This weekend, I saw the Lehigh/Princeton game in a variety of areas around Princeton stadium, as I always do: in the stands, on the sidelines, and in the press box. Princeton's press box is a particularly nice one, and for the press corps this evening was something you don't see often in a press box: gourmet "soup".
It was delicious: a potato horesradish "soup" that could have come from any fine restaurant off of Princeton's main street. On a damp evening, two bowls of that "soup" were probably the only thing keeping me from catching pneumonia as I was rushing in and out of the press box.
"Soup" is what Lehigh fans need right now.
"Soup" is comfort food, a taste of something that takes you back years ago - when mother had you stay home from school and eat a hearty cup of Campbell's Chicken Noodle instead of facing the dark, cruel reality which is the world.
For Lehigh fans, "soup" means the traditions that fans have enjoyed over the years observing Lehigh football. That means winning and competing for Patriot League championships, of course, but also watching offenses that score early and often. If you browse some of the games that were being commemorated in the 20th anniversary of Murray Goodman stadium, you saw a lot of high scoring games: Lehigh 36, Harvard 35. Lehigh 41, Colgate 22. Lehigh 31, Princeton 24.
It's a Lehigh fan's version of the Campbell's commercial: win or lose, at least we'll put up a lot of points and put on a show. This is a fan base that last year voted a loss - Holy Cross 42, Lehigh 41 - as the second best game ever played at Murray Goodman stadium. That loss was ranked over a 27-24 overtime playoff win over a CAA team in Hofstra, a 14-13 loss in the playoffs to the eventual I-AA Champs in James Madison, and two different wins versus Lafayette. This is a fan base that worships offense.
To these fans, there is no "soup" in this offense. 19, 14, and 7 points in 3 games just simply leaves people with cracker crumbs when they're looking for cream of tomato.
Now, even a fan base that is expecting "soup" can get used to having something else to satisfy the appetite. While some fans would have still complained if the Mountain Hawks escaped Princeton on the winning side by a 10-7 score, the fans still would have had something to chew on: a hard-fought win, and this young offense would have more to build on for next week.
There seems to be an annoying optimist in me that tries to rationalize things. The first game of the year was played in a downpour that made the field a "soup"-y mess, so maybe a low-scoring game was to be expected in that one. The second game of the year came on the road against a nationally-ranked CAA team - one that just upset the #1 team in the country last week in the exact same venue. And yesterday's team revealed a Princeton team that looked an awful lot like the team that played with a lot of precision in 2006, not the mistake-filled team Lehigh played in 2007.
Plus, it was rainy on Saturday, the annoying optimist adds.
Are these excuses? I don't know; they probably are. Maybe I, just like the rest of Lehigh Nation, have been simply denied "soup" so long that I'm grasping for positives to take out of this game. I'm getting used to losing. I'm getting used to not having "soup". This team has only won three times in its last ten games - beating only Georgetown, Bucknell, and Drake in that stretch. In the seven losses we haven't cracked 21 points.
What I do know is that if Lehigh continues to say "No soup for you!" - especially next week against 2-0 Cornell - it's going to be pretty dark times on South Mountain.
I think I speak for the fan base when I say we're extremely hungry for anything - "soup", or wins. Ideally both.
It was delicious: a potato horesradish "soup" that could have come from any fine restaurant off of Princeton's main street. On a damp evening, two bowls of that "soup" were probably the only thing keeping me from catching pneumonia as I was rushing in and out of the press box.
"Soup" is what Lehigh fans need right now.
"Soup" is comfort food, a taste of something that takes you back years ago - when mother had you stay home from school and eat a hearty cup of Campbell's Chicken Noodle instead of facing the dark, cruel reality which is the world.
For Lehigh fans, "soup" means the traditions that fans have enjoyed over the years observing Lehigh football. That means winning and competing for Patriot League championships, of course, but also watching offenses that score early and often. If you browse some of the games that were being commemorated in the 20th anniversary of Murray Goodman stadium, you saw a lot of high scoring games: Lehigh 36, Harvard 35. Lehigh 41, Colgate 22. Lehigh 31, Princeton 24.
It's a Lehigh fan's version of the Campbell's commercial: win or lose, at least we'll put up a lot of points and put on a show. This is a fan base that last year voted a loss - Holy Cross 42, Lehigh 41 - as the second best game ever played at Murray Goodman stadium. That loss was ranked over a 27-24 overtime playoff win over a CAA team in Hofstra, a 14-13 loss in the playoffs to the eventual I-AA Champs in James Madison, and two different wins versus Lafayette. This is a fan base that worships offense.
To these fans, there is no "soup" in this offense. 19, 14, and 7 points in 3 games just simply leaves people with cracker crumbs when they're looking for cream of tomato.
Now, even a fan base that is expecting "soup" can get used to having something else to satisfy the appetite. While some fans would have still complained if the Mountain Hawks escaped Princeton on the winning side by a 10-7 score, the fans still would have had something to chew on: a hard-fought win, and this young offense would have more to build on for next week.
There seems to be an annoying optimist in me that tries to rationalize things. The first game of the year was played in a downpour that made the field a "soup"-y mess, so maybe a low-scoring game was to be expected in that one. The second game of the year came on the road against a nationally-ranked CAA team - one that just upset the #1 team in the country last week in the exact same venue. And yesterday's team revealed a Princeton team that looked an awful lot like the team that played with a lot of precision in 2006, not the mistake-filled team Lehigh played in 2007.
Plus, it was rainy on Saturday, the annoying optimist adds.
Are these excuses? I don't know; they probably are. Maybe I, just like the rest of Lehigh Nation, have been simply denied "soup" so long that I'm grasping for positives to take out of this game. I'm getting used to losing. I'm getting used to not having "soup". This team has only won three times in its last ten games - beating only Georgetown, Bucknell, and Drake in that stretch. In the seven losses we haven't cracked 21 points.
What I do know is that if Lehigh continues to say "No soup for you!" - especially next week against 2-0 Cornell - it's going to be pretty dark times on South Mountain.
I think I speak for the fan base when I say we're extremely hungry for anything - "soup", or wins. Ideally both.
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