Archive For The “Dominck Bragalone” Category
All season I have done a statistical breakdown of Lehigh’s opponent, position by position. As a change of pace, I’m going to do something different this week with the “Game Breakdown” and do a head-to-head comparison of both teams – doing a stat breakdown of both teams still, but doing more of a “Tale of the Tape” to compare both squads to see who might reign supreme in this huge football game.
Something that sometimes gets lost in The Rivalry is the importance of seniors on both sides. For so many of these seniors, it’s not only their final college football game, it is also their final time wearing a football helmet and a jersey. I’ve found that seniors find it in themselves to play the best games of their careers. So seniors in the starting lineup are of great weight to me.
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All season I have done a statistical breakdown of Lehigh’s opponent, position by position. As a change of pace, I’m going to do something different this week with the “Game Breakdown” and do a head-to-head comparison of both teams – doing a stat breakdown of both teams still, but doing more of a “Tale of the Tape” to compare both squads to see who might reign supreme in this huge football game.
Something that sometimes gets lost in The Rivalry is the importance of seniors on both sides. For so many of these seniors, it’s not only their final college football game, it is also their final time wearing a football helmet and a jersey. I’ve found that seniors find it in themselves to play the best games of their careers. So seniors in the starting lineup are of great weight to me.
Read more »
(Photo Credits: Lehigh Athletics)Just like that, the 2018 Spring Session comes to a close this week, giving us a taste of what is to come in the late summer and fall.Here are my quick observations about what I saw at Murray Goodman on Saturday.Read mor…
(Photo Credits: Lehigh Athletics)Just like that, the 2018 Spring Session comes to a close this week, giving us a taste of what is to come in the late summer and fall.Here are my quick observations about what I saw at Murray Goodman on Saturday.Read mor…
(Photo Credit: Alec Turner c/o Lehigh Athletics)
For those that care about these things, Lehigh entered the first round FCS playoff matchup 21 1/2 point underdogs.
And if we’re being fair, that was probably the right number.
The Seawolves were 9-2, nationally ranked with seven conference wins in the tough CAA and one of their losses coming to a very strong FBS team in South Florida. In contrast, unranked Lehigh came into the game 5-6 and only were here because they upset Colgate 41-38 on the road and won enough Patriot League conference games to win the autobid.
Yet a young Lehigh team was game to put their best foot forward and to have a heroic sendoff for potential NFL prospect senior WR Troy Pelletier, and in that, the game was a rousing success.
With junior QB Brad Mayes expertly picking apart one of the top defenses in FCS, time after time he’d find Troy for reception after reception, each one highlighting his impressive skill set as an audition for the next level.
It wouldn’t be enough to win the game, but it was enough to keep the Mountain Hawks within striking distance until the Seawolves would pull away in the 4th quarter.
It was also enough to establish Troy as the all-time greatest receiver in Patriot League history.
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(Photo Credit: Alec Turner c/o Lehigh Athletics)
For those that care about these things, Lehigh entered the first round FCS playoff matchup 21 1/2 point underdogs.
And if we’re being fair, that was probably the right number.
The Seawolves were 9-2, nationally ranked with seven conference wins in the tough CAA and one of their losses coming to a very strong FBS team in South Florida. In contrast, unranked Lehigh came into the game 5-6 and only were here because they upset Colgate 41-38 on the road and won enough Patriot League conference games to win the autobid.
Yet a young Lehigh team was game to put their best foot forward and to have a heroic sendoff for potential NFL prospect senior WR Troy Pelletier, and in that, the game was a rousing success.
With junior QB Brad Mayes expertly picking apart one of the top defenses in FCS, time after time he’d find Troy for reception after reception, each one highlighting his impressive skill set as an audition for the next level.
It wouldn’t be enough to win the game, but it was enough to keep the Mountain Hawks within striking distance until the Seawolves would pull away in the 4th quarter.
It was also enough to establish Troy as the all-time greatest receiver in Patriot League history.
Read more »
For the first time all season, it was a dark, wet day for a Lehigh football game.
It was not at all ideal for the more than 15,000 fans, and countless tailgaters that made it to the tailgates but not in the stadium, partying and tailgating outside the gates of Murray Goodman.
It was also not at all ideal for Lehigh’s high-powered passing game, and during a disastrous second quarter with three turnovers, it felt like the wheels were coming off the Mountain Hawks’ chances at successfully defending their Patriot League title.
It seemed like everything that could go wrong, was actually going wrong. Three fumbles resulted in three Lafayette recoveries. A third down conversion incompletion by Lafayette QB Sean O’Malley became an unexpected first down, thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that kept their drive alive. A 14-7 first quarter lead became 17 unanswered points, leading to a 24-14 deficit against the best defensive team in the Patriot League.
In this most important of football games for many of the Lehigh faithful, it seemed like they were losing it by shooting themselves in the foot.
Then halftime happened, and everything changed. More rain, and worse weather, did not deter Lehigh from their goal. And a couple of Rivalry legends were made in the process.
Read more »
For the first time all season, it was a dark, wet day for a Lehigh football game.
It was not at all ideal for the more than 15,000 fans, and countless tailgaters that made it to the tailgates but not in the stadium, partying and tailgating outside the gates of Murray Goodman.
It was also not at all ideal for Lehigh’s high-powered passing game, and during a disastrous second quarter with three turnovers, it felt like the wheels were coming off the Mountain Hawks’ chances at successfully defending their Patriot League title.
It seemed like everything that could go wrong, was actually going wrong. Three fumbles resulted in three Lafayette recoveries. A third down conversion incompletion by Lafayette QB Sean O’Malley became an unexpected first down, thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that kept their drive alive. A 14-7 first quarter lead became 17 unanswered points, leading to a 24-14 deficit against the best defensive team in the Patriot League.
In this most important of football games for many of the Lehigh faithful, it seemed like they were losing it by shooting themselves in the foot.
Then halftime happened, and everything changed. More rain, and worse weather, did not deter Lehigh from their goal. And a couple of Rivalry legends were made in the process.
Read more »
It has been a most unusual season for Lehigh.
Starting the year off at 0-5 and getting swept in their out-of-conference schedule, the Mountain Hawks were in danger of having their season go off the rails.
But two things have come together over the last five football games that have put Lehigh on the brink of back-to-back championships.
The first is the late blooming of the Lehigh defense, which kept battling every week since the low point of the September 30th loss to Wagner to do the job in four of their five Patriot League conference games.
The second is the development of junior RB Dominick Bragalone into a bellcow running back, a back who has to be in the conversation for Patriot League offensive player of the year.
In five Patriot League games, Bragalone has run for 863 yards in 5 games, rushing for 11 touchdowns and adding two more receiving touchdowns as well.
The South Williamsport, PA native certainly wasn’t unknown before this week – after all, as a freshman and a sophomore, he had already rushed for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons. But this year, where he’s amassed 1,200 yard rushing and an FCS-leading 16 rushing touchdowns, he’s gone into full Monster Mode, and Lehigh fans are loving every minute of it.
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After the Bucknell victory, senior OL Zach Duffy said something that cut through the entire 2017 Lehigh football season.
“We have 14 days to stay locked in and do whatever it takes to win another championship,” he said to the team.
And it’s true.
It really doesn’t matter what happened Week One, Week Five, or even last week. When this Mountain Hawk team goes to bed, and wakes up again during the next six days, they are in the Patriot League Championship race. If they win, and stay locked in for the next fourteen days and win two football games, they will win the Patriot League.
It will require being locked in for fourteen days.
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