Lembo won't let Lehigh relax against Fordham
11/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
of The Morning Call
Pete Lembo conceded it's part of human nature for young men who are coming off a huge, emotional win over a quality team on the road to let down at home the following week against a team that they've positively owned for four straight years.
But the Lehigh coach insisted, ''I'll never give in to that.''
And so Lembo, once again, wasn't as happy as you'd have thought he would be after a lopsided win on Saturday.
His Mountain Hawks were sluggish for a half and then rolled past
It was a positively gorgeous day, particularly for early November, in the shadows of
Yet, Lembo wasn't enjoying the last sparkle of the fall foliage, the savings on his home heating bill from temperatures being in the low 70s, or career win No. 43.
He demands minimal mistakes from his team and Lehigh's effort was far from perfect against the Hoyas.
''We haven't played our best football yet this season,'' Lembo said. ''We have another opportunity again next week at Fordham.
''I'm disappointed with the amount of mistakes we made. If we make the same mistakes again, they're going to come back to haunt us.''
Lehigh had six penalties for 53 yards and one costly turnover that directly led to one of the two
Lembo, though, wasn't all that bothered by Eric Rath's fumble deep in Lehigh territory. The Hoyas recovered at the 7 and scored two plays later to cut the Mountain Hawks' lead to 12-7.
''He was fighting for extra yards,'' Lembo said. ''He's such a strong kid and he was spinning out of the pile. If he goes down five seconds earlier, we're looking at third down.
''He's got to be more cognizant of guys trying to strip the ball from him in those situations, but you can't fault the effort. We work very hard on ball security every week. Hopefully, that's the last one we see for the next two weeks.''
Rath ran for 91 yards and a score. Marques Thompson added 117 and quarterback Sedale Threatt chipped in 73 during a 332-yard rushing day as Lehigh's offensive approach remained grounded with 25 more rushing attempts than passes.
Other than a 43-yard TD pass from Threatt to Kevin Zeblium in the third quarter, there was nothing flashy about the Mountain Hawks' passing attack.
On this day, it didn't matter as Lehigh beat
''This one reminded me a lot of last year's game down there,'' Lembo said, referring to a 49-18 win in
He wasn't particularly thrilled with the quality of the play that day either.
But that's his job — keeping the team from getting too far ahead, too full of itself. While sensing that this team has the ability and resiliency to win out and even play into December, he also is reminded of the Holy Cross debacle and knows that the margin for error remains as tight as the race atop the league standings where Lehigh, Lafayette and Colgate are tied with two games left apiece.
''I was harder on these guys in the last week than I've been on them for any game this season,'' Lembo said.
''Yes, I know we have some injuries. We had some main guys who didn't play and several more who were banged up and only at about 80 or 90 percent.
''Also, our guys had mid-term exams and were up until two in the morning almost every night this week. But I won't allow the kids to make excuses. Once you do that, you set yourself up for failure.''
Lembo noted that the team was without starting left defensive end Matt Mohler, one of the team's best pass rushers, who missed the game with an injury suffered in practice on Wednesday.
Several other key defensive players made the injury report even before Mohler went down.
You would think they could take another week to heal since Lehigh plays a 2-7 Fordham team next week, but Lembo called the Rams a ''scary team'' because of their outstanding athletes.
The Rams have won two straight after an 0-7 start, but are nowhere near the team that Lehigh has had to fight hard to beat in the last four years, including a 26-23 overtime win in the
But you can bet that Lembo will approach this one as though Fordham alum Vince Lombardi and his legendary Green Bay Packers were on the opposing sidelines.
''We only worry about ourselves,'' he said. ''It's nice to get some help [referring to Colgate's win over
And the rest of the guys seem to be buying into his philosophy.
''We have to worry about controlling the things that only we can control,'' senior defensive back and captain Kaloma Cardwell said. ''I agree with coach that we haven't played our best football yet. For the defense, this was our best effort of the season, at least assignment-wise. But we can do things a lot better.''
This article appeared in the Monday, November 7, 2005 edition of The Morning Call. Used with permission.
