Archive For October 21, 2013
My vote for the FCS Top 25 for the week ending 10/21/2013 follows below the flip.
But first, check out this great picture from New Hampshire of OL Ricky Archer and OL Joe Coccia celebrating what may have been the most thrilling game of the weekend, a thrilling 29-28 win by New Hampshire over Villanova that featured a tie and two lead changes in the final two minutes. (Photo Credit: John Tully/Concord Monitor)
From the article:
The season’s playoff hopes were about dead after Villanova (4-3) scored two touchdowns in a span of 46 seconds to take a 28-21 lead with 1:09 left in the game. But UNH got a 35-yard kickoff return from RS Dalton Crossan, plus 15 yards on a late-hit personal foul, to take over at the 50 with 1:02 on the clock. New Hampshire survived a fumble on an attempted hook-and-ladder play, got a pair of catches from RB Chris Setian for 24 total yards, and then QB Sean Goldrich (21-for-28, 236 yards, touchdown) turned a broken play into a 4-yard touchdown scramble to pull his team within one, 28-27, with just under 14 seconds remaining.
That put the pressure on head coach Sean McDonnell to decide whether or not to go for two. He said that offensive coordinator Ryan Carty “was pretty adamant” about going for the win.
“And I just felt, too, that if we were going to win it, we were going to win it there,” McDonell said. “Just felt like the momentum was there and I thought maybe they’d be a little bit on their heels.”
It turned out that Villanova was ready for Setian, but the senior captain bulled to the game-winning conversion anyway, capping a stellar day – career-high 88 yards on 12 carries and three catches for 28 yards.

It wasn’t a typical Lehigh weekend for me as I headed to Murray Goodman.
With my family, including my mother and father visiting Murray Goodman stadium for the first time in a long time, I spent most of the game experiencing most of the game in a place where I haven’t been in a while: the “stands”.
When you cover a team, it’s a bit too easy sometimes to take refuge in the press box, hermetically sealed from the rest of the fans out in the fresh air. Too often, too, that’s what I do: plop in the press box, not to emerge until after the clock reads zero.
This time around, though, I had the incredible experience once again to enjoy most of the game in the stands, thanks to my family, and it couldn’t have been a better one, thanks to the best efforts of the other fans.
The picture above was taken on my phone, from where I was sitting on Saturday.
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The term being bandied about the season in regards to the 2013 Mountain Hawks was the “Cardiac Kids”.
Every week, the Mountain Hawks would fall behind. Every week, there would be hiccups, issues, and heart-stopping moments, but most often would end up in Lehigh victories.
Most fans wondered: Could it be possible, would it be possible, for Lehigh to put the pedal to the metal against an opponent, to surge to a huge lead, go for he jugular early, and never look back?
This Saturday, the Mountain Hawks answered.
Lehigh scored the most points they’d scored in the first half since 2002, scoring on seven of their eight drives of the first half and narrowly missing the eighth. They’d cruise to a 38-3 halftime lead before the second stringers would make the final score look a lot closer.
In short, it was exactly what most of the 9,866 fans in attendance were looking for in the first Patriot League conference game of the season. Never trailing. Making the game’s outcome not be in doubt early. Winning.
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It’s that time of the week where I share with you your weekly Lehigh fan viewing guide for Week 8 of the college football season. Why go to website after website when all the information you need is right here?
If you are not able to attend the game this weekend at Murray Goodman Stadium you can follow the game from the following sources:
TV: Service Electric 2 (Lehigh Valley)
Online Streaming: Patriot League Network (free)
Radio: ESPN Radio 1230 and 1320
Internet: Lehighsports.com/ESPNLV.com

We break down the Georgetown game – and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip.
It’s frustrating to try to break a team down when, as of Friday at 1PM, Georgetown’s game notes for the weekend’s games are not available. On the plus side, though, Georgetown did supply a short preview article that does provide a way forward with some critical injury information. That, plus last week’s game notes, provide something to go on.
Something that does leap off the page of that preview is the following fact: “Georgetown has had a combined 15 players from its season-opening two-deep miss 28 games this season due to injury, including four different linebackers missing at least two games apiece. “
Certainly injuries have taken a toll on Georgetown’s non-conference schedule, including sidelining the preseason Patriot League defensive player of the year at a bare minimum. But will those injuries affect this weekend’s game? It’s hard to say.

This season, as mentioned by legendary Hoya football blogger DFW Hoya, is the 75th anniversary of the beginning of what would become a mini college football dynasty in the late 1930s.
Parallel to the emergence of Fordham on the national scene, with Vince Lombardi and their “Seven Blocks of Granite” was the Hoya’s undefeated, untied team of 1938, who saw team after team fall to tie or defeat above them and saw them standing alone as Eastern Sectional champions ahead of Villanova and Boston College.
Behind the direction of QB Joe McFadden – an Allen High School grad – the Hoyas would shut out Temple, Bucknell and West Virginia in three consecutive weeks while beating Maryland in College Park 14-7 to conclude their undefeated season. Since their schedule was considered weak on a national level, they weren’t considered for a bowl, but a significant number of the same players would be invited to the Orange Bowl a couple of years later in 1940.
Today’s Hoyas, who are sporting a 1-5 record, are actually still looking to establish a perfect record this season, too. Like Lehigh, they are 0-0 in official Patriot League play and will be looking to be perfect by early evening at Murray Goodman stadium. Both the Hoyas and the Mountain Hawks’ Patriot League seasons’ start this weekend, and only one will come out alive.
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(Photo Credit: Kiera Wood/The Columbia Spectator)
Below the flip, enjoy this week’s “LFN Players of the Week” for the Columbia game.

Lehigh Hoops Nation, as part of the continuing effort to get everyone prepared and ready for the ’13-’14 edition of Lehigh Basketball, was fortunate enough to chat with sophomore forward Jesse Chuku in an attempt to get Mountain Hawk fans familiar with Jesse before he hits the court for the first time in his Lehigh…