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Lehigh 21, Holy Cross 35, final

Once again, Lehigh showed some good fight.

Once again, Lehigh in effect spotted a team points in the first half - not on turnovers this time, but by allowing Holy Cross to march down the field on three straight possessions to go ahead 21-0.

Once again, Lehigh came back to tie the game at 21, mostly on the back of senior RB Matt McGowan's incredible performance: 244 all-purpose yards and 2 touchdowns, and senior DB Quadir Carter's two big interceptions in the red zone.

Tied in the 4th quarter, it felt like anybody's game. Just like the Harvard game. Or the Princeton game. Or the Cornell game.

But Holy Cross proved why they're a potential Patriot League championship team, and Lehigh isn't.

Payton Award candidate Dominic Randolph promptly led Holy Cross on a 11 play, 71 yard drive, avoiding a near-certain sack on 3rd and 1 at the 2 yard line and finally picking WR Jon Brock to go ahead 28-21.

Lehigh gets the ball back, and suffers a weak 3-and-out. A 3rd-and-4 screen pass, on the bad footing at Fitton Field, went nowhere, and senior P/K Jason Leo trotted out to punt.

In some years, I'd see Leo trot out and I'd feel like Lehigh had just yet begun to fight. But not this time. After that 3-and-out, I felt the game was probably over. Maybe it's a function of being in this position four times already, I'm not sure. But I didn't have that feeling that we could defnitely make this happen.

One drive later, it was over. Randolph shredded the defense on a 13-play, 77 yard drive, including two huge third down conversions. This time, he found WR Brett McDermott in the end zone to make the score 35-21 with just about 4 minutes to play.

Sophomore QB J.B. Clark kept battling - but two interceptions later, those hopes were dashed. Lehigh falls to 2-5, and faces an extremely uphill battle the rest of the way to avoid a losing record for the second consecutive season.

Once again, Lehigh battled, and Lehigh lost.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well Chuck, wasn't I truly the fool to even utter the phrase "run the table". This game was won fair and square by a better and very good HC side, over a very tough bunch of outmatched fighters from LU. It ironic that we have our best running game going in several years, and Matt is clearly this year's MVP to date. But Dominic Randolph is one of the better QBs to ever play in the PL and the coaching at HC is superb. Not much else to say today. LU has a hell of challenge now to contend, and unfortunately its going to be the old story of hoping chaos reigns with everyone else. NC, Colgate and Easton Tech are obviously the favorites and all very good clubs. The goal is now to improve and be competitive going into the 4th quarter each week, knowing we will be the clear favorites only once more this year.
Anonymous said…
How many more post game interviews are we going to hear "This was a tough loss"?

The arguement that these aren't Coen's recruits is gone, the injury excuse is gone, and the scholarship excuse was always a joke.

It's always good to be the optomist and say we are playing better, we see improvement, etc. etc.

But if you realy want to be realistic, it is scary to see that most, if not all of this years play makers are Seniors, which doesn't make me feel any better about next year.

I think the only saving grace for Coen is if he finds a way to be the school down the road!
Anonymous said…
Everything happened in that game as expected. No reasonable Lehigh fan expected a win yesturday. Randolph and his passing offense trashes Lehigh everytime. Lehigh continues to show fight and if they can circle the wagons they can finish very strong. Colgate and Lafayette's strength is their run O which will face off versus our strength of rush D. Lehigh can finish 4-0 if they man up in the trenches. Coen came in for the running game now he needs to prove it with a 4-0 finish.
Anonymous said…
Realy? when is the last time HC beat us on their field?

I think the more appropriste response should be, no realistic Lehigh fan exepects to keep loosing! rather than to exepect to loose.

Thank godness everyone will have a week to feel better about this program next week after a win against the "powerhouse" Georgetown.
Anonymous said…
I thought there was some good fight in Lehigh but they caught some breaks to score... I didn't see how they could stop HC with their pass defense ultimately if HC stopped making errors... They were clearly overmatched.... Looking at scores in the PL yesterday, our losing streak to LC could hit 5 pretty easily... They seem pretty strong.. maybe it'll be our turn to pull the upset...
Anonymous said…
Don't give up. This team has shown potential. There is no reason that they cannot win 4 straight. Of course, Holy Cross has to lose 2 games, and it is possible. (They play Lafayette and Colgate ON THE ROAD). I hope those with anti-Lafayette sentiment have enough sense to hope Lafayette wins against Holy Cross for the sake of Lehigh's chances. I've seen them happy in the past when Lafayette lost when it would have been more advantageous for Lehigh if they had won. This is one of those times. Keep up the fight - maybe we can get a break.
Anonymous said…
Interesting logic - "There is no reason that they cannot win 4 straight. Of course, Holy Cross has to lose 2 games, and it is possible." So the logic is that Lehigh can beat Colgate and LC, while the team that beat Lehigh by 2 TDs loses to Colgate and LC. Here's a more likely scenario. Lehigh loses to Colgate and LC and LC and Colgate beat HC and the LC - Colgate is for the league title.
Anonymous said…
I don't know how HC is going to stop a Colgate team that seemingly has a 200 yard guy every game. LU and Easton College have very good run defenses, so each has a shot against the 'Gate. HC has a subpar run defense, so they will have to get a huge day and no turnovers from Randolph. I think Gate and HC will probably lose at least one game each, maybe 2, and based on Easton's dismantaling of a decent Liberty squad, they are then the favorites. If LU can stop the vaunted 'Gate running and get some great days from McGowan and Clark and the D for the next 3 weeks, it MAY come down to LC and LU for all the marbles. Oh my.
Anonymous said…
One interesting thing I took away from watching the game on TV. Lehigh has never had "great" cheerleaders, but after seeing the Holy Cross cheerleaders, I have a new appreciation for the LU squad. Ugh.

Oh, the game... frustrating.

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