Lehigh Football Nation

One of the great things about being a student of Lehigh history is, no matter how dark your current timeline is, there is probably a time when the school had encountered something even darker. That is where I found myself this weekend, in a deep funk after having spent my time heading to nearby Princeton, New Jersey to watch what I thought could have been a competitive game against the undefeated Tigers. I took a break from Lehigh football after coming home from the game, walking through the fog and drizzle of the Princeton press box, across Lot 21 and getting into my car, the humidity stuck to the windows.  I drove home quietly, stopping only to get food. I tried a few things to try to get my head right.  I watched the NFL.  I weeded.  I fixed an issue with the bumper on my car.  I even made an effort to cleaned the garage (a sure-fire sign that something is wrong  with me - my garage and workbench in particular is the biggest mess of not-put-away ...

(Photo Credit: Keith Groller/Morning Call) It felt a lot closer than 14 to 3 at halftime. Sure, Lehigh had outgained Georgetown 220-64 on offense up until that point.  Definitely, the Lehigh defense, which has been playing with a chip on its shoulder for most of the entire season, was playing, as they say, lights-out, and they had just come up with a big defensive stop in the red zone to keep Georgetown from cutting it from 14-7 rather than 14-3. But a batted ball at the line of scrimmage, alertly grabbed by DE Hoya DE Hunter Kiselick , made it feel like the Mountain Hawks might rue the opportunities they had in the first hald to put away Georgetown. After coming in for injured senior QB Nick Shafnisky , sophomore QB Brad Mayes  jumped right into the fray and finished the scoring drive with a perfect pass over the middle to junior WR Troy Pelletier to make the score 14-3 Lehigh. But after a drive that went backwards and that interception, it was Georgetown that h...

From the first two plays of the game, the Mountain Hawks seemed like they were going to dictate the terms of the rest of their 2015 season. It started with a slicing kickoff return from freshman KR Mike Gies , who saw some huge holes and got things started with a 39 yard return. The very next play freshman QB Brad Mayes , again looking more like a senior than an underclassman, found senior WR Derek Knott who lost his defender on a double move, and then turned on the afterburners for a 61 yard touchdown. It was that sort of half, and that sort of day for the Mountain Hawks, who put the pedal on the gas and didn't let up until they had secured a very satisfying victory.

(Photo Credit: Justin LaFleur /Lehigh Athletics) Last week, Lehigh beat Monmouth 28-25 , partially thanks to a crazy blocked punt that landed behind the line of scrimmage and was caught in mid-air by senior FB Zach Hayden , which he advanced for 37 yards and set up the winning score. After that game, I asked head coach Andy Coen whether Lehigh fans might be able to expect this type of cardiac win every week. "Probably," he said. "I think they'll all be close. Some of them I hope will be close." On a warm Saturday evening in late September, Lehigh pulled the exact same rabbit out the hat that the pulled in the first two games of the year, falling behind 22-3 at halftime before rallying to score 26 points in the second half to beat a tough Princeton team.

(Photo Credit: Facebook/Will Rackley)  Down 14-3 and 21-10, early on it looked like Lehigh's playoff hopes, already dimmed by the Mountain Hawks' loss to Colgate, might be done in completely at the hands of their bitter rivals, who were looking for their first win over Lehigh after being unsuccessful in their last four tries. Then Lehigh put together their best half of football of the year. Scoring 28 unanswered points, and shutting out the Leopards in the second half, the Mountain Hawks finished the regular season with a resounding 38-21 victory. Ultimately, it wasn't enough to get to the postseason, even though it would have been for the first time since the playoffs expanded to 20 teams that a team with 10 Division I wins would not qualify for the FCS playoffs. But that shouldn't obscure a fantastic effort by Lehigh's class of 2013 to stay undefeated against "That School in Easton" and their achievement of being only the 10th team in scho...

(Photo Credit: Jerome Gordon /Facebook) The term "Any Given Sunday" comes from the film by Oliver Stone of the same name, but it really comes from Steve Sabol and NFL Films, and the music and sentiment those films provided.  "On any given Sunday..." I can still imagine Mr. Sabol bellowing, with the military-esque soundtrack backing him him... "even a 1-8 team can beat the best team in the land." This Saturday, we almost saw one of those types of moments at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass. Not looking anything like a one-win team, Holy Cross gave Lehigh every single last thing they could handle, rattling off 21 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter against the No. 1 defense in the Patriot League and putting themselves in position to fire off the game-winning 43 yard kick with 11 seconds to play. The field goal would barely have the distance, but would be just wide right - the margin between winning and losing the game.  Lehigh's 36-35 win wo...

(Photo Credit: Eric Schumacher ) It was billed as the Patriot League Championship game - a winner-take-all game between the two best teams in the Patriot League in 2011. In the end, though, the game ended up looking a lot like the last eleven times the Hoyas lined up against the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh's offense racked up over 500 yards of offense and held onto to ball nearly 38 minutes as they took home their second consecutive Patriot League championship with a fairly convincing 34-12 victory.

Going into the game, it was reasonable to believe that it was going to be a Brown & White offensive show over the team from Worcester in the White and Purple. It was reasonable to believe, too, that the outcome would have hinged upon the many Mountain Hawk offensive stars that have emerged over the course of the season: notably, senior QB Chris Lum, junior RB Zach Barket , or junior WR Ryan "The Answer" Spadola . But it did not. In a game where Lehigh would get shut out in the first half and not log a single passing touchdown, they would win the football game - thanks to three unlikely heroes.

A warm and windy day in the Bronx could not stop the Lehigh machine from rolling this weekend. This potential "letdown" game?  Hardly a letdown for the guys in the brown pants. And the "game before the bye week" curse that has afflicted Andy Coen -coached teams could not slow the Mountain Hawks down, either. While - once again - Lehigh had some mistakes that led to Fordham scores, they shouldn't obscure a smothering performance by the No. 8 team in the country, a fairly comprehensive 34-12 victory that shows that the Mountain Hawks have the answers to an awful lot of questions out there on the field.

(Photo Credit: Denise Sanchez/The Morning Call) On the opening drive of this game, sophomore WR Ryan Spadola finished a crisp offensive drive - which lasted less than three minutes - with a pretty fingertip catch in the end zone to give Lehigh's first score on a picture-perfect October afternoon. But shortly after that fantastic grab that would give Lehigh the lead, as it turned out, for good - Bucknell's special teams "simply got penetration", as head coach Andy Coen said in the postgame press conference, as the extra point was blocked to give Lehigh a 6-0 lead. It summed up a day that ended up being a comfortable win for Lehigh - with an offensive performance that many Mountain Hawk watchers have been yearning for since QB Phil Stambaugh - but still had enough uncomfortable moments to prevent it from being the sort of statement game that would establish this Lehigh team as top dogs in the Patriot League. (more)

It looked, for all practical purposes, like another Mountain Hawk egg that was about to be laid against an elite opponent. It seemed like Lehigh could not do much right in their first half against Harvard. Two turnovers led directly to Crimson touchdowns. Only two offensive drives in the half yielded and first downs. And - in a chilling similarity to the New Hampshire game - Lehigh's defense and special teams handed the Lehigh offense two golden opportunities to score points, and both times Lehigh came away with nothing. But head coach Andy Coen must have channeled his inner Knute Rockne at halftime, for the team that came out in the second half was transformed. Against an elite team of the Ivy League, Lehigh came back from a three-score deficit and sent notice to the rest of the Patriot League that Lehigh is back. (more)

Last time Lehigh took the field at Murray Goodman stadium, the Mountain Hawks lit up the Princeton Tigers for 35 points. Of the 5,000 or so die hard football fans who came to enjoy a picture-perfect day football and tailgating, I'd venture to say all of them were hoping to see another offensive day of 35 points or more. The fans didn't get an offensive explosion, but they ended their day happy anyway. Their hard-fought 21-17 close victory was no less sweet - and probably made the burgers, still going strong after the game, taste just a little bit better, too. (more)

