Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Kevin Mingora /Morning Call) "You didn't cry or anything when Lehigh lost this weekend, did you?" That was the greeting I got when I came back into the office (from another Lehigh football fan, interestingly) this Monday, as if he knew that I would be taking the loss this weekend especially hard. I did not cry.  But I did hurt.  And I know not a few men that I respect that I know cried on Saturday. This is probably not a revelation to most people who know me through this writing vehicle or in person, but yes, I took the loss hard. Believe me, if you saw my wife and son recently, they'd probably tell you that I was not a pleasant person to be in the car with on Saturday.  Or Sunday.  Or Monday. The truth is, I take every loss hard, and losses to what is the biggest rival in football, Lafayette, hurt especially hard.  It is an occupational hazard of caring too much about a sports team. To me, losses to Lafayette are supposed to suck....

(Photo Credit: Justin Lafleur /Lehigh Athletics) It was a real Yankee crowd in the Bronx this afternoon - a sellout, overflow Bronx crowd of over 7,800. Without a Yankee postseason to worry about, the nationally-ranked Fordham Rams had something they hadn't had on an October afternoon in a very long time: the undivided sports attention of the local area, playing against another Top 25 team on national television. When the calls didn't go the Rams' way, the fans stood up the same way they might in New Yankee Stadium, arguing the call.  And when a play didn't have yellow laundry on the field, indeed, the "Bronx Cheer" the Borough made famous did indeed ripple through the crowd. Not that Fordham needed help from the refs. The Rams may have had some doubters going into this weekend with their 5-0 record, but there sure aren't any more after a resounding, offensive clinic that made Lehigh pay desperately for two turnovers and ultimately had Fordham ...

(Photo Credit:  Matt Smith / The Express-Times ) Below the flip, enjoy this week's "LFN Players of the Week" for the New Hampshire game.

(Photo Credit: Matt Smith /The Express-Times ) It's pretty remarkable how routine it's all getting. To Lehigh watchers, this come-from-behind 34-27 victory resembled all the others.  They'd seen this movie before. Fall behind early, by double-digits if possible.  Regroup.  Mount a comeback.  Make huge defensive stops.  Win. For the fourth straight game, Lehigh came from behind to win. For the third time this season, Lehigh overcame a double-digit deficit to win. It's as if all of Lehigh Nation simply expects the Mountain Hawks to fall behind in the first half, and recover in time to win.  You could feel it in the crowd of nearly 9,000 people at Murray Goodman Stadium.  Amazingly, down by 16, the game never felt out of reach. But this particular come-from-behind win was different in one very important respect. In beating the 7th-ranked New Hampshire Wildcats this weekend, the Mountain Hawks finally got to silence the critics across th...

(Photo Credit: Justin LaFleur /Lehigh Athletics) Below the flip, enjoy this week's "LFN Players of the Week" and a Two Minute drill on the quotes from this Saturday's game. I've decided to break out the sneak peek at Princeton into a different blog post - for reasons that will be come clear.

(Photo Credit: WFMZ) 2 days until the season opener at Murray Goodman stadium! 2 Days! At no.2, we look at senior WR Sergio Fernandez-Soto  as our highlighted Lehigh football athlete today.

(Photo Credit: Kevin Mingora/Morning Call ) It may have been pacing break, but the Columbia/Lehigh game wasn't lacking photo and video evidence that it occurred. I don't know if it was the overcast weather, the colder, more fall-like  temperatures, the pink or what, but the shots of the game from Kevin Mingora of the Morning Call look absolutely stunning, as do the shots from the Brown & White photographers that were at the game. I'd encourage you to go over there and check out the Morning Call's eleven-page gallery , which is filled with great shots. The shot above, too, comes from that collection.  And there is a album of pictures from the Brown & White as well as a video recap of the game as well from Alec Murphy . They make my whopping two pictures on the Facebook Page seem pretty dim in comparison.  Then again, I didn't get to field level this game!

Highlight reels can be very misleading. I'm not saying, dear reader, that Lehigh's 35-14 win over Columbia was bad.  Not at all.  The Mountain Hawks went to 6-0 this afternoon at Murray Goodman Stadium, in front of a pacing break crowd of a little over 5,000 fans. But if you simply judged this game by looking at the highlights, you wouldn't get an accurate impression of how this game unfolded. Sure, Lehigh jumped to 14-0 and 21-7 leads, and the Mountain Hawks made some bursts of impressive plays to score touchdowns on Columbia.  But it was critical Lehigh mistakes that led to the Lions' 14 points - which put a bit of a damper on the post-game celebrations for Lehigh head coach Andy Coen .