Archive For The “DiAndre Atwater” Category

Princeton Weekend Shows Work Needs To Be Done To Be Contenders

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Princeton Weekend Shows Work Needs To Be Done To Be Contenders

I always enjoy making the trip to catch a Princeton game when I can.

Aside from the sentimental attachment that I have to the place, there’s a lot to recommend it as a destination for anyone.

After Lehigh’s 52-26 loss to Princeton, however, the Mountain Hawk people I saw after the game couldn’t wait to get out of there and regroup.

Everything about this early, challenging schedule for the Mountain Hawks seems to have been designed to determine how close Lehigh is at becoming contenders once again.  It’s a challenging, strong out-of-conference schedule that doesn’t need an FBS team on it to make it a stern test for this group of players.

If anything in particular was learned about this weekend’s game, it’s that this Mountain Hawk team still needs work in order to win their Patriot League games and possibly win a Patriot League championship.  Spectacular individual plays, like junior CB Brandon Leaks upending Princeton RB Dre Nelson, are great, and like any other Lehigh fan I love to see them.  But the stuff needed to win football games are greater than individual plays, unfortunately.
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Frustrated Lehigh Can’t Overcome Mistakes, Trickery, Fall to Princeton 52-26

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Frustrated Lehigh Can’t Overcome Mistakes, Trickery, Fall to Princeton 52-26

Head coach Andy Coen stood outside the locker room, obviously agitated at the result of the game.  Outside, beautiful fireworks were exploding over Princeton Stadium on a beautiful night.

In front of the locker room, the fire was coming from Lehigh head coach, verbalizing what all the players, and fans, saw on the evening.

“The turnovers, the penalties, the blocked extra point, losing momentum there, that was all stuff we had control over,” Coen said, seemingly wanting to get back onto the field right then and there, with the fireworks going off, and play the game all over again.  “They had no control over that.  It was our problem jumping offsides, it was our problem dropping balls, our problem not being focused enough.  And if you are not focused enough, then someone else will play.”

It was so frustrating because the Mountain Hawks had some real pretty looking numbers on the stat sheet.  They outgained Princeton 561 yards to 497.  Junior QB Nick Shafnisky had 348 yards passing, many of them to sophomore WR Troy Pelletier, who broke a school record for completions in a game with 15.  Freshman RB Dom Bragalone played an outstanding game, becoming the second freshman running back in as many weeks to rush for over 100 yards in a game.

Yet Lehigh didn’t win in the only statistic that really matters – points.  Last week, Lehigh doubled up Penn.  This week, Princeton would double up Lehigh, 52-26.
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Game Breakdown, Lehigh at Princeton, 9/26/2015

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Game Breakdown, Lehigh at Princeton, 9/26/2015

We break down the Princeton game – and we give our fearless prediction, below the flip.

It’s rare that I talk about last week’s opponent in this space, especially when the focus should really be on how to beat Princeton.  But Penn’s 24-13 win over No. 4 Villanova was so stunning to this reporter and such a great thing for head coach Ray Priore‘s Quakers that it’s worth mentioning here.

It was a result that seemed to even stun Penn’s head coach, who earned a whopper of a first win thanks to winning the time of possession battle (holding onto the ball for more than 39 minutes on offense), benefiting from Villanova miscues (a roughing-the-punter call kept one Penn drive alive that ended in a touchdown) and making huge plays (as the Wildcats were driving to score, Penn LB Tyler Drake strip-sacked Villanova’s quarterback, leading LB Donald Panicello to scoop and score a 92 yard touchdown return).

“Wow, just wow,” Priore said after the game. “You know, you keep trying and trying and praying and praying. It had to happen sooner or later, right?”

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Know Your 2015 Opponents: Yale, Princeton, and the Ivies

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Know Your 2015 Opponents: Yale, Princeton, and the Ivies

Lehigh’s relationship with the schools of the Ivy League go all the way back to the 1880s.

Yes, really.

1887 was the year that Princeton, one of the first institutions of higher learning that sponsored o football program, first squared off against Lehigh, throttling them 80-0.

And it would be 1890 when Yale, another one of the early football powers, first hosted Lehigh, with the Eli ending up as 26-0 winners.

These traditional Ivy League football opponents appear on Lehigh’s football schedule for 2015 and will be a critical litmus test for this your Mountain Hawk football team after Lehigh hosts Penn.

These games, too, will not simply be speed bumps in the schedule, either.  There’s a lot more emotion in these games for Lehigh than meets the eye.

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Lehigh Circles the Wagons And Wins Yet Another Football Game

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Lehigh Circles the Wagons And Wins Yet Another Football Game

(Photo Credit: Justin LaFleur/Lehigh Athletics)

The problem with having a “Sunday Word” for so long is that you keep wanting to reuse an old one to describe a particular game.

“Fun”, which Sautrday’s 29-28 win was?  Sorry, already done.  How about “Raiders”, which epitomizes the Lehigh ethos at the moment, “Just Win, baby?”  Sorry, that’s one’s done, too.

Making things even more challenging was Lehigh’s eventful, to say the least, week leading up to this game.  Player suspensions.  Critical injuries.  Slow starts.  Potshots.

In a game where this Lehigh football team could have fallen flat on its face – and appeared to be doing so after a tough first half – the Mountain Hawks took a knee, went back into the locker room, circled the “wagons” (today’s “Sunday Word”), and came out and won the game.
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Lehigh Pulls Another Rabbit Out of the Hat, Beats Princeton 29-28

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Lehigh Pulls Another Rabbit Out of the Hat, Beats Princeton 29-28

(Photo Credit: Justin LaFleur/Lehigh Athletics)

Last week, Lehigh beat Monmouth 28-25, partially thanks to a crazy blocked punt that landed behind the line of scrimmage and was caught in mid-air by senior FB Zach Hayden, which he advanced for 37 yards and set up the winning score.

After that game, I asked head coach Andy Coen whether Lehigh fans might be able to expect this type of cardiac win every week.

“Probably,” he said. “I think they’ll all be close. Some of them I hope will be close.”

On a warm Saturday evening in late September, Lehigh pulled the exact same rabbit out the hat that the pulled in the first two games of the year, falling behind 22-3 at halftime before rallying to score 26 points in the second half to beat a tough Princeton team.
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