It's hard to say that this was a "back against the wall" sort of win when you're only in Week Three of the season, but you got the impression that maybe, just maybe, this Lehigh team of 2010 learned how to win this Saturday. Folks might concentrate on a rough half offensively.  Junior QB Chris Lum struggling mightily in the first half - 3 for 11 - despite a foot injury that would force him out of the second half.  A blown coverage that led to a picture perfect pass from Princeton QB Tommy Wornham  to WR Trey Peacock made what could have been a dominating defensive Mountain Hawk first half into, instead a slender 1 point lead at halftime.  There was fierce punishment from both Princeton's and Lehigh's defenses: which led to not a few players getting sidelined. But with sophomore QB Michael Colvin at the helm and the quintessential bend-but-don't-break defense, Lehigh slowly, surely extinguished the Tiger threat.  Banged up, in front of a Princeton t...

Last year, Lehigh was shut out at home 7-0 against a Yale team that had no business shutting out the Mountain Hawks. This year, once again Lehigh was shut out at home - but this time it was to Villanova - the defending national champs, and arguably the most powerful team in the most powerful FCS conference in America. Not even an unnaturally warm summer day could slow down Villanova WR Matt Szczur and the Villanova offense, which would rack up more than 300 yards rushing on the afternoon. Going into the game, some thought that the Mountain Hawks would be able to hang with the national champs and the team that ought to be the No. 1 team in the country.  They were proven spectacularly wrong by halftime.   (more)

It's a win. Was it always pretty? Hardly. But it's a win, and I'll gladly take the feeling of a win this week over a loss. Fortunately for Lehigh, the offense scored right out of the blocks, with a 16 yard scamper by sophomore RB Jay Campbell. On Bucknell's first offensive drive, junior LB Matt Cohen , scoop-and-scored a Bison fumble to allow Lehigh shoot out to a 14-0 lead. Bucknell really didn't recover after that, but the final outcome was far from assured by the end of the first half. After a block of senior P/K Jason Leo' s punt, the senior actually made a heady play to boot to ball out of the end zone, denying the Bison a touchdown. Then when Lehigh got the ball back after a Bucknell drive went nowhere (helped hugely by some big Bucknell penalties), Lehigh stepped forward into Bucknell territory... then made three huge steps backward with a fumble, a huge sack for a loss, and then an interception (the "trifecta of terror" for Lehigh fans, al...

I don't think Yuenglings in the Lehigh Valley have tasted this good for Mountain Hawks fans in quite a while. I mean, are you kidding me? 45 points? Sophomore J.B. Clark ? Five touchdowns? Four through the air, and a fifth on the ground? And the 45 points came against last year's Patriot League champions - and the clear preseason favorite to repeat as champions. Coach Coen's teams have scored 45 points before against opponents in the past two years - once against Georgetown in 2007 (45-0) and another against Fordham in 2006 (45-14). But those were against a 1-10 Hoya team and a 3-8 Ram team respectively. This one was much, much different. Simply put, it was the offensive explosion that Lehigh fans have been waiting for - against a big-time team. It didn't seem, at first, that a victory would come easy for Lehigh in this game. After Fordham's opening drive ended with an interception by senior CB Steve Santora , Lehigh's initial offensive drive stalled a...

"Oh, no!" If you heard the radio call by Matt Kerr, the voice of Lehigh on the radio (and you can still hear in on lehighsports.com ), his call summed it up best. Up 24-19 with under 10 seconds to play, at the Lehigh 20 yards line, all Lehigh needed to do is stop the Big Red for one play. One play. Never mind the play of sophomore QB J.B. Clark , who acquitted himself well in his third game as a starter. Never mind the play of the defense, which bended but didn't really break for thirty-three minutes and about thirty seconds of the thirty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds that the Cornell offense had the ball. Never mind the punt returned for a touchdown by sophomore DB Jarard Cribbs at the end of the first half. Never mind any calls from the referee. Never mind the disorganization on special teams at the end of the first half that led to the missed extra point. Never mind the fumble. Never mind the good, or the bad. It comes down to one play. One play to learn ...