Coach Coen finally got his season-opening win. In a game that featured torrential rain and Lehigh's brand-new grass and drainage system almost as much as Lehigh's stifling defense, the Mountain Hawks scored 13 early points and didn't look back in cruising to a 19-0 victory. (My photo album will hopefully be up sometime in the next couple of days.)
With so much talk in the offseason about quarterbacks, how's this for a debut: sophomore QB J.B. Clark's first two pass attempts as a starting QB were completions for touchdowns. His stat sheet was modest, but efficient - 9-for-12 for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns. One of those was a beautiful streak by senior WR Sekou "Stunt Man" Yansane down the right side of the field where he "beat his man like a rented mule" as another famous Pennsylvania sports announcer once uttered.
Senior RB Matt McGowan erased any lingering doubts about his injuries from last year after posting his best-ever day rushing in a Mountain Hawk uniform. His 39 rushes for 172 yards were 60% of the offensive Lehigh plays for the Mountain Hawks on the afternoon, and McGowan played his style of running. "I'm not going to try to run around you - I'm going to try to run you over first," he said, and on many of his runs he basically did just that. "We had seven guys trying to block nine or ten guys [in the second half]," coach Coen said. "[Even so,] I thought Matt a couple times was going to turn one of those 10 or 12 yard runs into 60 yarders."
Defensively, Lehigh had an outstanding day disrupting Drake's offensive system. The Mountain Hawk "D" held the Bulldogs to only 7 yards rushing, forced the duo of quarterbacks to go 12-32 for 118 yards and 2 interceptions while also pouncing on a fumble (although he wasn't given credit for it, from my angle on the field it looked like senior LB Tim Diamond forced the fumble from Drake QB Cole Ingle). Statistically, senior DL Brian Jackson had the best day with 7 tackles, at 1 tackle for loss.
Special teams had their troubles at times with the conditions, but one player that did impress on special teams (and defense) is junior LB Troy Taylor with two nice tackles on kickoffs and an absolute bone-crusher hit on a busted running play in the second quarter.
All that, and Lehigh shut out another opponent at Goodman Stadium: their first shutout at Goodman since last year (a 45-0 defeat of Georgetown) and their first shutout of an opponent at Goodman not named Georgetown since 1998 (when Lehigh shut out Wofford 26-0). What's not to like about the defensive effort?
It's great to get a "W" this early. Having said that, it's difficult to see what we've learned about this Lehigh team at this point in time with this victory. Drake, part of the non-scholarship Pioneer League, is on their third head coach in three years and had what looked to be a pretty thin travel team on the other sideline from Des Moines, Iowa. The Bulldogs played their guts out - coach Coen said Drake "played very, very physical" and gave them lots of credit in the postgame press conference - and did hold us without a touchdown after the 1st quarter of the game. On special teams, there were (predictably) mistakes that needed correction.
The old saying is that teams see the most improvement from Week One to Week Two, and Lehigh will need to show that improvement next week if they hope to have a chance to knock down nationally-ranked Villanova.
With so much talk in the offseason about quarterbacks, how's this for a debut: sophomore QB J.B. Clark's first two pass attempts as a starting QB were completions for touchdowns. His stat sheet was modest, but efficient - 9-for-12 for 146 yards and 2 touchdowns. One of those was a beautiful streak by senior WR Sekou "Stunt Man" Yansane down the right side of the field where he "beat his man like a rented mule" as another famous Pennsylvania sports announcer once uttered.
Senior RB Matt McGowan erased any lingering doubts about his injuries from last year after posting his best-ever day rushing in a Mountain Hawk uniform. His 39 rushes for 172 yards were 60% of the offensive Lehigh plays for the Mountain Hawks on the afternoon, and McGowan played his style of running. "I'm not going to try to run around you - I'm going to try to run you over first," he said, and on many of his runs he basically did just that. "We had seven guys trying to block nine or ten guys [in the second half]," coach Coen said. "[Even so,] I thought Matt a couple times was going to turn one of those 10 or 12 yard runs into 60 yarders."
Defensively, Lehigh had an outstanding day disrupting Drake's offensive system. The Mountain Hawk "D" held the Bulldogs to only 7 yards rushing, forced the duo of quarterbacks to go 12-32 for 118 yards and 2 interceptions while also pouncing on a fumble (although he wasn't given credit for it, from my angle on the field it looked like senior LB Tim Diamond forced the fumble from Drake QB Cole Ingle). Statistically, senior DL Brian Jackson had the best day with 7 tackles, at 1 tackle for loss.
Special teams had their troubles at times with the conditions, but one player that did impress on special teams (and defense) is junior LB Troy Taylor with two nice tackles on kickoffs and an absolute bone-crusher hit on a busted running play in the second quarter.
All that, and Lehigh shut out another opponent at Goodman Stadium: their first shutout at Goodman since last year (a 45-0 defeat of Georgetown) and their first shutout of an opponent at Goodman not named Georgetown since 1998 (when Lehigh shut out Wofford 26-0). What's not to like about the defensive effort?
It's great to get a "W" this early. Having said that, it's difficult to see what we've learned about this Lehigh team at this point in time with this victory. Drake, part of the non-scholarship Pioneer League, is on their third head coach in three years and had what looked to be a pretty thin travel team on the other sideline from Des Moines, Iowa. The Bulldogs played their guts out - coach Coen said Drake "played very, very physical" and gave them lots of credit in the postgame press conference - and did hold us without a touchdown after the 1st quarter of the game. On special teams, there were (predictably) mistakes that needed correction.
The old saying is that teams see the most improvement from Week One to Week Two, and Lehigh will need to show that improvement next week if they hope to have a chance to knock down nationally-ranked Villanova.
Comments
1) Too much free time
2) Lack of or unable to woo a
significant other
3) Ties to Lafayette
It's okay ... we all understand you never made it..