Saturday, September 16
Bethlehem, Pa.
12:30 PM
Lehigh University
0-3
28
vs
56
Yale
1-0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
YALE
14
14
14
14
56
Lehigh
7
6
8
7
28
Yale turns the tide on Lehigh with 56-28 win at Goodman Stadium
9/16/2017 5:16:00 PM | Football
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After a blowout Lehigh victory at the Yale Bowl last season, Yale flipped the script on Saturday in Goodman Stadium with a convincing 56-28 win to reclaim ownership of the Yank Townsend Trophy. The Bulldogs posted 566 yards of total offense in their season opener, including 258 on the ground, while Lehigh accumulated 375 total yards and held a 323-308 advantage through the air.
Junior Brad Mayes recorded his third-straight 300-yard passing performance this season as he finished 18-for-31 for 304 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Lehigh nearly had a trio of receivers reach the 100-yard mark on the day. Senior Gatlin Casey led the way with a game-high 100 yards and two receiving touchdowns as he hauled in four passes.
Freshman Jorge Portorreal had a season-best 99 yards on five catches and his first career touchdown. Senior Troy Pelletier finished just short of his 15th career 100-yard performance as he ended the day with eight catches for 95 yards.
Yale was led offensively by sophomore quarterback Kurt Rawlings who set career highs with his four touchdown passes and 308 yards through the air on a 20-for-26 performance. He connected with Christopher Williams-Lopez eight times for 87 yards and touchdown, in addition to hooking up with Melvin Rouse four times for 84 and two touchdowns on the day.
Yale's Zane Dudek led all rushers with 131 yards and two rushing touchdowns one just nine carries. Dudek also averaged a game-high 14.6 yards per carry.
"Obviously, a very disappointing loss to a good Yale team," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said. "In the end, when you play these Ivies, they've got two games of our film so they've been able to really dissect what we do and I think this year, that really hurt us. For instance, we had probably six or seven sacks. We hadn't had a sack all season up to today. I think some of that is because we had no idea what they were doing, really, defensively and they hurt us badly. Usually, I don't say things like that but I will today. But they're a very good football team. Big, strong guys, dynamic runners, a couple really good wide receivers."
The Bulldogs needed just three plays to take the lead as Rawlings hit Melvin Rouse II for a 37 yard touchdown. Lehigh faced its second 14-0 deficit in as many weeks following a Rawlings to Williams-Lopez 43 yard connection, but the Mountain Hawks used a pair of long drives to get back in the game. Senior Nana Amankwah-Ayeh capped a 14-play drive with a four yard run late in the first quarter and on the Mountain Hawks' next possession, Mayes led the brown and white 91 yards, ending in an 11 yard pass to Casey.
Yale answered with a 79-yard drive and reclaimed the lead on a Deshawn Salter one yard touchdown run with 5:06 to go before halftime. Mayes was sacked and fumbled on Lehigh's next possession with Yale recovering on the Mountain Hawk 25. Seven plays later Rawlings hit JP Shohfi for an 11 yard touchdown, which gave the Bulldogs a 28-13 lead at halftime.
"On the offensive side of the ball, we haven't been clean since our game against Villanova," Coen said. "I don't know if everybody thought that was just going to happen every week. We talk to our kids about that type of stuff and made it known that that's not just going to happen again. We had some balls that could've been caught, there were some guys who made great catches. We just haven't been as clean as we need to be."
As it had done in its first two games, Lehigh scored early on the opening drive of the second half. On the second play of the half Mayes hit Casey, who broke a tackle and sprinted 66 yards down the left sideline. A two-point conversion pass to senior Sasha Kelsey brought Lehigh within 28-21, but Yale scored 14 unanswered points as the Mountain Hawks were unable to capitalize on a muffed punt and then missed a 20 yard field goal.
(9/16/2017) Football vs. Yale, 9/16/2017
Yale led 49-21 in the fourth quarter when Portorreal hauled in a Mayes pass over the middle and ran 53 yards for a score to bring Lehigh within 21 but Andrew Grinde answered with the Bulldogs' fourth rushing touchdown to account for the final margin.
"We're not up to snuff where we need to be defensively," Coen said. "We made some changes on our defense after the Monmouth loss and we wanted to be more attacking, so we blitzed quite a lot in this game and there were times it worked out really well for us, and others it was just the opposite. We've got a long way to go working with our defense.
"We need to go back to three weeks of football here and look at what we're doing on both sides of the ball and try and figure out what we do best and tailor things down and work on those things," Coen concluded.
The Mountain Hawks will welcome another Ivy League foe to Goodman Stadium next Saturday as Lehigh hosts Penn. Game time is set for 12:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during normal business hours.
EXTRA POINTS… Junior cornerback Donavon Harris went down with an injury early in the second quarter. Harris was taken from the field in an ambulance and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He was released from the hospital later Saturday afternoon… Yale has now beaten Lehigh in three of the last four meetings… The Mountain Hawks are now 0-3 for just the third time in 12 seasons under Andy Coen… Lehigh is now 7-3 against Ivy League foes playing their season-openers under Coen… Amankwah-Ayeh and junior Micco Brisker each rushed for 31 yards in place of injured junior Dominick Bragalone… freshman Evan Chadbourn carried five times for 15 yards in his varsity debut… Lehigh was without injured kicker/punter Ed Mish. Sophomore Austin Henning averaged 39 yards on four punts, went 2-for-3 on extra points and 0-for-1 on field goals… senior Tyler Cavenas blocked a fourth-quarter Yale field goal, Lehigh's third blocked kick in two weeks… junior Sam McCloskey led Lehigh's defense with nine tackles… sophomore Keith Woetzel added six…. Saturday's attendance was 4,996... Lehigh NCAA Champion wrestler Darian Cruz and Lehigh's Patriot League Champion softball team were recognized on-field during breaks in Saturday's game.
Junior Brad Mayes recorded his third-straight 300-yard passing performance this season as he finished 18-for-31 for 304 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Lehigh nearly had a trio of receivers reach the 100-yard mark on the day. Senior Gatlin Casey led the way with a game-high 100 yards and two receiving touchdowns as he hauled in four passes.
Freshman Jorge Portorreal had a season-best 99 yards on five catches and his first career touchdown. Senior Troy Pelletier finished just short of his 15th career 100-yard performance as he ended the day with eight catches for 95 yards.
Yale was led offensively by sophomore quarterback Kurt Rawlings who set career highs with his four touchdown passes and 308 yards through the air on a 20-for-26 performance. He connected with Christopher Williams-Lopez eight times for 87 yards and touchdown, in addition to hooking up with Melvin Rouse four times for 84 and two touchdowns on the day.
Yale's Zane Dudek led all rushers with 131 yards and two rushing touchdowns one just nine carries. Dudek also averaged a game-high 14.6 yards per carry.
"Obviously, a very disappointing loss to a good Yale team," Lehigh head coach Andy Coen said. "In the end, when you play these Ivies, they've got two games of our film so they've been able to really dissect what we do and I think this year, that really hurt us. For instance, we had probably six or seven sacks. We hadn't had a sack all season up to today. I think some of that is because we had no idea what they were doing, really, defensively and they hurt us badly. Usually, I don't say things like that but I will today. But they're a very good football team. Big, strong guys, dynamic runners, a couple really good wide receivers."
The Bulldogs needed just three plays to take the lead as Rawlings hit Melvin Rouse II for a 37 yard touchdown. Lehigh faced its second 14-0 deficit in as many weeks following a Rawlings to Williams-Lopez 43 yard connection, but the Mountain Hawks used a pair of long drives to get back in the game. Senior Nana Amankwah-Ayeh capped a 14-play drive with a four yard run late in the first quarter and on the Mountain Hawks' next possession, Mayes led the brown and white 91 yards, ending in an 11 yard pass to Casey.
Yale answered with a 79-yard drive and reclaimed the lead on a Deshawn Salter one yard touchdown run with 5:06 to go before halftime. Mayes was sacked and fumbled on Lehigh's next possession with Yale recovering on the Mountain Hawk 25. Seven plays later Rawlings hit JP Shohfi for an 11 yard touchdown, which gave the Bulldogs a 28-13 lead at halftime.
"On the offensive side of the ball, we haven't been clean since our game against Villanova," Coen said. "I don't know if everybody thought that was just going to happen every week. We talk to our kids about that type of stuff and made it known that that's not just going to happen again. We had some balls that could've been caught, there were some guys who made great catches. We just haven't been as clean as we need to be."
As it had done in its first two games, Lehigh scored early on the opening drive of the second half. On the second play of the half Mayes hit Casey, who broke a tackle and sprinted 66 yards down the left sideline. A two-point conversion pass to senior Sasha Kelsey brought Lehigh within 28-21, but Yale scored 14 unanswered points as the Mountain Hawks were unable to capitalize on a muffed punt and then missed a 20 yard field goal.
Yale led 49-21 in the fourth quarter when Portorreal hauled in a Mayes pass over the middle and ran 53 yards for a score to bring Lehigh within 21 but Andrew Grinde answered with the Bulldogs' fourth rushing touchdown to account for the final margin.
"We're not up to snuff where we need to be defensively," Coen said. "We made some changes on our defense after the Monmouth loss and we wanted to be more attacking, so we blitzed quite a lot in this game and there were times it worked out really well for us, and others it was just the opposite. We've got a long way to go working with our defense.
"We need to go back to three weeks of football here and look at what we're doing on both sides of the ball and try and figure out what we do best and tailor things down and work on those things," Coen concluded.
The Mountain Hawks will welcome another Ivy League foe to Goodman Stadium next Saturday as Lehigh hosts Penn. Game time is set for 12:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at LehighTickets.com or by calling 610-7LU-GAME during normal business hours.
EXTRA POINTS… Junior cornerback Donavon Harris went down with an injury early in the second quarter. Harris was taken from the field in an ambulance and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He was released from the hospital later Saturday afternoon… Yale has now beaten Lehigh in three of the last four meetings… The Mountain Hawks are now 0-3 for just the third time in 12 seasons under Andy Coen… Lehigh is now 7-3 against Ivy League foes playing their season-openers under Coen… Amankwah-Ayeh and junior Micco Brisker each rushed for 31 yards in place of injured junior Dominick Bragalone… freshman Evan Chadbourn carried five times for 15 yards in his varsity debut… Lehigh was without injured kicker/punter Ed Mish. Sophomore Austin Henning averaged 39 yards on four punts, went 2-for-3 on extra points and 0-for-1 on field goals… senior Tyler Cavenas blocked a fourth-quarter Yale field goal, Lehigh's third blocked kick in two weeks… junior Sam McCloskey led Lehigh's defense with nine tackles… sophomore Keith Woetzel added six…. Saturday's attendance was 4,996... Lehigh NCAA Champion wrestler Darian Cruz and Lehigh's Patriot League Champion softball team were recognized on-field during breaks in Saturday's game.
Team Stats
YALE
LEHIGH
Total Yards
566
375
Pass Yards
308
323
Rushing Yards
258
52
Penalty Yards
100
52
1st Downs
23
20
3rd Downs
4
8
4th Downs
1
0
TOP
29:08
30:52
1st Quarter
YALE 7, LEHIGH 0
YALE - Melvin Rouse II 37 yd pass from Kurt Rawlings (Alex Galland kick) 3 plays, 70 yards, TOP 1:17
YALE 14, LEHIGH 0
YALE - C. Williams-Lop 43 yd pass from Kurt Rawlings (Alex Galland kick) 2 plays, 43 yards, TOP 0:45
YALE 14, LEHIGH 7
LEHIGH - Amankwah-Ayeh 4 yd run (Henning, Austin kick), 14 plays, 70 yards, TOP 6:22
2nd Quarter
YALE 14, LEHIGH 13
LEHIGH - Casey, Gatlin 11 yd pass from Mayes, Brad (Henning, Austin kickblocked) 10 plays, 91 yards, TOP 4:58
YALE 21, LEHIGH 13
YALE - Deshawn Salter 1 yd run (Alex Galland kick), 12 plays, 79 yards, TOP 5:06
YALE 28, LEHIGH 13
YALE - JP Shohfi 11 yd pass from Kurt Rawlings (Alex Galland kick) 7 plays, 25 yards, TOP 2:57
3rd Quarter
YALE 28, LEHIGH 21
LEHIGH - Casey, Gatlin 66 yd pass from Mayes, Brad (Kelsey, Sasha pass) 2 plays, 72 yards, TOP 0:50
YALE 34, LEHIGH 21
YALE - Melvin Rouse II 31 yd pass from Kurt Rawlings (Andrew Johnson rushfailed) 4 plays, 63 yards, TOP 1:28
YALE 42, LEHIGH 21
YALE - Zane Dudek 69 yd run (C. Williams-Lop pass), 4 plays, 80 yards, TOP 2:00
4th Quarter
YALE 49, LEHIGH 21
YALE - Zane Dudek 29 yd run (Alex Galland kick), 1 plays, 29 yards, TOP 0:11
YALE 49, LEHIGH 28
LEHIGH - Portorreal, J. 53 yd pass from Mayes, Brad (Henning, Austin kick) 5 plays, 62 yards, TOP 2:38
YALE 56, LEHIGH 28
YALE - Andrew Grinde 2 yd run (Alex Galland kick), 4 plays, 45 yards, TOP 2:24
Game Leaders
CMP
18
TD
3
YDS
304
INT
0
CMP
2
TD
0
YDS
19
INT
0
Players Mentioned
RB
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RB
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RB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
DL
/ Football
RB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
K/P
/ Football
WR
/ FootballQB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
WR
/ Football
LB
/ FootballLehigh Sports Central: Football
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