Lehigh Overcomes Real Adversity In Gritty Win Over Richmond 20-16 In 1st Round of FCS Playoffs
RICHMOND, VA – Missing their starting left tackle and defensive captain, Lehigh (9-3) would overcome their absence and injuries to win a gritty, thrilling 20-16 game over Richmond (10-3) in the 1st round of the FCS Playoffs.
The Mountain Hawks, making their first FCS Playoff appearance since 2017 and playing without their fifth year captain LB Mike DeNucci on defense, quickly found themselves without the services of their leading sack artist DE Matt Spatny, who was carted off the field in a scary moment. Later in the game, LB Tyler Ochoski would also leave the game on a stretcher, leaving Lehigh without three of its top four defensive players in sacks.
Yet that didn’t stop the defense in a historic effort.
“The emotional toll on our team today, and to come out with a win today,” head coach Kevin Cahill said after the game, “I can’t give our kids enough credit.”
In the first half, the Mountain Hawks stopped Richmond in the red zone on three of their four offensive drives, and forced them to turn the ball over on downs in the other.
After Richmond took a 6-0 lead on a pair of field goals, Lehigh responded with a 17-play, 70-yard drive to take the lead. On a critical 3rd and 7 play, QB Hayden Johnson hit WR Matt D’Avino for a 41-yard completion. D’Avino, who had only two receptions up until this point, showed incredible poise to come down with the ball with a juggling catch.
Three plays later on 3rd-and-5, Johnson scrambled and found WR Logan Galetta getting open on a seven-yard touchdown, with PK Nick Garrido extra point giving Lehigh a 7-6 lead.
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Richmond bounced back with an 8 play, 64 yard drive that would result a 21 yard FG by PK Sean O’Haire to take a 9-7 lead at halftime. But LB Brycen Edwards would stop Richmond QB Cam Coleman short of the goal line, forcing the FG try.
“The defense fought, and they knew they were fighting for each other,” Cahill said. “We say all the time, you’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for your brothers, you’re playing for Lehigh University. It was magical.”
A gutsy third quarter saw both defenses buckle down and force a couple of punts, and the Mountain Hawks would miss a golden opportunity to re-take the lead in the third quarter as the Mountain Hawks embarked on a 13 play, 85 yard drive into the Richmond red zone. Johnson was stopped short of the goal line on third down – reaching out to cross the plane but being stopped just short – and Lehigh brought out the field goal team, but a bad snap on the kick would thwart their effort, keeping the game 9-7.
Richmond capitalized on a pass from Johnson intercepted by DB Jabril Hayes. On 4th-and-1 from the Lehigh seven yard line, Coleman hit TE Sean Clarke over the middle for a touchdown in a beautifully designed and executed play, extending the Spiders’ lead to 16-7 and seemingly giving them all the momentum at home.
But the Mountain Hawks struck right back, with no sense of panic with RB Jaden Green responding with about 10 minutes to play.
Looking eerily similar to RB Ron Jean 26 years ago in Lehigh’s last playoff win in Richmond, Green bounced to the outside and turned on the jets to score an electrifying 65 yard touchdown run that flipped momentum on its head.
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A spirited Lehigh defense then forced a three-and-out to force a punt, and things looked grim for Lehigh on 3rd and 17. But Hayden Johnson, replaying a similar situation versus Princeton earlier in the season, rolled to the right and found open space and took off, sprinting to get 19 yards to convert the 3rd and 17, keeping the drive alive.
It was critical, too, as Johnson would connect on an across-the-body pass to WR Geoffrey Jamiel on a beautifully executed connection that Jamiel turned into a shifty 54 yard touchdown. He was Johnson’s favorite target on the afternoon, connecting with him 10 times for 137 yards and the most critical score of the game.
“Big time players make big time plays in big time games, and Geoffrey Jamiel is a big time player,” ESPN+ analyst Tyoka Jackson said during the broadcast.
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“We just have trust in each other,” Johnson told Fox Sports’ Connor Brown after the game. “We’ve been practicing together for the last twenty weeks, just throwing routes every day. I mean I trusted him to get open and he trusted me to find him.”
“We’re just so focused on having a next-play mentality,” Jamiel also told Brown. “It wasn’t so much of a big turn for us. We just try to play one play at a time and try to stack up plays and we looked up and we had the lead.”
With the 20-16 lead, the game was not over.
Richmond looked to answer with the Spiders moving into Lehigh territory, but back-to-back pass breakups by LB Jackson Dowd and Brycen Ewards stopped one Spider drive.
The Mountain Hawks picked up one first down before having to punt the football away with under two minutes remaining. Connor Poole’s 43-yard punt was muffed by Richmond, with first-year DB Ignatious Williams recovering at the Richmond 17, essentially sealing the Mountain Hawk victory.
“We’re just a gritty bunch of guys,” Cahill said to Brown. “The kids have fun playing together and we knew if we got to the fourth quarter and it was a close game, we’d have a chance. We let the kids take over and they did that.”
The Mountain Hawks survive and advance in the FCS Playoffs, and will play the University of Idaho, the 8 seed, in the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho at 6:00 PM local time (9:00 PM EDT) and will be broadcast on ESPN+ with audio coverage on FOX Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM and LVFOXSports.com.
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:
