GAME FIVE, PENN AT LEHIGH – Mountain Hawks’ First Ivy Opponent This Year Aims To Beat Quakers At Home For First Time Since 2015

BETHLEHEM, PA – Lehigh (4-0, 2-0 Patriot) and Penn (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) will be facing off against each other on the football field for the 62nd time this Saturday at noon.

This weekend, in front of a potentially large Parents’ Weekend crowd and Clutch’s Kettle student section, another promise of a consequential matchup between these two nearby, historic schools loom.

For Lehigh, nationally ranked for the first time in some time, there’s maintaining the momentum that has brought them to an undefeated 4-0 record. Behind the one-two punch of RB Luke Yoder and RB Jaden Green, the Mountain Hawks have been quite difficult to stop in their four wins.

For 1-0 Penn, a talented roster headlined by NFL prospect (and local area high school standout) WR Jared Richardson will seek to break through the barrier of their preseason expectations, where they were picked to finish sixth of eight teams.

I’ve seen a lot of Penn/Lehigh games over the years, and what stands out to me is how many of the modern matchups have been consequential for both sides.

In 2017 and 2018 – both Penn wins – the Lehigh game is what separated the Quakers from a .500 record and a winning record.

On the Lehigh side, Penn wins have been the first indicators of a team headed to great things, like in 2016, or not-so-great things after losses, most notably in 2002 and 2017.

To fully understand the stakes this weekend, taking a quick step back to three different Lehigh/Penn matchups might provide some context going into this weekend that this isn’t just another Patriot League/Ivy League matchup.

2002: Penn Stops Lehigh’s Amazing Streak

If you look at the raw numbers, it looks like a lopsided series. Penn has won 47 times, and Lehigh has only won 15 times.

It includes an unbelievable stretch, of 86 years and 34 straight losses, in games from 1891 to 1974.

In 2002, Lehigh was working on an amazing streak of their own.

The Mountain Hawks, with second year head coach Pete Lembo was riding an amazing streak of 26 straight regular season victories. Lehigh had gone 11-0 in the regular season 2000 under then-head coach Kevin Higgins, went 10-0 in 2001 under Lembo, and won their first three games in 2002, adding to their two-game regular season winning streak to end 1999. (That loss to Colgate in Hamilton in 1999 broke up a 20 game regular season winning streak.)

There were signs that there were some chinks in the armor, however.

Before heading to Franklin Field in late September, QB Chad Schwenk had to rally from behind to beat Princeton 31-24, taking the lead for the first time with 13 seconds left to play in the game. The expectations for the Mountain Hawks were sky-high, as they always were, and it was thought that Schwenk could ride the momentum from that and beat Penn.

But under legendary coach Al Bagnoli, Penn may have been in it’s heyday. Ivy League Champions in 2000, the Quakers were 9-1 in 2001, their only blemish a loss to Harvard the second to last week of the season. WR Rob Milanese and RB Stephen Faulk paced Penn on offense, and the Quakers defense was very, very tough.

“I had hoped we had learned a lesson last week,” Lembo said, “when we played sloppy for a long time, but found a way to win. We knew we weren’t going to beat Penn making those same kind of mistakes.”

It was a thrilling game under the lights in Franklin Field – I know, because I was there.

Schwenk, under immense pressure most of the evening, threw three interceptions, and fumbled the ball. Down 24-7, Lehigh seemed out, but somehow rallied in the fourth quarter, trying to summon some magic.

RB Eric Rath blocked a punt, and returned it into the end zone to make ti 24-14, and backup QB Matt Shiels, in relief, guided the Mountain Hawks to a score with just under 5 minutes left to cut the deficit to 24-21.

And Lehigh would get the ball back in the waning minutes of the game, hoping to get it to overtime, but PK Brian Kelley’s kick would have the distance, but fall just wide, ending a streak that won’t easily be broken in the modern era.

“We talked all week about challenging them for 60 minutes,” Bagnoli said afterwards. “When you win that many games in a row, and you have players with that kind of confidence, they’re not going to quit. We had to stay aggressive and try to make some plays and hope we made enough. When the smoke cleared, we made one more play than they did.”

Lehigh would continue to be a very good football team, but losing to Penn, then, as they did, took a bit of the luster off the amazing dominance of the late 1990s. The Mountain Hawks would end the season at 8-4 in 2002 – seen as disappointing in context of the fact they lost so infrequently up until that time – and it would be a while until the Mountain Hawks would see another stretch like they did back then.

Meanwhile, Penn would partially ride the momentum of that win to a 9-1 season – losing only a thriller, 17-3, to Villanova the following week – and win the Ivy League Championship for the second time in three years. In a lot of ways, the 2002 game announced that Penn was back, and set Lehigh back (even if it was only slightly).

2016: A Score At Halftime Propels Lehigh To Great Heights

Penn QB Alek Torgerson and the Penn offense had torn through the Lehigh defense like a hot knife through butter.  Again.

Nearing the end of the first half, the Huntington Beach, CA native lined up on a 4th and 1 play in the Lehigh red zone.  Faking the handoff to RB Tre Solomon, he instead took it himself, running through an enormous hole on the left side of the line for a 8 yard touchdown run.

The touchdown and extra point put Penn back ahead, 28-21, but with 1:14 left, and three timeouts, it wasn’t a question whether Lehigh was going to try to drive the length of the field to tie up the game, or at least try to cut the deficit a little.  Head coach Andy Coen was going to try.  Definitely.

So the experienced senior QB Nick Shafnisky took the field, knowing what needed to be done – the same thing that Lehigh’s offense had already done three times in the same half – drive the length of the field and make something happen.

