Lehigh Gets The Job Done 28-10 In A Game Where Stats Don’t Tell The Whole Story
BETHLEHEM, PA – Head coach Kevin Cahill, RB Luke Yoder, QB Matt Machalik and LB Tyler Ochojski poured over a single piece of paper in the postgame press conference after Lehigh’s 28-10 win over Sacred Heart.
As in any victory, the numbers on the piece of paper were mostly good.
Yoder’s 138 all-purpose yards and touchdown, stood out, as did Matt Machalik’s 16 yards rushing, touchdown and pass completion, his longest as a Mountain Hawk so far. Overall there were four rushing touchdowns from four different Lehigh players – RB Jaden Green had one as well, and the fourth came from regular QB Hayden Johnson.
More than 400 yards of total offense – impressive, when you read it off the paper.
Those numbers went pretty well with some pretty defensive stats – for example, allowing only 177 total yards and only allowing 3 points – and the most important stat of all – the fact that Lehigh won the game. Lehigh 28, Sacred Heart, 10.
But despite the singular piece of paper with all the good numbers on it, the mood in the hot, humid press conference room after Lehigh’s victory wasn’t nearly as cheery as during last week’s win versus Richmond.
“As I told the team, you always have to celebrate your victories and these guys found a way to win a game,” Cahill said. “Two years ago, we’d be begging for a win like this. But the standards have changed in our program. It’s a good win, but we’re really not satisfied with the way we played and how we got the win. These guys will attest, I don’t think we had the best week of practice, and we’re dealing with a different animal right now.”
The reason that Cahill and the Lehigh football players came into the press conference with mostly serious faces wasn’t due to the stat sheet showing a resounding statistical victory for the Mountain Hawks. It’s because if you were there, playing or watching the game, you saw a different story.
Falling Behind Quickly
The game did not start out well for the Mountain Hawks when for the second straight week, their opponent returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
Sacred Heart WR Dean Hangey fielded K Connor Poole’s kickoff, and in a play that looked very similar to last week, Hangey turned on the jets and took the ball 91 yards to have Lehigh fall behind 7-0 immediately.
But to their credit, the team did respond with a drive that ended it Yofer breaking a tackle for a touchdown.
“I think there’s a sense of ‘alright that happened’, but only thing we could worry about is the next play, coming together,” Ochojski said. “I think a team’s going to be be measured on how good they are when they respond to moments of adversity. And I think there was a sense of camaraderie coming together, which is one of the strongest of our team, one of our four core values of brotherhood. I do believe that after big plays like that happen, because they do, we come together.”
While it wasn’t ideal, the offense did indeed come together on the next drive, calmly embarking on a 6 play 75 yard drive punctuated by Yoder’s 28 yard run of the middle, evading a tackle and tying the game.
“That was a big turning point in the game,” Yoder said. “I think we just need to learn to play as if that never happened, just flushing it, getting to the next drive Offensively, we came out and scored, and that moved us on. And we just need to focus on that.”
TIed at 7-7, the defense stopping the Pioneers short, and then the offense’s next drive was marred by mistakes, including three different pre-snap penalties. It resulted in a turnover on downs when WR Mason Humphrey caught a Johnson pass, but was ruled out of bounds.
“We have all the procedural penalties, and that’s just lack of attention to detail,” Cahill said afterwards. “We’re not doing the little things right. And all of a sudden it’s first and ten, and then it’s first and twenty. So your drives are all messed up, and it’s literally nothing they did. It’s all self inflicted. And that was [lack of execution in] Tuesday practice. That was Wednesday practice.”
After tying the game, things settled in for the Mountain Hawks as the defense forced a 3-and-out and Green, who got things started with a 41 yard punt return, later in the drive surged right on a sweep and converted a 10 yard touchdown run that would give Lehigh the lead.
Through the rest of the first half, untimely penalties on offense and defense extended a Sacred Heart drive and sent Lehigh back, though the Mountain Hawks were fortunate to get the ball back after a first down reception by Sacred Heart was overturned by the officials.
Under two minutes to play, Johnson orchestrated a 4 play, 33 yard drive ending with a beautiful run down the middle, complete with C.J. McCollum-style spin move to score the touchdown.
