Lehigh Football Nation

Not going to the game at Murray Goodman, and you want to know how to catch today's game? Never fear.  LFN's here.

We break down the Princeton game - and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip. Something of note this week that I forgot to mention in my Narrative Street and my Game Preview is the fact that the two opponents that Lehigh lost to earlier in the year, Monmouth and Villanova, are doing extremely well.  Both teams' only losses have come to FBS programs, and both schools acquitted themselves very well in both circumstances. 2-1 Monmouth was never out of the game vs. Kent State, falling 27-7 to the Golden Flashes in a game after Kent State was stunned by fellow FCS member North Carolina A&T in four overtimes, 39-36.  The Hawks largely kept Kent State's offense in check and kept them in the game, and their star defensive player, DB Mike Basile , had an eye-popping 16 tackles and a blocked kick. If Monmouth can upset heavily-favored and nationally-ranked Charleston Southern this weekend in their home opener, the Hawks would go to 3-1 and would most likely g...

I hinted at this #NarrativeStreet in yesterday's Game Preview, but the narrative that keeps jumping to the forefront in the run-up to the game this weekend is the "disaster" - head coach Andy Coen 's words - of last year's game at Princeton. There were other losses in the 2015 Lehigh football season. There was James Madison, where the eventual playoff-bound Dukes impressively blew the Mountain Hawks out of the water, 55-17.  The 59-42 loss to Fordham where QB Nick Shafnisky was lost to injury right before halftime.  The Colgate game.  The Yale game. But there was something about the loss at Princeton that really got under coach Coen's skin that was different than the other losses - an anger at the way it happened, the way that things seemed to come apart in the second half after matching the Tigers score-for-score in in the first half. All the narratives seem to point to last year's "disaster", and hoping that the team has learned from...

What a win it was. The consensus from anyone on the Lehigh side was that the 0-2 Mountain Hawks needed a win.   Any win.  And it wasn't going to be easy, against last year's Ivy League champs, out for vengeance. And then it happened - the sort of half of football that makes all the loss experiences worth it, the type of tale of redemption after the disappointment of being so close to tasting victory and possible national recognition, only to have it taken away by a few yards in a game of inches, or a drive where the defense couldn't get that one final stop. Suddenly, all the narratives that defined the first two losses were overturned.  Times when the offense were stopped short became touchdowns.  The defense became a Steel Curtain.  The win was as definitive as it was season-affirming.  It was difficult to find much to criticize in Lehigh's 49-28 victory over Penn that had spent all offseason plotting their vengeance against the Mountain Hawks , ...

You didn't ask for them, but here's my pick for this week's FCS Top 25. Photo Credit: New York Newsday Stony Brook WR Ray Bolden catches a pass a sideline pass and takes it in for a touchdown against Richmond on Sept. 17, 2016. Photo Credit: Daniel De Mato

(Photo Credit: The Daily Pennsylvanian) The firestorm made its way to Franklin Field. Few football fans may noticed it as the game was about to start, including myself.  I wasn't focused on the cheerleading team during the national anthem, nor was anyone else that I confer with - I was a bit more preoccupied whether Lehigh was going to open the season 0-3. But sometime on Monday, The Daily Pennsylvanian published a short piece detailing the planned protest event , done by Alexus Bazen and Deena Char . It is the same act that 49ers backup  QB Colin Kaepernick and many, many other NFL players have performed during the national anthem during the preseason and first weeks of the season - kneeling or sitting during the National Anthem, and raising a fist.  It's an act meant to inflame and to get them noticed, and it did. Why, though? The "why" can and should be asked on both sides of the protest, those that find solidarity with it and those that are angered ...

(Photo Credits: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Athletics) Penn QB Alek Torgerson and the Penn offense had torn through the Lehigh defense like a hot knife through butter.  Again. Nearing the end of the first half, the Huntington Beach, CA native lined up on a 4th and 1 play in the Lehigh red zone.  Faking the handoff to RB Tre Solomon , he instead took it himself, running through an enormous hole on the left side of the line for a 8 yard touchdown run. The touchdown and extra point put Penn back ahead, 28-21, but with 1:14 left, and three timeouts, it wasn't a question whether Lehigh was going to try to drive the length of the field to tie up the game, or at least try to cut the deficit a little.  Head coach Andy Coen was going to try.  Definitely. So the experienced senior QB Nick Shafnisky took the field, knowing what needed to be done - the same thing that Lehigh's offense had already done three times in the same half - drive the length of the field an...