There Lehigh was, at the 1 yard line with 0.3 seconds left in the half.

On the play that needed one precious yard, a gaping hole opened up on the left side off the tackle, junior OL Tim O’Hara, with senior OL Micah Tennant helping seal the outside.  There were linebackers that needed tending to, the responsibility of senior FB Mackenzie Crawford and junior TE Drew Paulsen, two of the guys with jerseys in the 40s that don’t often enough get mentioned in terms of making the type of play on which games and sometimes seasons turn.

Crawford and Paulsen handled their assignments perfectly, but there’s the matter of one Penn linebacker, appearing in the opening and needing one lead blocker to handle.  That was the job of sophomore RB Dominick Bragalone, who had a great day rushing the ball but made no more important play than the block of that final defender.

Shafnisky started to roll left, but then planted.  He saw the whole thing develop.  He switched from lateral to forward, following Bragalone’s block.  The blue and red end zone was there.  There was enough room.  There would have to be.

Four yards away from all or nothing.  Another Pennsylvania lineman, coming from the right side, tried a shoestring tackle.  He couldn’t get Shaf.  

Nick leaned forward, as he had in so many of these goal-line situations before, pushing through momentum.  With no time on the clock, he would do it again – touchdown, Mountain Hawks.

Everyone knew the touchdown was important. What happened next though, was a dominating second half that led to a 49-28 win over a Penn team with future NFL WR Justin Watson playing.

That win – that very play against Penn – is what seemed to turbocharge this team in 2016, taking those Mountain Hawks from a team of almost-champions to Patriot League Champions, turning an 0-2 start to the season and turning it into a 9-2, championship-winning regular season. It was a moment often referred to by members of that team as the moment where things turned around.

Penn would do OK, too, winning their 18th Ivy League title with a 7-3 record after throttling Cornell 42-20 to end the season. While both teams tasted success, you have to think the Quakers would have loved that one game back, their first game of the 2024 season, and wondered what could have been.

2017: A Record Breaking, Dizzying Penn Win

Nobody, and I mean nobody, was prepared for the mayhem in 2017 when Penn traveled to Murray Goodman Stadium.

Everyone knew Lehigh’s offense, with QB Brad Mayes, WR Gatlin Casey and RB Dominick Bragalone could put up points. The question was whether the defense could keep up.

In a dizzying game where Penn and Lehigh combined for 112 points, 1,167 yards and averaged 8.4 yards per play, the Quakers provided the answer.

In what was the highest-scoring game in Penn football history by aggregate score (and the most points yielded by a Lehigh defense at Murray Goodman Stadium), the Quakers’ incredible 65-47 win was first time the Quakers scored 65 points on a team since 1946.

“And it could have easily been worse,” I wrote, still shell-shocked. “Yes, Virginia, in a game where Lehigh gave up 65 points, it could have indeed been worse, with a Penn TD overturned by a penalty near the end of this game, making the officials the only thing stopping Penn from putting up 70 on Lehigh this afternoon.”

Penn RB Karekin Brooks, who ran for 268 net yards, had the game of a lifetime, scoring 3 touchdowns, two on the ground, and scoring another through, of all things, a Tim Tebow-like jump pass for a touchdown. He might have broken even more records for himself and Penn had his 89 yard touchdown run near the end of the game not been called back due to a holding penalty.

Offensively, this game had everything – a two point conversion attempt returned the other way for a touchdown, a dominating receiving performance by Justin Watson, and WR Christian Pearson catching a TD pass that bounced off a Lehigh defender and hit him in stride. The teams combined for 16 touchdowns, and the one punt of the game resulted in a Penn fumble.

“Lehigh fans reading this should not be fooled by the pretty numbers,” I added, “Lehigh never was ahead in this game, and in a tiring refrain, killed themselves multiple times with untimely turnovers and couldn’t reverse momentum when the offense turned the ball over.”

It was crazy – and like in 2002, the loss was an eye-opener to the rest of the league that the dominating days of Lehigh football at that time were about to sunset. Penn was a very good team with a future NFL regular on their squad, but it showed that the defense was broken, and needed fixing.

Lehigh would still end up with enough to win the Patriot League – with a losing record – but the Mountain Hawks would continue to slide into a struggle period, falling out of the Top 25 and the national picture for years. To me, there’s no doubt that the optics of the 65-47 loss contributed mightily to that impression.

Season Stakes

It’s odd – while Lehigh and Penn have never been in the same league, or even been competitive with one another for long stretches, it’s funny how often Lehigh and Penn games have been hinge points. Perhaps more for Lehigh, but Penn as well.

This season, too, with the Ivy League now declaring themselves eligible for the FCS Playoffs, what was once maybe a nice tune-up for Penn for Ivy League play is now something more.

To Penn, it’s as much a hinge point as it is for Lehigh. A win here could propel them through the Ivy League to the playoffs – either as Ivy League Champions or an at-large team. After all, a win over the 10th ranked team in the country is a great potential resume builder.

The Saturday, another high-stakes Lehigh/Penn game will play itself out at Murray Goodman.

PENN QUAKERS (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) AT LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (4-0. 2-0 Patriot)
WHERE: Murray Goodman Stadium/Bethlehem, PA, Saturday, September 27h, Noon
STREAMING: ESPN+
TV CREW: PxP – Marco Socci; Analyst – Lance Haynes
RADIO: BROADCAST (Fox Sports Lehigh Valley 94.7 FM/1230 AM; LVFoxSports.com):
RADIO CREW: PxP – Matt Kerr; Analysts – Matt Markus, Connor Brown