The scoreboard read Lehigh 21, Sacred Heart 7 – and yet, still, it felt like Lehigh was its own worst enemy on the afternoon.
Closing It Out
“I told them ‘I told you so’ at halfime,” Cahill said. “I said, we’re in a close ball game right now, and we’re getting what we deserve. We should have been finishing some of those drives.”
Out of halftime, with an opportunity to put things away, the Mountain Hawks didn’t do so, seeing their opening drive stall, and the defense allowing a 10 play, 65 yard drive ending in a Sacred Heart field goal and a very-much-in-doubt 11 point game.
“Our focus doesn’t change,” Ochojski said. “We’ve got to play our brand of football every time we step on the field, which, to be honest, we didn’t do today. On the defensive side of the ball, you see the stats, and they look great, but we know we didn’t play up to our standard today. We’re ready to move forward and get back to work this week.”
The stats did say that the Lehigh defense didn’t allow a score the rest of the way, and the stats also say that the Lehigh defense has gone nine quarters without allowing a touchdown, and allowed only 10 points all season. (Two touchdowns were allowed on kickoff returns.)
But the game really never felt out of reach until Machalik scored Lehigh’s fourth rushing touchdown on the afternoon, a 2 yard backbreaker early in the 4th quarter that really put the game away.
“At the end of the day, you have to make the most of your opportunities; everybody preaches that,” Machalik said. “We have a bunch of playmakers on our offense. Any guy who gets the ball is going to make a play. It could be Green, Yoder, Hayden. All of these guys can make plays.”
“When there’s penalties, I just try to flush it and go to the next play,” Yoder added. “The ‘next play’ mentality is what we’ve been preaching, Really physical runs, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter the score, no matter what.”
“Especially on the defensive side of the ball, our brotherhood is very close knit,” Ochojski added. “We’ve played a lot of football together, so knowing that you’re not playing for yourself, but the guy next to you is the one you’re playing for. And we’ve developed ourselves as a physical, fast defense that’s going to play sound and really, really hard, and that’s really what we get back to. Like these guys have talked about ‘next play’, like the next play is the most important one, good, bad or indifferent. So that’s kind of just our mentality. We keep up whether we’re giving up 12 yards and a drive or it’s a score. The next play is the most important one, because that keeps us very level.”
2-0 Lehigh travels next week to Pittsburgh, PA to take on the 1-1 Duquesne Dukes in a non-conference tilt, while Sacred Heart travels to Long Island to take on LIU, fresh off of their upset of Eastern Michigan.
Full Photo Gallery Courtesy of Hannah Ally and Lehigh Sports
 Sacred Heart | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
 Lehigh | 7 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 28 |
SHU: PASS – Snyder,Jack (94); RUSH – Snyder,Jack (30); REC – Rhoades,Payton (26)
LEH: PASS – Johnson, Hayden (129); RUSH – Yoder, Luke (127); REC – Jamiel, Geoffrey (60)
Scoring Summary
| 1st | SHU | 14:47 | SHU – Hangey,Dean 91 yd kickoff return (Kling,Matt kick) | 7 | 0 |
| 1st | LEH | 11:38 | LEH – Yoder,Luke 28 yd run (Garrido,Nick kick), 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 03:09 | 7 | 7 |
| 2nd | LEH | 14:12 | LEH – Green,Jaden 10 yd run (Garrido,Nick kick), 3 plays, 43 yards, TOP 01:25 | 7 | 14 |
| 2nd | LEH | 01:06 | LEH – Johnson,Hayden 20 yd run (Garrido,Nick kick), 4 plays, 33 yards, TOP 00:31 | 7 | 21 |
| 3rd | SHU | 08:13 | SHU – Kling,Matt 32 yd field goal 10 plays, 65 yards, TOP 05:17 | 10 | 21 |
| 4th | LEH | 14:55 | LEH – Machalik,Matt 2 yd run (Garrido,Nick kick), 11 plays, 75 yards, TOP 06:13 | 10 | 28 |
| 10 | 28 | |||||
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:
