Furious Lehigh Comeback Ends At the Two Yard Line In 24-18 Loss to Villanova

VILLANOVA, PA – So many storylines can emerge from a single college footbal game. A couple of yards can separate a game recap which starts “Wildcats gave up a three touchdown lead In Stunning Loss” and one which leads with “Furious Lehigh Comeback Ends At the Two Yard Line.”

But even those two sentences seem inadequate to describle the two-and-a-half-act play that was the Lehigh/Villanova game on Saturday night.

It is true that Lehigh QB Derek Morgan was sacked on the final play by Villanova DB Garrett Rogan, on a play which Rogan exploded through the line, through an open hole and ended the game, making a game-winning tackle with such speed that Morgan didn’t even have time to throw the ball away. Rogan made a great play to win the game for the Wildcats.

But talking about that one moment, that excellent play by Garrett Rogan, really obscures the events that preceded them.

It was a first act where the Wildcats (4-4, 3-2 Patriot) jumped out to a 21-0 lead by halftime, with two sustained drives and one short drive, all while stifling Lehigh’s (6-2, 4-1 Patriot) rushing attack almost completely.

And there was a second act where the Mountain Hawks buckled down and got themselves back in the game, drive by drive, cutting the deficit to 21-18 and forcing themselves back in to a position to possibly win the game.

In a way, it was ironic that this game ended up living up to the heavyweight matchup it was expected to be back in August, when Villanova was ranked in the Top 10 and Lehigh wasn’t ranked all that far behind them. Going into the game this weekend, the script was flipped, with Lehigh ranked in the Top 20 with Villanova unranked and fighting to stay relevant in the Patriot League title race. Yet the 24–18 Villanova victory suggested that the preseason assessments of both teams might have been right after all. These were two evenly matched teams, and the result reinforced just how wide open the Patriot League title race remains. Either Lehigh or Villanova could still emerge as champion. The Patriot League title race still feels wide open.

Villanova Jumps to a 21–0 Lead

For the second straight game, Lehigh found itself digging an early hole. Against Cornell where a slow start put the Mountain Hawks in trouble, a similar script emerged against Villanova.

“I think we talked all week about just focusing on us and taking care of our business, being physical, and winning the first game of every series,” Villanova QB Pat McQuaide said afterwards. That’s exactly what McQuaide and the offense did on their opening drive, setting the tone on its opening possession.

The Wildcats put together a methodical 16-play, 75-yard drive that consumed more than eight minutes. Villanova converted the long march into points when McQuaide kept the ball himself on a quarterback draw, running seven yards for a touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the first quarter.

On their heels, Lehigh saw the same thing happen as last week – an ineffective offensive drive, and then a punt by PK Connor Poole. QB Derek Morgan and the offense struggled to convert third downs, only converting one of six the entire first half.

Meanwhile, midway through the second quarter the Wildcats started to attack Lehigh’s rushing defense with a 5 play, 93 yard drive with every positive play was a running play. RB Ja’Briel Mace exploded for a big 42 yard play, and RB Isaiah Ragland finished off the drive with a 14 yard exclamation point. Villanova was looking like the team everyone was picking in August to win the Patriot League.

Trying to make something happen, on their ensuing drive on a 4th an1 on the Lehigh 34, Lehigh head coch Rich Nagy elected to play big and hand the ball to his superstar back, RB Luke Yoder. It backfired as the Villanova defense stuffed him short, thanks to DB Garrett Rogan closing the small hole that had opened in the line.

With a short field, it didn’t take much time for the Wildcats to add to their lead, ending a six play drive with a 1 yard Ja’Briel Mace touchdown. It was 21-0 Villanova, and it felt like a lot more than that.

“It comes down to, you know, being able to start, getting things done in the first half, not digging holes for ourselves, and just continuing to move the ball,” Morgan told me after the game.

Lehigh Storms Back

The second half saw a different Lehigh team come out of the locker room. The third quarter belonged to the Mountain Hawks, who weren’t about to let another slow start define their afternoon.

“They threw some different stuff at us in the first half, and we just had to adjust to it, go back to what we do, and execute,” Morgan told me.

Lehigh began to find its rhythm offensively on the first drive of the second half, with an 11 play, 75 yard scoring drive punctuated by a five yard power touchdown by Luke Yoder, with Morgan converting one big third down to first year WR Bryce Werner, and another converted with a three yard run by RB Aidan Mayfield.

The defense responded in kind, forcing a quick Villanova three-and-out. Lehigh’s next drive stalled at the Villanova 10-yard line, but the Mountain Hawks still came away with points as Connor Poole converted a 34-yard field goal. After being shut out in the first half, Lehigh had scored on consecutive possessions and cut Villanova’s lead to 21–10.

Yoder continued to carry the load for the Mountain Hawks. He finished with 132 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown, and a 28-yard run pushed him over 1,000 rushing yards for the season. That made Yoder just the second player in Lehigh history to record three 1,000-yard rushing seasons, another milestone in an afternoon when the Mountain Hawks needed their star back to deliver.

“[Lehigh] made some adjustments. They had a better plan in the second half,” McQuaide said.

DB Ignatious Williams and Nagy both pointed to Lehigh’s defensive adjustments at halftime, particularly the shift toward playing faster and more aggressively. Williams explained that the halftime message was straightforward: “Coach Nagy challenged us to play faster, harder and physical.” Nagy’s own instruction to the defense was even more direct: “Stop reading. Just go.”

The change helped spark a furious comeback that nearly erased Villanova’s 21-point lead.

With the defense producing two more stops and the offense putting together a third consecutive scoring drive, Lehigh turned the game into a one-score affair early in the fourth quarter. Morgan took advantage of excellent blocking on a designed quarterback run and powered his way into the end zone. The Mountain Hawks then went for two, with a reverse flip to WR Anthony Feaster converting the attempt.

Suddenly, it was 21–18.

Villanova had looked every bit like the preseason favorite in the first half, but now they were facing the kind of resistance that had made Lehigh one of the Patriot League’s toughest teams to beat. What had begun as a potential statement win for Villanova had become the kind of tight, hard-fought contest many had expected before the season began.

The Aftermath

Lehigh climbed back into the game, but Villanova still had one more answer.

The Wildcats put together an 11-play, 65-yard drive that drained nearly five minutes from the clock. McQuaide and the Villanova offense would get all the way to the 2 yard line, but Williams broke up a pass in the end zone, preventing a certain touchdown.

That forced Villanova to settle for PK Dominic LeBlanc’s 27-yard field goal with 3:33 remaining, pushing the lead to 24–18. A touchdown and extra point would now put Lehigh ahead.

What followed was a drive that seemed to stretch the final minutes into an entire game of their own.

The Mountain Hawks mounted a gutsy drive starting at their own five yard line.

Morgan gets the touchdown, and flips to Feaster for the 2 point conversion. Virginia, we have a ball game. Lehigh 18, Villanova 21, 8:28 to play. pic.twitter.com/TeEdxUmMNx

— Lehigh Football Nation (@LFN) October 24, 2026

Balancing Luke Yoder runs and precision passing, Morgan kept the drive alive with a seven-yard scramble on a fourth-and-six conversion, absorbing tough contact but getting the critical first down needed.

Under enormous pressure, he guided the march downfield. Later, facing a tricky fourth-and-four, he kept the drive alive by finding WR Bryce Werner for an eight-yard completion and another first down.

A pass-interference penalty against Villanova on a subsequent throw to Werner moved the ball to the Wildcats’ two-yard line with fewer than 30 seconds remaining.

Two passes fell incomplete. On third-and-goal, Villanova’s Garrett Rogan broke through and sacked Morgan, ending the Mountain Hawks’ final realistic chance. The clock expired, and the Wildcats escaped with a 24–18 victory.

Rogan had a monster day for Villanova, finishing with 13 tackles and three tackles for loss. None was bigger than the sack that sealed the win.

“It’s good to be on the winning side of a last-possession game,” Villanova head coach Mark Ferrante said.

Lehigh was two yards away from a potential game-tying touchdown and an extra point that could have sent the game to overtime.

“It’s two weeks in a row that we just didn’t start very well in the first half,” Nagy told me afterward, putting the onus on himself and the coaching staff. “But I give our players credit and our coaches. We kept battling, kept finding things, and gave ourselves an opportunity at the end to win this game. … But there’s no points for moral victories. We just gotta come out every game and make sure we’re focused.”

With Richmond beating Colgate, Lehigh technically remains in control of its own path to the Patriot League title. Win its remaining games, and the Mountain Hawks will claim the championship and secure a place in the FCS playoffs.

On the field at Villanova, though, thoughts of championships seemed a long way off. For the players and Nagy, the immediate question was how to get back to playing Lehigh football.

“We’re not being us right now,” Williams said. “We just put this behind us and just get better as a defense, as an offense, as a team. Just be us.”

“We’re gonna have to focus on ourselves, not worried about any of the outside noise,” Morgan said.. “We’re gonna have to go out 100 every play, every day, every week, until we get the job done.”

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