LEHIGH AT LIU 9/14/2024: For the Very First Time, Mountain Hawks Are Looking Forward to Shark Week

On By Chuck Burton

BETHLEHEM, PA -Shark week. Tongue-in-cheek, it’s a Discovery Channel summer staple, family-friendly cable TV programming that many people enjoy over the summer. With show names like “Big Shark Energy” and “Makozilla”, it’s easy to see why families love it so.

For the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks (1-1, 0-0 Patriot League), playing the Long Island University Sharks (0-2, 0-0 NEC) at Bethpage FCU Stadium, everything about “Shark Week” is new. It’s the first time Lehigh has ever traveled to Brookville, Long Island to play a football game.

Like “Shark Week”, though, the game and the stadium will be new, but the matchup has an interesting echo to the past, one that relates to last week’s Mountain Hawk victory.

LIU wasn’t always called LIU, and called the Sharks.

LIU used to be called LIU-C.W. Post, and had a distinct campus and athletic program from LIU-Brooklyn. C.W. Post was Division II, and LIU-Brooklyn was Division I, without football.

In 2019, LIU-Brooklyn and LIU-C.W. Post merged their athletics departments, leaving one, singular Division I athletics program competing in the NEC. C.W. Post, who had a football team, happily chose to reclassify as a Division I school and rebranded their team as the Sharks – a very cool move, I must say.

A lot of modern rebrands strive to be inoffensive to the extreme – Valparaiso Beacons, anyone? – but the choice of the Sharks by LIU was inspired. Not since Left Shark with Katy Perry in the Super Bowl have Sharks played such a prominent role in football, and while baby blue and yellow is an odd combination, it weirdly works. If I were an LIU fan, I’d have welcomed dumping the Pioneers and Blackbirds mascots into the sea immediately in favor of the Sharks.

Sharks or Pioneers, it’s not the first time Lehigh has played C.W. Post, who at one time were both Division II schools competing for the Division II National Championship.

In the 1970s they were regular opponents, always playing at Bethlehem, so the meeting this weekend is Lehigh’s first-ever trip to Brookville to play a football game.

(Once Lehigh chose to reclassify to Division I and I-AA football in 1978, they no longer were in the same division, so they stopped playing each other once the contract ran out in 1979.)

The series was lopsided, mostly because Lehigh had emerged as a national power, first in Division II and Division I-AA. In the 1970s, Lehigh wend 6-0 against them, but the games were not blowouts.

In 1979, Lehigh played C.W. Post for the last time, dominating in a 17-0 win “by a defense that came up with countless big plays and allowed the Engineers to get a pair of touchdowns on what could hardly be called drives,” Terry Larimer of The Morning Call said at the time. “In fact, it would be kinder to Post to measure these two ‘drives’ in inches rather than feet – 36 in one case, 72 in the other.”

Led by LB Jim McCormick and DL Eric Yaszemski, Lehigh’s defense held the “Pioneers” to 150 total yards, “which should keep Lehigh’s defense among the statistical leaders in the NCAA Division 1-AA [sic].” McCormick had a fumble recovery and an interception. A big special teams play – a blocked punt – set up Lehigh’s first score, the only one they actually needed in the shutout win.

It was odd and interesting to read that 1979 recap and see the similarities between that game vs. C.W. Post and last week’s 49-16 domination of Wagner, who are based not very far from LIU out on Staten Island.

Like Jim McCormick in 1979, DB Mason Moore this past weekend had an interception and a fumble recovery en route to a dominating first-half effort that had Wagner with more interceptions (3) than completions (2). Not once, but twice Lehigh capitalized on special teams play, Moore pouncing on a fumble to set up one score, then pressuring Wagner’s punter setting up a TD run by QB Dante Perri.

The risk this week, of course, is failing to learn the lessons that “Shark Week” teaches us – notably, that sharks are unpredictable and don’t necessarily follow your narratives.

