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Lehigh thwarts off late charge for third straight win over Lafayette, 20-13

Posted: 11/20/2010
EASTON, Pa. – Riding a balanced offense and impressive bend, but no break defense, the 22nd-ranked Lehigh football team pulled out a thrilling 20-13 victory over Lafayette in the 146th meeting between the two rivals on Saturday afternoon at Fisher Stadium. The win marks the Mountain Hawks’ (9-2, 5-0 Patriot League) third straight over the Leopards as they enter the FCS Playoffs riding a seven-game winning streak and an undefeated league mark for the first time since 2001.
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"I’m elated that we found a way to win this game," said Lehigh head coach Andy Coen. "That’s what we did. It wasn’t pretty at all except for one drive on offense, but we found a way. The defense did a great job. They were on the field a bunch. We knew Lafayette had an explosive offense. We bent but didn’t break. At the end we found a way to come up with the stops we needed to get the win.

Coen continued, "You’ve got to be out of your mind to think this game would be any different. You knew it was going to be a competitive game. We were in the same situation last year and played our best game of the year so we expected Lafayette’s best. Defensively they (Lafayette) did a great job and on offense they did some nice things but we came up with the stops when we needed to."

Junior Chris Lum finished the afternoon 16-for-26 for 207 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions while senior Craig Zurn had three catches for 55 yards and sophomore Ryan Spadola made four for 53 yards and a touchdown. Senior Alex Wojdowski also had two big catches on consecutive plays in the third quarter to put Lehigh up by 10.

Junior Mike Groome and senior Al Pierce led a strong defensive attack, finishing with a career-high 16 and 15 tackles, respectively. Pierce was named the game's MVP, the first defensive player on either side to win MVP since Lehigh's Matt Salvaterra in 2000. Senior Jarard Cribbs also added 10 tackles and his Patriot League leading seventh interception while Casey Eldemire added a pick as well.

"Over the last couple weeks we’ve had some good stops on defense," said Pierce who became just the fourth defensive player to win game MVP honors. "We’ve been playing really physical so that’s something we pride ourselves on defensively."

Lafayette actually out-gained the Mountain Hawks, 283-272, while the Leopards also held the edge in passing (223-214) and rushing (60-58) yards.

A big holding call late in the fourth quarter negated a Mountain Hawks’ touchdown, which would have put the squad up by two touchdowns. It also sent them out of field goal range, giving Lafayette one last chance with 3:56 left in the fourth quarter, still down 20-13. The Leopards moved all the way to the Lehigh 37 yard line before the Mountain Hawks forced three straight incompletions. They proceeded to stop the fourth down play three yards short of a first to regain possession and send the Lehigh sidelines into a frenzy.

Lum and the Lehigh offense moved the ball 38 yards on its opening drive highlighted by a 20-yard pass to Spadola and 14 yards to Zurn all the way down to the Lafayette 29. Lum’s next pass was tipped and intercepted by Nick Nardone, however, to end the drive.

The teams traded possessions without a score all the way through the first quarter, until a 16 play Mountain Hawk drive, which took nearly half of the second quarter clock, gave them a 7-0 advantage. With the ball on its own eight yard line, Lum helped stage the 92-yard drive, with help from sophomore quarterback Michael Colvin. Lum finished 6-for-7 on the drive for 83 yards and a touchdown, while Colvin was 2-for-2 for seven yards to go along with a key three-yard rush on fourth down.

The Mountain Hawks converted an incredible 4-of-5 third downs, while also going 1-for-1 on fourth. Lehigh marched into Lafayette territory behind third down receptions from junior Jake Drwal and sophomore Zach Barket, respectively. The first went for 27 yards to the Lehigh 36, while the second connected for 16 to the Lafayette 41. Colvin also converted a big fourth-and-two at the Lafayette 33, taking the snap and rushing three yards to the left side to keep the drive alive.

Lum capped off the drive with a pair of 16-yard conversions on third down, first to Craig Zurn and then to Spadola. The second got into the end zone to cap off the incredible drive which put Lehigh up 7-0 with 7:35 remaining in the second quarter.

