Lehigh University Athletics
As preseason camp winds down, Mountain Hawks hold second scrimmage
8/23/2013 7:31:00 PM | Football
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The final week of preseason camp concluded Friday for the Lehigh football team as the Mountain Hawks held their second scrimmage of camp inside Goodman Stadium. Head coach Andy Coen put his team through a 90 minute scrimmage that began with a heavy dose of 11-on-11 action before the Mountain Hawks shifted focus to special teams and situational work.
"I thought it went well," Coen said. "We did a lot more kicking in this scrimmage and some situational things – third down, red zone and overtime type things. The kids got a sense for that, for as good as we can make it.
Coen continued, "I was really pleased with how the offense played. They moved the ball really well and did a solid job in the overtime situation. Our first defense stepped up and made a couple stops. The defense played really well in the third down scrimmage. A lot of good give-and-take but we still have a lot of work to do in the next two weeks."
Monday is the first day of classes for the fall semester so Friday's scrimmage afforded Lehigh one final showcase before settling into its classes-in-session routine.
After a warm up and some positional drills, the scrimmage began with four series of 11-on-11. With senior quarterback Brandon Bialkowski still sidelined with an injury suffered in Monday's first scrimmage, junior Matt McHale and freshman Nick Shafnisky led the first and second offensive units respectively. The offense started strong, as McHale led the unit 65 yards for a touchdown. A key third down pass to senior Sergio Fernandez-Soto kept the drive alive, while senior Cody Haupt delivered the touchdown on a ten yard run. With Shafnisky at the controls, the second offense also produced a touchdown on its first drive. Shafnisky hit junior Derek Gaul for 20 yards and then used his legs to run 30 yards to move the ball inside the five yard line before connecting with sophomore tight end Chris Ruhl on a two-yard scoring pass.
"Brandon got banged up so those other quarterbacks got a lot more reps," Coen explained. Today we saw the benefit of the added repetitions they had throughout the week. I thought both guys played well. We're starting to get some guys back so that's been a plus."
McHale jump-started the next drive with a 33-yard pass to sophomore Derek Knott, but the defense stiffened up to come up with a stop. On third down senior safety Tyler Ward and junior linebacker Jared Heschke sniffed out a shovel pass and stopped senior Sean Farrell for a loss. Junior Nick Marcello was unable to convert a 40 yard field goal, giving the defense its first stop of the day.
The defense won again on Shafnisky's second series as sophomore cornerback Olivier Rigaud put an end to the drive with an interception off a tipped pass.
"We have a pretty good idea of who our guys are," Coen said. "We didn't play a lot of them today, particularly on the defense. We wanted to give the younger guys an opportunity to show what they can do. We're a young defense but we're talented and we have kids who play with a lot of passion and run to the ball really well. I think we'll be okay but we still need to find the right mix of guys."
From there the team moved to 7-on-7 drills, which eventually led to a red zone period.
Following a special teams period focused on punting, the team moved on to third down situations. Both McHale and Shafnisky had six plays of third downs of various distances and both signal callers converted 3-of-6 third downs in the segment. McHale ran for a first down on a 3rd-and-6 and converted two others with passes to freshman Michael Anderson. Shafnisky's three conversions came on run by Haupt and passes to Knott and Anderson.
Lehigh then moved on to kickoff coverage before closing out the offense versus defense part of the scrimmage with an overtime, red zone period. On the first play of the period, McHale hit junior Josh Parris for a 20-yard touchdown, while Shafnisky's first series culminated with an 11-yard touchdown pass on a fade to junior Alex Buford who out-jumped a defensive back in the corner of the end zone.
The workout concluded with field goal work and kickoff return drills.
With preseason camp officially concluding with a light workout and the annual Alumni Steak Fry on Sunday, the Mountain Hawks will take Monday off before returning to the practice field on Tuesday. With no game scheduled for next weekend, the Mountain Hawks hope to utilize the extra preparation time to continue to improve leading up to the September 7 season opener against Central Connecticut State.
"Tuesday will pretty much be a camp practice," Coen said. "We'll get after it pretty hard and then, Wednesday night, we'll get into our prep for Central Connecticut State.
Coen added, "Early on I wasn't sure I liked this schedule, but it's going to work in our favor now. The kids coming off injury will get another week to see if they're ready to go. We are a young team and the more opportunities we have before we play a football game will benefit all of us."
Kickoff for the season-opener is set for just after 12:30 p.m. from Goodman Stadium. Tickets can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by visiting LehighTickets.com.
