GAME SIX, FORDHAM AT LEHIGH – Mountain Hawks Look To Keep Good Times Rolling At Home
BETHLEHEM, PA – It feels like an eternity ago, but less than two years ago then-Lehigh football head coach Kevin Cahill entered the small press room at Murray Goodman Stadium with a hopeful note after their 33-19 win over Fordham.
“That was a big win for us,” he said. “Big to get to win in the Patriot League, which is huge for us, but also a big win against Fordham. There’s not a guy our locker room that has beaten Fordham. Obviously big for this program, but also big for this team to know that we can win those games.”
Less than two years ago, a win against Fordham was seen as a program-defiining moment for the Mountain Hawks. Now, as the 2026 Fordham Rams (1-4, 1-1 Patriot) visits the No. 6-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks (5-0, 3-0 Patriot), it’s a very different vibe.
Many of the players playing that day will be playing this weekend, of course. DB Nick Peltekian had four tackles and a pass break-up. CB DJ Brown had an interception in that 2026 game, RB Luke Yoder had 75 yards rushing, and then-freshman WR Matt D’Avino caught his first Division I touchdown pass.
But it’s not so much about the statistics – it’s how Lehigh won that game against Fordham, following the now-familiar template for winning.
The Template
In tht 2024 game, Lehigh’s season was truly on the brink.
They were coming off a brutal four-week stretch – a heart-wrenching loss to Bucknell 38-35, lost on a fumble in double-overtime.
Then, thanks to Army-West Point moving up their game against Lehigh, the Mountain Hawks had two bye weeks to stew on the loss, followed by a humbling 38-23 loss at Yale that frankly didn’t seem as close as the final score indicated.
The Mountain Hawks were at 3-3 overall, and 1-1 in the Patriot League. The idea of winning the league, embarking on a 23 game unbeaten regular-season streak were just dream journal entries in the minds of Lehigh football fans at this point. Beating a team that had owned them – and beaten them last year on a record-setting field goal in the Bronx as time expired – seemed anything but certain.
One Patriot League loss likely meant Lehigh fans would instead be hoping for better things next season, and even with the loss, a Patriot League title reamined a remote dream. They would need to run the table, and hope Bucknell lost once, ideally twice, the rest of the way.
Fordham scored first, connecting on a 44 yard field goal, but then great things started to happen for the Mountain Hawks.
A 44 yard touchdown run by RB Jaden Green, a PK Nick Garrido field goal, an interception, a couple of touchdown runs by QB Matt Machalik, and the next thing Lehigh fans knew, it was 31-3 at halftime.
Nobody knew it at the time, but the keys to Lehigh’s success in the future were all in this game two years ago.
The statistics partially bear this out – a dominant running game (246 yards rushing), converting third downs (6 of 14), an intense pass rush (6 sacks, led by LB Mike DeNucci’s 3 and DL Jadin Nelson adding a sack) – but even more than that, it seemed like something started to click in this Lehigh team that set up all their future success.
“I’m just proud of the way we played and came out in the first half,” Cahill added. “We talked all week about our brand of football and how we got away from it last week. I was proud of these kids coming in and working all week. I think what’s the proudest moment is probably Tuesday practice, I’ll be honest with you, was the way we practiced on Tuesday. You could sense that these guys had a lot of pride in the way of what we’re doing. With these two guys [DeNucci and Green], especially, they’re leading the charge. It was impressive on Tuesday, and we just had to do the work on Saturday. We know that it was going to take that effort.”
Rolling Rolling Rolling
Since that October contest, Lehigh has not lost a single regular-season game.
Back then, what was once a season on the brink of going either direction was instead an affirmation of doing things the right way, the Lehigh way.
For Lehigh in 2026, that means continuing something that the Lehigh players have been repeating many times during the course of the years – “focusing on playing Lehigh football, and we’ll be fine.”
That doesn’t mean reading too much into losses against (now nationally-ranked) Colgate, (FBS) Coastal Carolina, or (FBS) North Dakota State, nor does it mean overanalyzing Fordham’s 31-16 to Stony Brook last week, a team that looks like it will be in the thick of the CAA title chase this year.
It means not fretting over Fordham’s 428 yards rushing against William & Mary two weeks ago – one of the biggest team rushing performances in FCS this year, a game where RB Yohan-Li Louis and RB Jarnell James broke free for big plays and scored a combined 4 touchdowns.
The way Lehigh beat Fordham two years ago involved focusing on what they can control, and making that happen.
It’s similar to how Lehigh beat Penn last week, 20-7, in a game in wet, humid weather where the Quakers sold out to prevent big plays by the Mountain Hawks and Lehigh just kept grinding on special teams, relying on the punt safe and return units to flip field position, setting up the short fields and tough plays to break through for a couple of scores.
It means harkening back to that game two years ago at what Lehigh has been – a punishing defense, maybe a bit of a no-name defense, and punishing run game, featuring RB Luke Yoder, and a team overall that minimizes mistakes and gets the right takeaways at the right time.
It means keeping streaks alive – getting at least 100 yards rushing, something it’s done in 38 straight games – and racking up lots more. Already in 2025, Lehigh has four games where they’ve rushed for more than 300 yards, though that wasn’t the case last week.
It means stopping the run – which is something Lehigh did very well last week, holding the Quakers to 41 yards last week, and have done well as a whole, holding 10 of their last 13 opponents below 100 yards.
Keeping the mindset – that’s what Lehigh hopes to do this weekend to get to 6-0.
FORDHAM RAMS (1-4, 1-1 Patriot) AT LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (5-0. 3-0 Patriot)
WHERE: Murray Goodman Stadium, Saturday, October 3rd, 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
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
Reach him at: this email or click below:
