Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Kyle Craig/Lehigh Valley Live) Head coach Andy Coen would hear nothing of moral victories in the post game press conference. "I thought we had every opportunity to win this football game," Lehigh's frustrated head coach said. "When you go through this stuff," he said, flipping through the pages of the post-game statistics packet, "you're going to see a lot of mistakes.  You see it with some young guys, guys in their first game, but we had some guys that where it was just out of character." It was a game where neither side looked like they were in mid-season form, though you could see the quality shine through offensively on both sides at different times.  So the outcome hinged on mistakes, and who made fewer of them - and that team was Villanova. That shouldn't take away from the offensive fireworks on both sides. There was the tremendous blocking up front that set up a great rushing day for Villanova RB Matt Gudza...

Lehigh fell behind 21-7 and 28-14 in the first half, and battled back in the second half to give themselves a shot to win, but for the second straight year the Mountain Hawks came close but couldn't close the deal, falling 38-35 to Villanova at Murray Goodman Stadium this afternoon. In his first start of the 2017 season, junior QB Brad Mayes went 33 for 49 with 406 yards passing and 4 touchdowns, including two to senior WR Gatlin Casey that were of highlight-reel quality. One was a 29 yard strike through a pass interference call, and the second was a 3 yard drill that was tipped but Casey adjusted and came down with the pass at the back of the end zone. Junior WR Luke Cristiano also had a career day with 8 catches and 143 yards and an amazing touchdown catch that saw him beat Villanova S Rob Rolle and scamper for a 66 yard touchdown. Villanova amassed 475 yards of offense on the afternoon, achieving good balance with QB Zach Bednarczyk 's passing (209 yards, 2 touc...