Skip to main content

2018 Week 1 Lehigh Players of the Week and Report Card: St. Francis (PA)

This season, I thought it would be a good idea to do a LFN report card on how the team did last week as well as reviving the old "LFN Players of the Week" to go along with it.  Lehigh's 21-19 win last week over St. Francis was, most importantly, a victory, but as hardcore Lehigh football fans we want a deeper view and analysis.

So here we go.


OFFENSE
QUARTERBACK: C+.  The first reveal of the 2018 season was that senior QB Brad Mayes was going to be sitting out the 1st quarter.

Though Mayes rebounded from the quarter-long suspension somewhat, and junior QB Tyler Monaco filled in well with basically error-free ball when he was in there, Mayes' absence in the 1st quarter seemed to have an impact on the game because he didn't seem to totally be in offensive rhythm in the first half.  He showed flashes of his big-play ability in the second half, but the truth is against Villanova next week Lehigh Nation needs him up and ready from the get-go.

RUNNING BACK: A
Hard to expand on the tremendous job senior RB Dominick Bragalone did on offense for the Mountain Hawks last Saturday.  His 52 yard TD run where he kicked in a fourth gear to blow past the defensive back -  adding a sweet kick move right before the goal line to evade a final attempt at a tackle - will be a staple on the 2018 Lehigh football highlight reel. 

Not to be lost was the debut of freshman RB Rashawn Allen, who ran 5 times for 18 yards but got some critical 1st downs.

WIDE RECEIVERS: B
Senior WR Luke Christiano, senior WR Sasha Kelsey and sophomore WR Jorge Portorreal did a solid job moving the sticks and coming up with some big plays, especially a highlight-reel catch by Portorreal on a beautiful pass from Mayes.  But none of the starting three came up with the type of big touchdown that might have really electrified the crowd and taken the wind out of the Red Flash.

OFFENSIVE LINE: B
An area of concern going into the season, in the area of run blocking the offensive line did exceptionally well, not only allowing Bragalone to break the all-time Lehigh rushing record but also essentially winning the physical battle in the trench against St. Francis (PA)'s big, aggressive defensive line.  But the blocking breakdown on the fumble that was recovered in the end zone reveals that the Mountain Hawks do need to continue to improve in pass protection in general.  The line only gave up 2 sacks, but the one that was yielded could have been a game-breaker.

OVERALL OFFENSE: B
Though not as explosive a season opener as some, the Mountain Hawks did manage to navigate a bit of a rusty start and score enough points to get a really important victory.  It really helps to have an all-American candidate running the ball and coming up with highlight-reel plays, but overall it's a good solid performance that should set the table going forward.

DEFENSE:
FRONT SIX: A+
It was a joy to see the front six play such a tremendous game, at a level Lehigh Nation hopes to see a lot this year.  It has been a while since Lehigh Nation saw a game with 11 tackles for loss on the Lehigh side, many of them coming up front, and another really great thing to see was great tackling as well, holding the Red Flash to just a little over 50 rushing yards in the game. 

DEFENSIVE BACKS: B+
The defensive backs gave up 250 yards through the air to the Red Flash, many on 50/50 balls, but that shouldn't obscure the two important picks, one by CB Marquis Wilson to prevent the 2-point try that would have tied the game and the other by CB Donavon Harris that stopped a key St. Francis (PA) drive in the 4th quarter.  More importantly there wasn't any one, singular big play given up on defense that could have lost the game, while guys like DB Divine Buckrham and S Riley O'Neil came up with huge tackles and plays to put Lehigh in position to win.  O'Neil's tackle of St. Francis RB Jymere Jordan-Toney short of the 1st down marker on 3rd down forced St. Francis (PA) to go for the go-ahead field goal, which was blocked - a huge, huge play.

OVERALL DEFENSE: A
A real joy to watch on Saturday, especially after all of the well-publicized struggles from last season.  Right from the get-go this entire unit seems to be setting a really good tone for the entire season.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-
So many little things came together for Lehigh on special teams.  Despite a roughing-the-kicker penalty on a FG try (that may have been a bad call, because the defender got a piece of the ball), Lehigh's special teams did an outstanding job.  Not much press was given to P/K Austin Henning's kickoffs (4 touchbacks), P/K Ed Mish's punting (more than 40 yards net per punt), and nailing his extra point attempts, all three aspects played an important part in the win.  Senior S Sam McCloskey saved a near-certain touchdown with a huge special teams tackle on S Nick Rinella on the one kickoff that was returnable.   And, of course, the blocked FG from St. Francis that was (admittedly) a low kick but one where the Lehigh line was able to get really good push on the St. Francis return unit to secure the victory.  Overall, this unit played extremely clean when special teams in general around FCS on Week One is anything but. 

LFN Players of the Week:

Offense: RB Dom Bragalone (137 yards rushing, 3 TDs, all-time Lehigh rushing leader)
Defense: DB Divine Buckrham (11 tackles, 10 solo, 1 TFL)
Special Teams: S Sam McCloskey (7 tackles, 6 solo, tackle on return that saved TD)
Underclassman: DE Jack Kircher (4 tackles, 3 TFL to lead defense)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes a win is important but this was ST FRANCIS a team you would expect to beat by at least 10 points . That was a field goal that most teams make . The offense was not better then last year , but yes the defense looked improved but now lets see how they do vs Villanova . I would hope the Lehigh nation turns out in force , over 10,000 in the stands , because Villanova played like a national contender in beating Temple . Navy next will run the ball down the defensive units throats and playing at strong Penn & Princeton teams away will be a challenge . The Patriot games will be a lot easier then the next 4 . Hopefully the Engineer's
will show up as these 4 games are a murders row . If they play like Mountain Hawk's which is really a Turkey Vulture they go 0-4 . My late Father's 40 years in the blast furnace at the Steel he was a proud Engineer not a dumb bird . If they win two of the next 4 they win the Patriot . Good luck Andy a class guy .
Anonymous said…
Giving an A- to the special teams makes no sense. I thought the kickoff coverage was poor, continuing a problem we had all of last year.
Douglas said…
I agree that the kickoff coverage was bad.. Henning's KO's were not that great.. Mish was solid with both XP and Punts though.. I agree they were lucky to win.. Defense was better.. Once Mayes got in there, the offense was better but miss those goto receivers.. Bad play calling at the end ( reminded me of my Jags vs Pats trying to kill clock rather than being more aggressive) almost cost them... I figured after the Int they would march in and close it out...
Thank you for this review!

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.