Lehigh Football Nation

Most of the weekend action will be taking place a day later than usual, but the women's basketball, men's basketball, and wrestling teams all need big wins - and two of them against "that school in Easton", no less. - to go to the Patriot League (or EIWA) tournaments in shape for a shot at the NCAAs. The women's team - who enjoyed their first 20 win season in 19 years with a 71-42 domination of Colgate on Wednesday - look to extend their Patriot League lead Saturday over American (who lost 60-58 in overtime to Army on Wednesday ) at 1:00 p.m. at Kirby Field House where they take on the 8-18 Leopards. While it's tempting to look at the statistics and project an easy Lehigh victory - with the game notes helpfully pointing out that Lafayette's loss to Lehigh triggered a 7 game losing streak for them, and a "tale of the tape" pointing the advantage to Lehigh on *every single statistic* - whenever Lehigh and Lafayette meet in "The Rivalry...

This weekend, Lehigh will be holding its football awards banquet to honor the 2008 team that had a hard-fought rollercoaster year - but with a season-ending streak of winning three of four games - including the win over "that school in Easton" that you can buy directly from Lehighsports.com - it will be a much more upbeat ceremony, no doubt, than it has in years past. To celebrate the 2008 season, I'm releasing the "Hawks of the Year" awards that I've been doing since 2003. Based on the weekly polls during the season and my nominations for "Players of the Week", it's my own yearly tradition to celebrate the achievements of this year's Mountain Hawks. Without any further ado, let's get right to the nominations. Offensive Hawks of the Year With the resurgence of the Lehigh offense, it wasn't easy to figure out who the winners would be; and as it turned out, for the second straight year it was a tie between senior RB Matt McGowan and...

Coach Coen made the rounds in the Wednesday papers talking about the class of 2003. I talked to him today, and I'll post my full interview with him next week. But the whet you appetite, I'll post the links to Keith Groller's interview in the Morning Call and Michael Lore's in the Easton Express-Times . Add to that the official release , and you have a lot of quotes from coach Coen - of which the mashup follows below. Coen is ecstatic the winner of the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year award is coming to South Mountain. ''I was real impressed with him on tape,'' Coen said. ''Matter of fact, I watched the same tapes about three times just to make sure I was believing what I was seeing. It's true that his team was superior to a lot of the teams they played, but you could still see his ability.'' Coen saw Barket in person once and even though it was in a season-ending loss to Steel-High, he was again impressed. "He still ha...

Lehigh announced the class of 2013 today - a large 26-strong class that bolsters three huge need areas for the Mountain Hawks: defensive line (6 recruits), defensive backs (4) and receivers (4). Add to that mix two high-profile quarterbacks, two intriguing running backs, and a replacement for senior P/K Jason Leo (incoming freshman P/K Jacob Peery , pictured), and you have what looks to be a very impressive incoming class. “We continued to move in the right direction by bringing in big, physical kids, especially along both lines,” Coen explained. “With these last three classes we worked hard to address every position on the football field and I feel comfortable with the depth we have at every position.” Following the graduation of All-American Brian Jackson , as well as Paul Bode , Jon Warren and Keith Johnson along the defensive line, the Lehigh coaching staff made it a point to re-stock that position. “With the graduation of Brian Jackson and three other seniors, this was a ma...

The big news for Lehigh Athletics this weekend was two big home wins for the wrestlers and women's basketball teams - and a tough, shorthanded effort at West Point by the men's basketball team that fell just short. The wrestlers made short work of two EIWA foes on Saturday : winning seven of ten matches against Army (27-12) before drilling Franklin & Marshall (29-18) to cruise to a perfect 8-0 against EIWA foes and an amazing 22-1 overall dual record. Only one dual remains before the EIWA championships and NCAA nationals in March. I mentioned in my preview that Lehigh would need big performances at 133 (with No. 15-ranked Matt Fisk ) and at 165 (with No. 14-ranked Mike Galante ) in order to beat Army, and they delivered with Fisk's pin of Michael McCarthy and Galante's major decision over Mike Gorman for bonus points. Not to be lost, though, in the weekend's bouts were two wins by freshman 157 lb Sean Bilodeau (one for bouns points against Army) and sophomore...