Despite the cool logo and fresh feeling around the new-ish FCS program, LIU isn’t a complete unknown – after all, so far this year they played two very tough teams in TCU (FBS) and nationally ranked Albany (FCS) earlier in the season, almost upsetting the Great Danes in Week 0, falling 27-21.

But there’s enough uncertainty there for Lehigh – not playing a rival, competing against a team they haven’t played in 45 years, facing off against an 0-2 team desperate to get into the win column – that makes one pause.

The one thing you can say definitively about the 2024 LIU sharks is that they are a very talented team. That probably won’t show from the highlight reel against TCU, a probable FBS bowl team, but it does show up in the highlights of their game vs. Albany.

“They fly around – they’re really athletic,” Kevin Cahill said this week of LIU. “They have a lot of grad students, so it shows they have a lot of experience playing there… We will have our work cut out for us. Although they’re in the same league as Wagner, they’re two different types of teams.”

Additionally, Lehigh’s dominating win last week puts this young Lehigh football team in a new spot – dealing, for the first time in a long while, with expectations.

Last season, Lehigh won two games, a wet win against Merrimack 14-12 played in a near-empty Harvard Stadium, and a win against Bucknell in Lewisburg. In both cases, the “bump” from the wins were fairly nonexistent, mostly due to circumstance. Against Merrimack, Lehigh held on to win after scoring a couple touchdowns in a wet first half. Against Bucknell, Lehigh headed right into the bye week.

So one of the interesting storylines for Lehigh has to be – how will the giddiness of the big win affect this team? Will the Mountain Hawks suffer a slow start? Can they afford one?

That could lead to a possible shark trap in Long Island, and Lehigh’s coaching staff’s challenge will be to manage those expectations. They should be preparing for “Makozilla” from LIU, not chum.

LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (1-1, 0-0 PL) AT LIU SHARKS (0-2. 0-0 NEC)
WHERE: Bethpage FCU Stadium/Brookville, LI, NY, Saturday, September 14th, Noon
STREAMING: NEC Front Row (free)
STREAMING CREW: PxP – Greg Casserta; Analyst – Jim Wright
RADIO: BROADCAST (Fox Sports Lehigh Valley 94.7 FM/1230 AM; LVFoxSports.com):
RADIO CREW: PxP – Matt Kerr; Analysts – Steve Lomangino

The Lehigh Rundown

As mentioned, Lehigh got their first home win in several years in spectacular fashion against Wagner as they exploded for a 42 point first half and coasted to a 49-16 win, playing five different QBs and a giving a ton of players on the roster playing time. DB Nick Peltekian, with two interceptions including a pick six, was Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week representing a smothering defensive and special teams effort that helped drive home the win.

Lehigh’s LIU game notes are here. and there are no changes to the starting units and only minor depth changes on defense. It’s worth mentioning again at this time last year, Lehigh had three different starting offensive lines and three different starting secondaries, so the continuity will serve the Mountain Hawks well.

As much as it would enthuse Lehigh Nation to see another 49-16 result against LIU, four of Lehigh’s six scoring drives started in Wagner territory, and a fifth resulted from a muffed punt by Wagner recovered by DB Mason Moore. Fans would love to see that every week, surely.. but count on the offense needing to have longer, sustained drives to win this game… and finishing them.

The weather in Long Island is looking to be perfect – 80 and sunny for a noon kickoff.

LFN’s Drink of the Week

The lay-up of all lay-ups. Long Island Iced Tea, Anyone? Rarely do I have my Drink of the Week ready on a Monday, but I did this week. (Please, for the love of God, don’t use sweet and sour mix – do the lemon and simple syrup thing, or even just use agave nectar.)

Scouting LIU

Lehigh and Lafayette are lucky, in terms of media coverage. Not only does Lehigh have a batty alumnus previewing their games and covering most of them, the Lehigh Valley has a radio station, print media in The Morning Call, and even has some reach on the cable box, too. In terms of coverage at the FCS level, it’s pretty darned good.

