Archive For The “149” Category
(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. To me, losses to Lafayette are supposed to hurt. It’s the very nature of the thing, winning and losing.
And for me, I guess, it sucks more than most of my friends and acquaintances. I have an inability to put it behind me in an evening, or even a weekend, even though I put in a good front, I think, to friends and family.
Most people move on pretty quickly, especially in this era of social media and distractions. In a way, I envy them, but in another way I don’t.
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On the third play of scrimmage, Lafayette freshman QB Drew Reed fumbled the ball off a bad snap.
The ball squirted loose from the line – where a Lehigh player might have fallen on it – and instead nudged in the direction of junior RB Ross Scheuerman, who found himself with the ball in his hands, and, on the broken goal line play, wide open space to get into the end zone.
It was that type of day for the Mountain Hawks – a day when five years of Rivalry frustrations, five years of balls bouncing the wrong way, and five years of Lehigh victories came crashing to an end.
It was a game where Lehigh never led. It was a game when the Mountain Hawks came close to coming back – and clearly believing that it could, and would, happen. But it wasn’t meant to be, as Lafayette took home all the marbles on Saturday – the Patriot League Trophy, the Patriot League championship and autobid, and the win over Lehigh that the players, and the many people that follow the Lafayette football program, have been hungering for the last five years.
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(Photo Credit: Morning Call)
We break down the Lafayette game, the 149th meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette – and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip.
Some key things you’ll need to know before the Game of the Year:
* The Lehigh Football Partnership will be opening at 9:00 AM for tailgating at the Rust Pavillion with former football players and families, and at 10:00 AM there will be a “special guest”.
* Out of town and want to watch Rivalry 149 with friendly Lehigh fans? Click here and find a telecast party across the country. There’s even one in London!
* The game will be on the following TV/Radio and streaming places:
Patriot League Network (Lehigh Broadcast: Free)
ESPN3 (Lafayette Broadcast: Free if ISP provides it)
WMFZ 69 in the Lehigh Valley
Lafayette Sports Network (WBPH-60 in the Lehigh Valley Area and other networks across the country)
Fox College Sports Pacific (Live; Lehigh Broadcast; Available Nationally On Many Cable Systems)
Radio: AM 1230/1320 with Matt Kerr, Marty Horn, and Tom Fallon, Stream Here
I’d list other games that are being broadcast this day but – let’s get real – there’s only one game this weekend, right???
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(Photo Credit: The Express-Times)
If there’s one word we’ve heard a lot in the media, and from both schools this week, it’s “marbles”.
“We’re playing for all the marbles,” head coach Andy Coen said in the Lehigh Football Report this week, echoing what seems to be anyone following the game in the Lehigh Valley.
It is true that the winner of the game this weekend will be Patriot League champions, with a 4-1 conference record.
It is also true that the winner will, beyond a shadow of a doubt, head to the FCS playoffs this weekend. (While Lehigh could sneak in the field with a loss, it seems real unlikely.)
But more than that, the winner of this yearly Rivalry battle will indeed win something more than just a Patriot League Championship trophy to keep in Bethlehem or Easton another year.
It really does feel like an old-fashioned game of marbles, where the winner really does take everything they were looking to achieve that season, and the loser comes away with none of the goals they set out to achieve and instead the have to wait until next season.
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