Lehigh Football Nation

Normally, I love being right with my score predictions. But I would have gladly taken back my prediction had it allowed Lehigh to come away with the win here. And it was firmly within Lehigh's grasp today. Though Lehigh was down the entire game, they battled and battled and seemed on the verge of a stunning comeback, setting up on Harvard's doorstep with just about a minute to play. In a physical, bruising battle, it looked like maybe Lehigh's penchant for fourth-quarter nailbiters might actually be to the Mountain Hawks' advantage. It looked for all practical purposes that this game would be over early, after a miscommunication in the first quarter resulted in a fumble and recovery by Harvard DE Matthew Hanson. Lehigh's gift was quickly converted into points with Harvard QB Chris Pizzotti connecting with WR Matt Luft (two Harvard players that could very well find themselves playing on Sundays) with a beautiful 26 yard fade pattern in the left corner of the end ...

Today's water cooler topic is appropriate enough to me, for sure. Whether you're a Philadelphia Phillies fan (like my wife, 10-4!) or (like me) a Boston Red Sox fan (who stayed up late last night to witness another miracle comeback last night ), chances are you've been spending a lot of time in front of the TV. Now, I am not made of money. I don't have a TV like the one to my left, nor do I have the budget to take a trip up to Harvard this weekend. That means I'm going to be spending a lot of time on Saturday - my first one, as a matter fact - watching Patriot League games on TV and over the internet instead of watching it live. For Lehigh fans and fans of "that school in Easton" that live in the Philadelphia area, we're in luck this weekend. Locally, Channel 69 carries the Lehigh game at Harvard with a 12:30 p.m. start time, and RCN-4 and WPBH-60 carries the Lafayette game at Liberty starting at 3:30 p.m. - ensuring that my home-grown DVR will be...

When a college football team comes off a huge, emotional victory in their League, and then plays a non-league game right after that, there is the risk of a letdown. Add to that the fact that a college football team is on the road against another League Champion, and risk gets bigger. Multiply that by the fact, however, that Lehigh beat the Crimson 20-13 on a last-second play - a strip from senior LB Tim Diamond which was scooped and scored by senior DL Paul Bode - and that Lehigh didn't score an offensive touchdown that afternoon at Murray Goodman - and the risk seems even larger. You know Harvard has circled this one on the calendar since March. The second vengeance game. They already started their season by avenging their other last-minute loss to Holy Cross last year, a 25-24 thriller that saw Harvard rally from 12 points down in the fourth quarter. This is the other game that must stick in their craw the most - a game where they ran 97 offensive plays, racked up 465 yard...

At the midway point of the season - and in a strange week for the Patriot League - it's time to go "Around the Horn" as well on this Wednesday in order to summarize all the media stories there have been leading into this important week. Starting out is a story that some of Sedale Threatt's detractors during his senior year may have never thought possible. Threatt will be trying out for the Arena Bowl-champion Soul in his effort to play professionally. Here's some exceprts from the article: Logistical obstacles are irrelevant when it comes to getting a shot at playing professional football. Consider the case of Sedale Threatt Jr., who caught a plane from Orlando, Fla., and stayed overnight to plunk down $60 for a chance to try out in Turtle Creek for perhaps an invitation to the training camp of the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League. "It's always been my dream to play on Sundays," Threatt said after a workout and an extended session fea...

On the back of his great offensive performance on Saturday, sophomore QB J.B. Clark resoundingly gets LFN Player of the Week honors this week. Clark went 18-for-27 for 292 yards and 4 touchdowns, and added one big touchdown with his feet as well. He led the first offensive Lehigh explosion for the year, putting up 5 of Lehigh's six TDs en route to a 45 point performance against last year's Patriot League champions. The Jupiter, FL native well deserved this honor voted on by you, the Lehigh fans. Game balls will be going to: Reader's Choice: Sophomore QB J.B. Clark Offense: Senior RB Matt McGowan (24 rushes, 110 yards, 1 TD, plus 3 catches for 59 yards, giving him 169 all-purpose yards) Defense: Junior DT B. J. Benning (4 tackles, 3 sacks) Special teams: Sophomore DB/KR John "Fear Itself" Kennedy (3 kickoff returns for 95 yards, setting up a short field on three seperate occasions)

This week's Lambert Power Rankings coincides with the release of the inaugural Lambert Poll by the ECAC. To refresh your memory, my LPR is formula-based and it's not something too difficult for my tiny little head to wrap itself around. Rising up the "Lambert Power Rankings" is easy: win games on your schedule, especially conference games and games vs. Eastern teams. Oh yeah, and play good teams, too: there's a "degree of difficulty" to my power rankings: beat up on patsies and it won't count as much as an FBS win. Unlike the official Lambert Poll, I also include the MEAC teams in my poll north of Virginia and also include Liberty and VMI in my rankings. The ECAC Lambert Cup rules state that a school can only be eligible if they play more than half their games against "Northern" schools. Here are the rankings for the week of 10/11/2008: 1. James Madison (CAA, 6-1, 74 points) 2. Richmond (CAA, 4-3, 53 points) 3. New Hampshire (CAA, 4-1, 4...

This week, we get a happy recap to go along with the now-regular features on the Lehighsports.com website like the podcast of the postgame press conference and video of senior WR Mike Fitzgerald 's second touchdown pass on the afternoon: BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Sophomore quarterback J.B. Clark led the Mountain Hawks to a 45-24 victory against defending Patriot League champion Fordham in what was by far the best statistical game of his career at Lehigh. Clark threw for 296 yards on 18-of-27 passing in the win. The sophomore connected for four touchdowns through the air and added another on the ground while not throwing an interception for the second-consecutive week. With the win, the Mountain Hawks improve to 2-3 on the season and 1-0 in the Patriot League and run their record to a perfect 10-0 at Goodman Stadium versus Fordham. The Rams dropped their second-consecutive league game to fall to 2-3 (0-2). "I'm obviously very proud of our kids for a lot of reasons," Lehigh he...

Last night, I was writing my summary of the Fordham game and I noticed something which ultimately led me to this Sunday's "Word". Heartbreaking last-second losses are like movies where you want to rewrite the ending. If you're a writer of fiction, your team never has to lose on missed 4th-and-1 conversions or excruciating last-second touchdown passes in the right corner of the end zone - you just write something else. You write in the script the offensive line making a heroic push to get that extra yard to get that game-winning field goal. You write in the script the defensive back making the play of a lifetime. Writing the recap of the Fordham game, I was struck how often I was thinking back to not only the excruciating losses in the Princeton and Cornell games this year, but also last year's loss to Fordham as well. Last year's Fordham game was won in the fourth quarter. In my fictionalized account of the game, Lehigh quarterback Sedale Threatt would co...