LIU football, you would think, would get excellent coverage being so close to New York City, where there are no fewer than five different papers and opportunities for coverage. Their home paper, New York Newsday, however only has a couple of articles on the team, one from the preseason, and one AP report on their 45-0 loss to TCU. (No wonder QB Luca Stanzani looks so upset in the picture above.)

To read all about their close call against Albany, you need to head to LIU’s website, or check out the highlights from FloSports, which I have. Game Notes? Not on LIU’s website. This makes things harder, but not impossible.

“While this game is important for the Sharks, it offers some added meaning for some new arrivals that are local products,” LIU’s athletics website noted. “DT Liam McCormick, who transferred from Florida State, is from Islip and is looking forward to his Long Island collegiate debut.

“It means a lot to play in my hometown and in front of all my friends and family,” McCormick, who has 1 1/2 tackles and one sack in two games said in their release. “My father has friends who used to play at LIU and I remember watching those games here on campus. It’s great to be part of this program and see how far it’s come and I’m excited to be part of its bright future.”

“Several key transfers will also play a significant role in helping push this team to an NEC title,” LIU’s preview vs. Albany mentioned. “[McCormick], DBs Dylan Merrill (Duke) and Nate Wyatt (Old Dominion), S Todd Bowles (Rutgers) TE Brandon Niemenski (UConn), and RBs Ludovic Choquette (Western Illinois) and Damarius Good (Texas State) will all be crucial to the team’s success this year.”

McCormick, Bowles, and Merrill all started vs. TCU, while Wyatt also saw significant time. Niemenski, Choquette, and Good all also saw time vs. TCU, and Choquette, a grad transfer student, is leading the team in rushing with 21 carries and 144 yards.

Similar to Lehigh, LIU has played multiple quarterbacks and has given teams a lot of differing looks on offense and defense, so it’s fair to say LIU will play multiple formations on defense and differing starters on offense, balanced between the run and the pass. Stanzani is QB1 and Choquette is RB1, but don’t be surprised if they are not workhorses.

LFN’s Keys to the Game

  1. Blood In the Water. Last week vs. Wagner, Lehigh smelled blood in the water, and used that to their advantage to jump to an early lead and break Wagner’s will. While not an absolute necessity, this “blood in the water mentality” would serve Lehigh well in this game, too, if given the opportunity. I’m hoping this was one big takeaway from last week.
  2. Adjust To Changing Water Conditions. LIU will throw a lot of different looks at you on offense and defense – which was directly related to how they stayed in the game vs. Albany, in one case making the Great Danes defense look unprepared while LIU’s wideout waltzed in for a touchdown. There will be surprises on both sides, but the team that adjusts better will win.
  3. You Can’t Have Mental Lapses With Jaws. Remember Jaws? Remember how people would still go into the water… even though Jaws was out there? And it’s… not like it was actually some sort of state secret? Charitably calling these “mental lapses” (instead of really poor scriptwriting), Lehigh preventing these sort of mental lapses will be critical if the Mountain Hawks are to win this game. Lehigh has played very, very cleanly in their first two games in terms of penalties – a real testament to their discipline so far – but they haven’t been perfect. That attention to detail will have to continue in order to have a chance.

Fearless Prediction

This game worries me.

It worries me because it is such uncharted water for Lehigh – a new stadium, a new location, a team with a different scheme and system than both Army and Wagner. In college football, great wins can be followed by big disappointments, especially on the road.

It’s a testament to this team, though, that even at this early date that such a young team already feels competitive with a team like LIU. Last year, few would have picked Lehigh to win. This year – even now – there’s enough optimism to consider picking a Lehigh W.

If Lehigh wins this game, it will bode well for the rest of the early season before the double-bye. A two game win streak before hosting Princeton would be phenomenal for the team and would give them an excellent base on which to build for the rest of the season. Yet a lot about this game screams “trap”…. and this team is extremely young… and even the seniors haven’t been in this type of situation before.

Lehigh 23, LIU 21

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