Saturday, September 3
12:30 PM
Lehigh University
0-1
21
vs
23
Monmouth
1-0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
Monmouth
0
7
7
9
23
Lehigh
0
0
7
14
21
Second half rally falls short as Lehigh drops opener to Monmouth 23-21
9/3/2016 5:04:00 PM | Football
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After battling back from a third quarter 14-point deficit, the Lehigh football team was unable to overcome a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter as Monmouth picked up a 23-21 victory in the season-opener for both teams Saturday afternoon at Goodman Stadium.
Senior quarterback Nick Shafnisky led the way totaling 196 yards of offense coupled with a passing and rushing touchdown. On the defensive side of the ball, senior linebacker Evan Kauffman anchored the defense with 12 tackles in his first career start.
Without injured senior captain Colton Caslow, the shorthanded Lehigh defense did its job limiting a high-powered Monmouth offense to just seven points in the first half, despite being on the field for more than 20 minutes. On Lehigh's first defensive drive, the Monmouth offense drove deep into Mountain Hawk territory before sophomore Sam McCloskey came up with his first career interception on a fourth down pass.
"It w as a tale of two halves, so to speak," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said. "Offensively, I was very unhappy with our performance in the first half. We couldn't get into our flow. We just couldn't get it going, but Monmouth had it going pretty good. Obviously our defense was on the football field way too much.
"Our defense competed very, very hard," Coen continued. "It was a miracle we were only down 7-0 at the half. We were able to get things moving in the second half. It seemed like there was a magic wand we had to wave over everybody but we settled down and performed the way we expected to play."
The Monmouth defense came out strong as the Hawks held the Lehigh offense to 49 yards of total offense in the first half, forcing the Mountain Hawks into three punts and a turnover on downs.
Lavon Chaney capped a 12-play, 54-yard drive with a one yard touchdown run to give Monmouth a 7-0 lead with 12:10 left in the opening half.
Monmouth had a chance to extend its lead right before halftime but the Lehigh defense held up and Matt White missed a 21 yard field goal in the final seconds of the half.
The visiting Hawks opened the second half with another 12-play scoring drive, doubling their lead on a three-yard Zach Welch run nearly six minutes into the third quarter.
The Mountain Hawks cut their deficit in half after a two-yard touchdown run from sophomore Dominick Bragalone with 4:53 left in the third. After another defensive stop the Mountain Hawks drove down the field once again and tied the game up at 14-14 after a two-yard run from Shafnisky early in the fourth.
Monmouth responded with nine straight points behind a 46-yard White field goal and Chaney's second one-yard touchdown run of the game, which followed a Shafnisky interception as Lehigh trailed 23-14 with 8:36 left to play.
Shafnisky brought Lehigh back within two with a 26 yard touchdown pass to junior Sasha Kelsey with 4:09 left but Monmouth was able to pick up a first down and drain the rest of the clock.
"I give the defensive kids a lot of credit," Coen said. "We were undermanned in terms of some guys being unable to play, but we fought. We competed, but we just couldn't get another couple of stops."
The Mountain Hawks tallied 190 yards of offense in the second half after being held to 49 in the first. Bragalone added 37 yards rushing with his touchdown while Kelsey tallied 48 yards on three receptions.
Chaney carried 25 times for 119 yards to lead Monmouth, which held a 37:38-22:22 advantage in time of possession. Cody Williams threw for 198 yards for Monmouth.
Lehigh will look to bounce back next week as the Mountain Hawks travel to No. 22/23 Villanova for their first road test of the season. Game time is set for 6 p.m. from Villanova, Pa.
EXTRA POINTS… Monmouth has now won two straight meetings in the series after Lehigh won the first five games… Lehigh's streak of consecutive games rushing for more than 200 yards was snapped at four… the Mountain Hawks are now 6-5 in season openers and 4-7 in home openers under Andy Coen… five Mountain Hawk freshmen saw action Saturday including Riley O'Neil, who started at free safety… six different receivers caught passes for Lehigh with no player garnering more than two… junior Tyler Cavenas started at defensive end and finished with a career-high nine tackles… Saturday's attendance was 4,828.
Team Stats
MU
LEHIGH
Total Yards
413
239
Pass Yards
198
159
Rushing Yards
215
80
Penalty Yards
70
15
1st Downs
20
15
3rd Downs
7
6
4th Downs
2
1
TOP
37:38
22:22
2nd Quarter
MU 7, LEHIGH 0
MU - CHANEY, Lavon 1 yd run (WHITE, Matt kick), 12 plays, 54 yards, TOP 6:03
3rd Quarter
MU 14, LEHIGH 0
MU - WELCH, Zach 3 yd run (WHITE, Matt kick), 12 plays, 70 yards, TOP 5:51
MU 14, LEHIGH 7
LEHIGH - Bragalone, Dom 1 yd run (Mish, Ed kick), 10 plays, 65 yards, TOP 4:11
4th Quarter
MU 14, LEHIGH 14
LEHIGH - Shafnisky, Nick 2 yd run (Mish, Ed kick), 11 plays, 41 yards, TOP 4:03
MU 17, LEHIGH 14
MU - WHITE, Matt 46 yd field goal 7 plays, 55 yards, TOP 3:09
MU 23, LEHIGH 14
MU - CHANEY, Lavon 1 yd run (WHITE, Matt kickfailed), 3 plays, 22 yards, TOP 1:20
MU 23, LEHIGH 21
LEHIGH - Kelsey, Sasha 26 yd pass from Shafnisky, Nick (Mish, Ed kick) 10 plays, 84 yards, TOP 4:22
Game Leaders
CMP
15
TD
1
YDS
159
INT
1
Players Mentioned
RB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
LB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DB
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