GAME NINE, BUCKNELL AT LEHIGH – No Margin for Error As Mountain Hawks Look To End Two Game Skid

BETHLEHEM, PA – Going into their game this weekend against Bucknell, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks are technically still in control of their own destiny when it comes to winning the Patriot League championship and securing the conference’s automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs.

With every other team in the conference having at least two league losses, Lehigh (6-2, 4-1 Patriot) can capture its third consecutive Patriot League title by winning its remaining four games.

But it sure doesn’t feel like a foregone conclusion entering this weekend.

After a dominant 6-0 start to the season, the Mountain Hawks have dropped two straight games where they fell in an early hole that they were unable to dig out of. Now, with their margin for error gone, they need to get back on track against Bucknell (1-7, 0-5 Patriot) before they lose control of their 2026 ambitions.

It’s likely that will involve a heavy dose of RB Luke Yoder, Lehigh’s star running back who already has 1,000 yards on the season and is very close to becoming Lehigh’s all-time leading rusher and potentially also have the most career rushing touchdowns. If he gets more than 170 yards rushing, he’ll break the record. If he gets three rushing touchdowns, he’ll own both program records.

Cool Hand Luke

The date was October 21st, 2023.

I had been planning to head to Lewisburg, PA, my first trip there in a long time, to see a 1-6 Lehigh Mountain Hawks football team play the 1-5 Bucknell Bison.

Under first-year head coach Kevin Cahill, the game that afternoon would have no trophies on the line, no championship runs at stake, and no FCS Playoff considerations on the table. 

It was simply a matchup between two Division I college football teams trying to learn how to win a football game.

Christy Matthewson Stadium in the fall is beautiful, nestled right next to the Bucknell campus. It seats 13,100 people, is bright, and has some of the best sight lines anywhere.   

The 2023 Lehigh football season at this point was clearly a rebuilding effort and culture-building exercise for coach Cahill -competing for the seniors, of course, but more for an eye towards 2024 and beyond rather than 2023. 

In fact, their one win to that point, beating Merrimack in someone else’s stadium, could have been seen as much as a fluke more than anything, due being rescheduled multiple times that Saturday, played in the wake of a fierce storm that knocked the power out on Merrimack’s campus, and even then was barely won by the Mountain Hawks, relying on a late defensive stand to preserve a razor-thin 14-12 win.

I didn’t go to Lewisburg to see a championship game.  The attendance was not going to be 13,100 people.  But it still seemed like a good weekend as any for this Lehigh football team to win, so why not see if they can do it in this beautiful stadium in Lewisburg, PA?

On this overcast and brisk Saturday afternoon, Lehigh shone bright. That afternoon in Lewisburg, Lehigh would win their second (and only other) time in 2023 in a 27-19 victory.

It was the best game Lehigh would play that season. The defense, who was learning a new philosophy under defensive coordinator Rich Nagy, limited a Bucknell offense that had put up some points that year – after yielding more than 50 points to Monmouth earlier in the season.

And the running game had finally ground out some yardage and scored some points – a hint of explosiveness from a young team.

I remember the postseason on-field interview well.

As the only independent media there, I got exclusive interviews with the stars of the game. There were no autograph seekers that day, and even family members weren’t on the field at the time. It’s as if I were the only one there,  the bus seemingly waiting for me to get my postgame comments, the engine running, waiting to head back to Bethlehem.

Then-sophomore DB Nick Petelkian cradled the game ball in his arm, and later, a soft-spoken true freshman running back out of Palm Harbor, Florida would join us for post-game interviews. Peltekian joked that he thought the ball should be split in half, so both of them could share in the glory.

He wasn’t wrong.

That afternoon, RB Luke Yoder notched 138 yards rushing and two touchdowns, while Petelkian’s punt return for a touchdown and the Mountain Hawk defense held Bucknell to 80 yards rushing as Lehigh (2-6, 1-1) outlasted Bucknell (2-5, 0-3) 27-19.

At the time, it was Yoder’s second 100-yard rushing game of his career, his first multi-touchdown game, and was his best rushing total to that date (138 yards). It was also the first game where he had a massive workload, rushing 38 times. He hadn’t had more than 15 carries a game to that point.

It was still extremely early in his career, but it was clear that the freshman was going to be a bigger part of the coaching staff’s future plans at the very least.

“Technically, this is my first win that I’ve been a part of, so I’m just happy to get that one under my belt and hopefully it’ll keep rolling these next few weeks,” Yoder said after the game. “The workload was way more than I was expecting. I haven’t had that since a few years ago in high school. It’s just surprising to me, too [about the game plan], I feel like.”

It wasn’t actually his first 100 yard game of that season – it was only his second – but it was the first of three games against the Bison over the years where he would gain mort than 130 yards. Last year he only scored one touchdown but did get 174 yards rushing in Lehigh’s dominating 41-24 win over the Bison.

Bucknell Building

Bucknell is in its first season under head coach Jeff Behrman, who arrived from Division III John Carroll and was extremely successful there. where he guided the Blue Streaks to a 29-7 record over his three years as their head coach and a colossal upset last season in the D-III playoffs over Mount Union in double overtime, 10-7.  

In Bucknell he inherited a program that had gone 5-7 in 2025, and the transition involved considerable roster turnover: 32 players departed, while 35 newcomers joined the program. The Bison were picked to finish 10th in the preseason Patriot League poll, and most eveyone thought that Behrman was going to spend his first season rebuilding the roster and rebuilding the culture.

In fact both Lehigh and Bucknell have something in common – they came very close to beating Villanova.

Bucknell’s near-miss came September 5 in Lewisburg, when the Bison hosted the then-No. 17 Wildcats. Villanova jumped out to a 14-0 halftime lead, but Bucknell came roaring back in the third quarter. QB Chris Dietrich connected with WR Sam Milligan for two touchdown passes, the second coming on a 10-yard completion, to pull the Bison within a point. After a Villanova three-and-out, WR TJ Cadden returned a punt 47 yards to set Bucknell up in excellent field position. PK Juan Garanton then drilled a career-long 40-yard field goal to give the Bison their first lead, 16-14, with 12:06 remaining.

Villanova answered with a field goal to regain the lead, but Bucknell still had one more opportunity. The Bison drove 64 yards in 13 plays, reaching the red zone and setting up a potential go-ahead field goal with two minutes remaining. Garanton’s 29-yard attempt was partially blocked, however, and Villanova escaped with a 17-16 victory.

While the Bison lost big to Holy Cross last week, 34-3, their defense has shown some ability to keep them competitive. Along with holding Villanova to 17 points, Bucknell gave up just 21 points to Georgetown and 20 to Lafayette, although all three games ended in losses. Led by LB Brandon Biagiarelli (62 tackles, one blocked kick), Behrman’s influence on the defensive side of the ball appears to be starting to pay dividends, even if the results haven’t necessarily shown up in the win column.

Bucknell’s biggest struggles have come on offense, where the Bison are averaging fewer than 10 points per game. The rushing attack has been particularly ineffective: through eight games, Bucknell has managed just two rushing touchdowns and is averaging only 70.6 yards per game on the ground.

The quarterback situation has also been unsettled. True freshman QB Emmett Dowling is listed as the starter, but sophomore QB Christopher Dietrich has also seen plenty of action, starting games and appearing in relief. Dietrich has thrown for 951 yards and five touchdowns, while Dowling has added 333 yards and two touchdowns through the air.

There doesn’t appear to be a set formula for how Behrman uses the two quarterbacks. Rather, it seems as though he’s looking for the right combination and trying to find something that can get the Bison offense moving consistently. With just 75 points scored through eight games, finding that answer has to be one of the biggest priorities for the first-year coaching staff.

Momentum Going Into November

For Bucknell, Saturday represents another opportunity to show that the progress Behrman is trying to build is beginning to take hold. They need to find considerably more consistency on offense if they’re going to win down the stretch. With a young roster and a new coaching staff, the challenge is finding something that works and putting together a complete performance and get that big victory to build on for 2027.

For Lehigh, the challenge is different. After allowing 48 points to Cornell and 24 to Villanova in consecutive losses, the Mountain Hawks are looking to get their defense back to the level that helped them open the season 6-0. Against a Bucknell offense that has struggled to score, Saturday offers an opportunity to reestablish some of the dominance they showed earlier in the year and set the tone for the final stretch of the Patriot League race.

If Lehigh can get its defense back on track while getting a potentially record-setting performance from Luke Yoder, it could set the stage for another November to remember for the Mountain Hawks

BUCKNELL BISON (1-7, 0-5 PL) AT NO. 20/19 LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (6-2, 4-1 PL)
WHERE: Murray Goodman Stadium, Bethlehem, PA, Saturday, October 31st, 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 – Mike Yadush, Connor Brown
ALTERNATE RADIO BROADCAST: Bucknell – 1070 AM WKOK: PxP – Doug Birdsong; Analyst – Charlie Fisher