The Leopards responded two possessions later, staging an impressive drive of their own to even the score at seven with only 53 seconds to go in the first half. It looked like Lehigh would force a field goal when junior Tanner Rivas stopped Patrick Mputu for a loss of two to set up third-and-goal from the 10 yard line. Lafayette quarterback Ryan O’Neil appeared to be stopped for a loss on fourth down, but he moved out of the pocket and found Mark Layton wide open in the end zone to cap off a seven play, 53 yard drive.

Lafayette was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct after the touchdown, putting Lehigh at the Lafayette 45 after a 25-yard return. Lum’s first pass was intercepted by Mike Schmidlein, however, to set up the Leopards on their own 40 yard line. Six plays later, Davis Rodriguez kicked a career-long 50 yard field goal with room to spare to give Lafayette a 10-7 lead, and all the momentum heading into halftime.

Lehigh quickly retook the lead only 1:27 into the third quarter following a blocked punt. After the Mountain Hawk defense forced a three-and-out, senior Shane Ryan came through the middle to block the Tom Kondash punt, which bounced right to junior Jonathon Littlejohn. He easily went the five yards into the end zone to the delight of the Lehigh faithful. The point after attempt hit the uprights, giving the Mountain Hawks a 13-10 lead with 13:33 still remaining in the third quarter.

"We knew they’ve had some issues in their punting, especially with the snaps," Coen said. "We put in some block and return schemes each week. We had them pinned down and went for the block. R.J. Ryan does a great job with our special teams and I think he was more fired up than anybody when that happened. Shane Ryan came through clean and made a great block and it bounced right into Jon’s hands. It was a big play coming out at the start of the second half.

Lafayette drove 32 yards all the way to the Lehigh 35, but a holding penalty off-set a big run, while Cribbs made his Patriot League leading seventh interception two plays later to give the Lehigh offensive its first possession of the half with 7:19 to go in the third quarter.

Stationed at its own two yard line after the interception, Lehigh put together its second drive of 90 or more yards, going 98 on 10 plays to take a 20-10 lead with 2:49 to go in the third quarter. It was Wojdowski who made a 21-yard catch, followed by a 14-yard touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone to cap off the 4:30 drive and keep the momentum in Lehigh’s favor.

The Leopards pulled to within 20-13 with 12:42 remaining in the fourth quarter, but it could have been worse. After a pass interference put them first-and-goal at the two yard line, Lehigh stuffed Lafayette on three-straight rush attempts, with Groome picking up tackles on all three plays. That forced a 19-yard field goal attempt from Rodriguez, which he sent through the uprights to pull within a touchdown.

"Emotionally that was huge for the whole team," said Groome about the goal line stand. "It’s always great for the defense to come up with a big stop down on the goal line. We prepared for that all week. We did a great job with everyone knowing their assignments and I just did my part."

The Lafayette defense forced a punt, but on the first play of its ensuing drive, Lehigh’s defense came up with another big play. Senior John Kennedy tipped the deep pass across the middle right into the hands of Eldemire for the interception. He returned it all the way to the Lafayette 24 yard line with 9:50 to go in the fourth quarter.

That set the stage for Lehigh’s late-game defensive stand to clinch the thrilling victory.

The Mountain Hawks now look ahead to the NCAA Playoffs, set to begin next weekend. They will find out their opponent during Sunday morning’s NCAA Selection Show at 10 a.m. on ESPNU.

EXTRA POINTS… The Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry is the most played game in college football history. Yale-Princeton is second with 133 meetings … Jarard Cribbs’ seven interceptions tie for fourth in Patriot League single-season history and are the most for a Lehigh player since Steve Banco in 1986 … The Mountain Hawks have won three straight games against Lafayette for the first time since winning seven straight meetings from 1995-01 … Lehigh enters the postseason with nine wins, its most since the 2004 season … The Mountain Hawks finished undefeated in the Patriot League for the fifth time overall and the first time since 2001 … Playoff ticket information will be announced on Lehighsports.com following the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday.