Lehigh Football Nation

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 sc...

I figured I'd make my life really easy this afternoon - aside from the "Phillies Fever" that has overtaken my workplace (and the fact I was up late last night watching the Phillies lose to the Dev* I mean Rays 4-2) means that I think I'll tackle only one subject that I've written about elsewhere. On second thought... make that two subjects. But before I do that let me quickly mention that Lehigh's game will be on local and national TV this weekend: on WFMZ Channel 69 at 1:00 p.m. and nationally at 1:00 p.m. on FCS Atlantic, as well as on radio on AM 1230 and 1320 in the Lehigh Valley. If you can't get any of these media outlets, surf on over to lehighsports.com - you can get streaming video of the game online. First, Lehigh beat writer Keith Groller had the opportunity to travel down to Tampa to cover games 1 and two for the Morning Call (lucky dog), and he's been blogging about it . It's real good stuff: witness: One of the funniest Saturday ...

Emimem once wrote that he's "cleanin' out his closet", and that it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. I feel like I'm doing that here for the football team for this preview: to preview Holy Cross is to revisit a time and place that won't make any Lehigh fans happy. Last year, almost a year to this day, Holy Cross visited Goodman stadium and gave Lehigh a thumping that they will not soon forget. The Crusaders very nearly scored a point-a-minute as Lehigh suffered their worst-ever loss in Murray Goodman Stadium history, 59-10. It was a picture-perfect day - 66 degrees and sunny - and I went to Lehigh (after picking a Mountain Hawk victory, mind you) thinking Lehigh would finally come out and play an emotional do-or-die game against one of the best teams in the Patriot League. I could not have been more wrong. Almost from the opening kickoff Lehigh was flat, giving up two quick touchdown drives while Lehigh only came up with a punt and a field goal from ...

In what can only be described as the closest vote ever, Lehigh Football Nation readers anointed senior WR Sekou "Stunt Man" Yansane as Player of the Week this week. The "Stunt Man" had an amazing 11 receptions for 132 yards and 1 TD against an extremely talented Harvard secondary. Aside from the touchdown which allowed Lehigh to get back into the game in the third quarter, Yansane was singly responsible for more than half Lehigh's receiving yards on the afternoon. His heroic effort was more than worthy of Player of the week honors. Game Balls will be going to: Reader's Choice: Senior WR Sekou "Stunt Man" Yansane Offense: Senior RB Matt McGowan (16 rushes for 105 yards, first back in 31 games to get more than 100 rushing yards against Harvard) Defense: Junior LB Matt Cohen (8 tackles, 3 tackles for loss including 1 1/2 sacks) Special Teams: Senior P/K Jason Leo (3 punts, 47 yard average; 3/3 extra points, 30 yard FG)

One win this week - Lafayette's win over No. 14-ranked Liberty - had huge effects for the Patriot League across all manner of polls this week, and the Lambert Power Rankings were no exception. First, Lafayette became the first Patriot League school to spend time in the Sports Network 's Top 25, debuting this week at No. 24 . Even though TSN voters were impressed, the official ECAC Lambert Poll this week saw Lafayette remain at No. 8, while Colgate also made an appearance at No. 9. Lafayette was already represented in my weekly Lambert Power Rankings, but they've shot up from No. 9 to No. 5, possibly because I rate the win over Liberty highly. Here are my power rankings (including, in parenthesis, their ranking last week): 1. (1) James Madison (CAA, 6-1, 74 points) 2. (2) Richmond (CAA, 5-3, 67.5 points) 3. (3) New Hampshire (CAA, 5-1, 58 points) 4. (5) Villanova (CAA, 5-1, 55 points) 5. (9T) Lafayette (Patriot, 5-1, 50 points) 6T. (4) UMass (CAA, 4-3, 48.5 points) 6T (NR...

As we reflect on the 27-24 loss to Harvard, one thing is becoming more clear: it was a very close game that could have gone either way. Without making excuses for the loss, the two plays around the end zone - the strip of senior WR Sekou Yansane in the end zone by Harvard CB Drew Berry, and the strip by the Harvard defensive lineman of sophomore QB J.B. Clark weren't so much Lehigh screw-ups as they were stupendous individual plays by the Harvard defense. Speaking of screw-ups, voting for the Lehigh vs. Harvard Player of the Week is now available in the sidebar. I've extended voting through Wednesday to make up for the delay. That's not to say Lehigh played a screw-up-free game - far from it. The official recap , and head coach Andy Coen, says it well: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard linebacker Glenn Dorris recovered a Lehigh fumble on the Crimson’s 19 yard line with just 1:07 to play, and Harvard was able to run out the clock to hang on for a 27-24 victory over the visitin...

In the end, this weekend's word is simple. "Five". In the preseason, Lehigh was picked number "five" out of seven Patriot League teams, picked to finish behind Lafayette, Colgate, Holy Cross, and Fordham. Now past the halfway point of the season, Lehigh is 2-4 - but had they been able to make some key plays at the end of games, they could very well have been "5"-1. Lehigh's had - you guessed it - "five" out-of-conference games. In those games, they have gone 1-4, only beating 3-4 Drake in those games. Aside from Harvard - who seems likely to be in everyone's Top 25 after this weekend - they've lost to nationally-ranked Villanova, a 4-1 team who may very well be the best team in the powerful CAA, and whose only loss was to FBS West Virginia. They've lost to 2-3 Princeton, a good team that got drilled 31-10 by Brown and who seem unlikely to dethrone Harvard this weekend. Princeton - despite their schedule, as their other losse...