Lehigh University
Pennsylvania
Lehigh rally falls short at Pennsylvania
9/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Philadelphia, PA – For the second straight game fourth ranked Lehigh rallied from a 24-7 fourth quarter deficit, but unlike last week the Mountain Hawks bid for a victory fell short as Pennsylvania (2-0) defeated Lehigh 24-21. Lehigh (3-1) marched to the Penn 12 yard line with 1:17 remaining but Matt Douglas’ 29 yard field goal was wide right. With no timeouts remaining Lehigh was forced to let the clock run out.
"I want to compliment the Penn football team. They made the big plays, especially in the first half," said head coach Pete Lembo. "I’m extremely proud of our defense. To hold Penn to 24 points given the bad field position our offense put our defense in was a tremendous effort. The bottom line is you can’t commit five turnovers against a good team like Penn and expect to win."
"We knew [Lehigh] wasn’t going to quit," Penn head coach Al Bagnoli said. "Lehigh is a really good football team. We caused a lot of turnovers and although aesthetically it wasn’t a great game, there was a lot of emotion out there and in the end we made one more play than they did."
The Quakers started strong, and jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. After Peter Veldman connected on a career-long 42 yard field goal, Penn quarterback Mike Mitchell found Rob Milanese in the end zone giving the home team the ten point advantage.
Down by ten on the road, Lehigh didn’t panic. The Mountain Hawks drove 80 yards down the field on 13 plays, and got on the scoreboard as junior running back Jermaine Pugh scored on a four yard run. The Lehigh touchdown cut the deficit to three points at 10-7. However, as time expired in the first half, Stephen Faulk scored on a 22-yard pass play from Mitchell to give the Quakers a 17-7 advantage heading into the lockerroom.
Penn added a touchdown in the third quarter and took a 24-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Lehigh freshman Eric Rath then blocked a punt and took it in for the score, cutting the Penn lead to ten at 24-14.
"I was put in a good position," freshman Eric Rath said about the blocked punt. "After the block there was a mad dash for the ball and we were fortunate to fall on it."
Junior Matt Shiels then entered the game at quarterback, and led Lehigh down the field, and a Pugh 15 yard run cut the Penn lead to 24-21, but the Mountain Hawks could get no closer.
The loss ends Lehigh’s national best regular season winning streak at 26, and also puts an end to the Brown & White’s 15 game winning streak against Ivy League teams.
Lehigh looks to get back on track next weekend, as the Mountain Hawks return to Goodman Stadium to host Harvard. Kickoff is set for 1:05, and tickets can be purchased by calling (610) 7LU-GAME.
Scoring
Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
Lehigh | 0 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 21 |
Pennsylvania | 10 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 24 |
Team Stats
Lehigh | Pennsylvania | |
First Downs | 20 | 16 |
Yards Rushing | 118 | 49 |
Yards Passing | 250 | 277 |
Total Yards | 368 | 326 |
Penalties | 5-26 | 10-58 |
Time of Possession | 27:36 | 32:24 |
Passing
Player | Att-Cmp-Int | Yds | TD |
Mike Mitchell, Penn | 43-23-1 | 277 | 2 |
Chad Schwenk, Lehigh | 32-17-3 | 164 | 0 |
Matt Shiels, Lehigh | 8-6-0 | 86 | 0 |
Rushing
Player | Carries | Yards | TD |
Jermaine Pugh, Lehigh | 21 | 112 | 2 |
Stephen Faulk, Penn | 23 | 49 | 1 |
Rob Milanese, Penn | 1 | 15 | 0 |
Receiving
Player | Catches | Yards | TD |
Rob Milanese, Penn | 10 | 111 | 1 |
Steve Hluschak, Lehigh | 5 | 65 | 0 |
Joe Phillips, Penn | 6 | 62 | 0 |
Mike Sutton, Lehigh | 5 | 61 | 0 |
Defensive
Player | Solo Tackles | Assisted Tackles | TFL | Int. | Sacks |
Travis Belden, Penn | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Lawrence Williams, Lehigh | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tom McGeoy, Lehigh | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
