Lehigh Football Nation

First, congratulations to the Lady Hawks for enacting some revenge over Lafayette 62-51, avenging two regular-season defeats to the Leopards and advancing to the Patriot League semifinals. At 3:45PM Sunday, the Lady Hawks will take on the *other* team that swept them during the regular season: the Holy Cross Crusaders. And congratulations to the wrestlers still alive in the EIWA Championships: Winner's Bracket: 133 lb Seth Ciasulli 149 lb Trevor Chinn 157 lb Dave Nakasone Lower Bracket: 165 lb Matt Galante 174 lb Alex Caruso 184 lb Manuel Schubert Lots to root for on Sunday. Should be exciting! And - lo and behond - there is indeed a shot (a long one, but a shot) at six wrestlers at nationals.

Saturday and Sunday are packed with Lehigh sports to follow. Although the men's basketball team have been eliminated, the wrestling team is heading to Franklin & Marshall in nearby Lancaster, PA to wrestle in the EIWA championships. The games will be available with live audio from Lehighsports and live internet video from F&M , starting at 10:30AM Saturday with championship and consolation rounds starting 10:30AM Sunday morning. Historically, Lehigh has been a national power in wrestling and has won a whopping 34 team championships. Lehigh's team, loaded with underclassmen, could be a dark horse for the championship this year, but with daunting Penn and Navy teams in their way it will be a tough go. As important as the championships will be the opportunity to have Lehigh wrestlers qualify individually for the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, MO later in March. Last year Lehigh qualified seven wrestlers and hope to do so again. This year, Lehigh is hoping to get (m...

As the season of the men's basketball team ended with a thud in a 64-61 overtime loss - again - to Army , an announcement from a mid-major basketball powerhouse concerning my favorite sport at Lehigh - football. Drake announced today that they will be traveling to Murray Goodman Stadium to be our home opener this year . Drake, out of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, last year became the first-ever Division I non-scholarship team to beat a fully funded FCS scholarship team when they beat Illinois State 27-24 in their season opener last year. "We are excited about going to Bethlehem, Pa. to play one of the great Division FCS programs in this country," said first-year Drake coach Chris Creighton. "We are also happy to announce that Lehigh will be coming here to Des Moines in 2010." Teams from the PFL have made great strides recently, with Dayton ruining the homecoming of last year's Patriot League Champion Fordham 31-24 , so it should be more of a...

It's a ticket to the Big Dance. And every Patriot League team has a shot at keeping their hopes alive as the first round of the Patriot League conference tournament kicks off tonight. #4 Lehigh will be hosting #5 Army, and if you're in the Lehigh Valley you can catch the game on Service Electric 2 or on AM 1230/1320 ESPN Radio. If you're out of the area, you can catch the game on Lehigh Broadcast or on Patriot League All-Access for a small fee. For Lehigh's men's basketball team, it may as well be a return to the "scene of the crime". Last year, Lehigh was robbed in Stabler in the first round against - you guessed it - Army. Freshman Josh Miller made a running bank shot after the buzzer sounded (as video from Lehigh's Web site, lehighsports.com, showed) that lifted Army to a 47-46 win over Lehigh in the Patriot League tournament quarterfinals at Stabler Arena. Lehigh coach Billy Taylor, more animated than ever, said he planned to appeal. '...

Every once in a while I like to talk about Patriot League expansion, especially in terms of football. With eight basketball members and seven football-playing members (including two, Fordham and Georgetown, who are in the league only in football), I think expansion of the league ought to be one of its top priorities. To that end, I had proposed Marist as a very solid candidate in Patriot League expansion in all sports. Marist appeared to fit the bill as a Patriot League school as a small, high-academic private school; its non-scholarship football program had played a lot of football against Patriot League opponents; its conference, the MAAC, finally ceased to exist for football last year; and its men's and women's basketball programs promised to provide great respect for the Patriot League from years to come. (Last year, Marist's women's basketball team proceeded to make the Sweet 16, and have parked themselves in the Top 25 nationally this year.) Last Friday, Maris...

I have a lot of backlog to cover: Marist's acceptance into the Pioneer Football league, reducing by one the already thin pool of potential Patriot League schools; the football awards ceremony, which took place some weeks back; and even talk about spring football. But right here, right now, this weekend only two things matter athletically against our (second) biggest hoops rival. The Lady Hawks face a good possibility of being the #1 seed throughout the Patriot League tournament if they beat Holy Cross tomorrow, in Worcester, at 1PM. If they win, they won't only get a great seed for the tournament but also enact some revenge on the Crusaders after they escaped Stabler with a win in January. But unless you live in Massachusetts, the best you can do is listen online or catch it on 91.3 FM in the Valley. It's tonight, at Stabler, where Lehigh will have their best chance to host a home tournament game this Wednesday. It may as well be a playoff game against Holy Cross: the ...

It doesn't get much uglier than a 50-39 win for the Mountain Hawks, but undoubtedly we'll take it. Big-time credit goes to the defense, who allowed two-time NCAA Tournament participant Darren Mastropaolo to a team-high 8 points (!) and held Bucknell to an amazing 15-for-45 shooting night in Bucknell's worst offensive output in 9 years. As for our offense, a surprise: freshman G Rob Keefer erupted for a career-high 17 points for the victory, while senior F Bryan White added 8 rebounds and sophomore G Marquis Hall added 5 assists. The win allowed Lehigh to stay in the hunt for a first-round home game next week in the first round of the Patriot League tournament. How do I know? I did the math, and I'll explain it to you, dear Reader, as well, below. Start with American and Navy, both 9-4 in the Patriot League and have clinched first-round playoff games. American finishes at home versus Lafayette, while Navy travels to Hamilton to play Colgate. Navy won the season s...