Lehigh Football Nation

An amazing game... of which I missed most of the good stuff. I recorded the first half of the game, where Lehigh was down 21-10. Yale had an impressive first half where the Bulldogs executed almost perfectly offensively and defensively. At the end of the first half Lehigh put together an impressive two minute drill to get an important field goal. The second half, of course, is where all the fun happened, and, of course, is where my taping got screwed up. What I was able to tell is that Lehigh clamped down and went ahead 24-21, and then Yale tied the game at 24 at the end of the 3rd quarter with a field goal. Lehigh missed a field goal, and pulled it out as Borda scored on a 5 yard TD run, and then held Yale on 2 seperate drives. I'll write something tomorrow on this. I may just go over the audio a little bit, but tonight, I'm going to have to suffer with the Red Sox. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and be elated that Lehigh is 5-1, but right now I'm a depresse...

Predictions of other games: In the Patriot League: Holy Cross at Dartmouth. Dartmouth could easily be 3-1. This battle of winless teams won't be close. Dartmouth 45, Holy Cross 13. Colgate at Cornell. You now have to ask - how good is Colgate? Good enough to beat Cornell is the answer. Cornell should be motivated, so the game will be closer than it should be, but the Big Red just can't exploit Colgate enough to win. Colgate 29, Cornell 26. Lafayette at Bucknell. Easily the game of the week, the winner will be 2-0 in the Patriot and will be able to brand themselves "Patriot Contender". That team just has to be a battle-tested Bucknell, who should simply overwhelm the Leopards on the ground. Bucknell 31, Lafayette 13. In the Top 25: UMass at New Hampshire. 4 straight UMass losses? Make it 5 as UMass falls into serious disarray. UNH 39, UMass 17. Appalachian St. at G eorgia Southern. A delicious game pitting the two best in the SoCon ...

Back on the Blog We are back and ready to blog once again! I finally have a moment to breathe after our vacation and before our busy weekend to whip up a dish of previews and predictions for this week in Lehigh sports. No live commentary this week Due to all the busy-ness in my life this week, you won't get live in-game commentary by me again for the Lehigh/Yale game. (In the Lehigh Valley and beyond, the game will be broadcast live on Channel 69 WFMZ, so you intrepid fans will be able to follow the game that way. As a matter of fact I'm going to be taping the game and watching it later in the day.) However, I will come on to give my thoughts on the game after I finish watching the game in full. So please by all means watch this space tomorrow for in-depth analysis! But really quick reactions about the week in Lehigh football How did we lose a point in the national rankings after demolishing Holy Cross? BLEAH! We get no respect. If we are worse than 5 A-10 teams,...

Vacation This week, we are going on vacation in the Poconos, where your correspondent has no access to the internet, or any access to any of the research he would need to write up a competent Lehigh/Yale preview. So the next post you'll see here is Friday. However, your intrepid correspondent will be back on Friday with the Lehigh/Yale preview and weekend predictions, so, come back Friday fo rthe whole scoop! Press Roundup Looks like the press, and Holy Cross, have anointed Mark Borda as their player of the week (as he won Holy Cross' Johnny Turco Trophy as the MVP of Holy Cross' homecoming game): Morning Call: Borda borders on spectacular Express-Times: Borda collects win, hardware Boston Globe: Lehigh crashes Holy Cross' homecoming party Your quotes: "I may have added more fuel to the fire for Lehigh,'' [Tom Gilmore] said. ''I tried to approach it as just another game. Now that it's over, I admit it was emotional. I...

In between the celebration of my son's birthday and entertaining our Lehigh guests, I watched Lehigh manhandle their first league opponent of the year in 42-14 drubbing. (This game will definitely be in my 1-AA picks recap this weekend, as I predicted Lehigh would win 49-17.) The Mountain Hawks were firing on all cylinders, offensively and defensively. 5 TDs for Borda? 8-for-8 to start the game? Are you kidding me? Adam Bergen had a monster day, with 7 receptions for more than 100 yards and 2 TDs. Who gets Patriot Legaue offensive player of the week, Borda or Bergen? That's the only question for Monday. And let's not forget Marques Thompson's scamper off a screen pass for the TD, and the pretty TD scamper by WR Gerran Walker to end the first half. These guys are getting game balls, guaranteed. The only blight on their record was the interception Borda threw (which I didn't see) returned for a Holy Cross TD. Defensively, with 4 sacks, 2 interceptions...

Press Roundup For a game that was supposed to be one that the press was supposed to fall over themselves to cover, oddly enough there was only one beat story on the game: Express-Times: League opener, former coach get Mountain Hawks stoked The Brown & White, after all their promises of great coverage of the games, didn't even get a preview out of the game - all I can find on their site is Albany post-game analysis. And the Morning Call didn't have squat online. Surprising. (Oh, well. You always went here for Lehigh news, right?) Choice quotes: "New defensive coordinator Shannon Morrison can sense it... His Lehigh University players can feel it... And an old friend who happens to be the opposing head coach this Saturday is certainly aware of it. "The Patriot League season is about to begin for Lehigh. Which only means it's time for the Mountain Hawks to turn it up a notch. "I can see the emotion difference," Morrison said, ...

Preview of the"Benedict Arnold Bowl" When you have an eleven game regular-season, and you have played 4 games, it is fashionable to say that the season is a quarter of the way through, though technically it is 4/11ths though. But after 4 games, Lehigh seems to have tantalizing potential to win the Patriot League and qualify for the 1-AA playoffs after a 2 year absence. With Colgate at 2-2 after losses to UMass and Yale, Lehigh is the highest-ranked Patriot League team at #17 nationally. And with a bunch of borderline teams still clinging to high rankings like Wofford, New Hampshire, Villanova, and Northern Arizona, and other borderline teams that could go down at any minute like Jacksonville St. and Cal Poly, it's not inconceivable to think that should Lehigh keep winning through October, they could be in the top 10 by November. You can feel the expectations growing in Bethlehem. Is the team up to the challenge? But first... DE Tom Alfsen's monster defens...