lafayette's blitzes and he picked apart the zone coverages. "I'd say about 75 percent of the time I was looking for my second and third receivers," Randolph said. "That (first) series was my fault, but we knew what we could do and treated it like it was a 0-0 game. My line gave me great protection."

Brown & White:
Hawks destroy Bison, are 2-0 in League Play
Upshot: “It felt good to go out and finally put it together offensively and defensively for a full game, but we all know there still is a lot of work to be done,” [junior WR Pete] Donchez said. “We have all Patriot League games left — four games to work and keep trying to get better. We all know what happened last year [against Holy Cross] and we have a lot of motivation for the game. We just need to prepare and have a good week of practice.”

Daily Item:
Lehigh Beats Bucknell
Upshot: "Lehigh won the battle up front from the first snap. The Mountain Hawks racked up 368 yards total offense, including a career-high 126 yards rushing from Marques Thompson. Quarterback Sedale Threatt added two rushing touchdowns and two passing scores as Lehigh never officially punted when the game's outcome was in doubt."

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great write up Chuck. By the way, Brad Thomas is an outside linebacker not a defensive end.
Anonymous said…
How could you not give the special team nod to Laquan Gassaway? On two sucessive kickoffs he absolutely DESTROYED the Bucknell returner. The folks in the stands were going nuts. Perhaps he did blow it when he got called for being offside on the next kickoff but I believe he atoned for that with an int late in the game. This guy can hit people.

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.