Lehigh Wears Down Holy Cross In 38-3 Win, Mountain Hawks at 10-0
BETHLEHEM, PA – Two years ago, Lehigh head coach Kevin Cahill came to South Mountain to take on a rebuilding job with the winless Mountain Hawks, who went 2-9 the prior season.
In that season, Cahill’s first season, the Mountain Hawks didn’t win a single game at home, finishing an identical 2-9.
It wasn’t totally unexpected. Cahill came here in no small part to transform the culture of football at Lehigh, a large part of which was to make a home football environment where there is a true home field advantage.
Fast forward to 2025.
With the Lehigh defense holding their second consecutive home opponent without a touchdown, Lehigh (10-0, 5-0 Patriot) secured a perfect regular season record at home – one of their early goals of the season – after what ended up as a dominating 38-3 win over Holy Cross (1-9, 1-4 Patriot).
The home environment at the Mountain Hawks final regular season game at Murray Goodman – in effect senior day, even if it wasn’t deemed as such officially – couldn’t have been more different than two years ago.
“It’s a pretty special feeling just winning at home, RB Luke Yoder said afterwards. “‘Protecting the Nest’, it’s your home field. So we’re just doing it for the fans and everyone that came out and supported us.”
Youth football day meant special events for the youth that came to the game, and their energy infused the game day atmosphere, including afterwards when the there was an autograph session with Lehigh football players.
“It’s heartwarming to me to know they came up to me and asked for an autograph,” OL Colby Reph said afterwards. “Putting myself in their shoes, I was there as a kid one day, and being that positive role model for them just means a lot to me.”
“It was good to see them all out there,” Yoder added
The game was a hard-fought affair in the first half that was very much in doubt.
Lehigh’s defense stopped the Crusaders on five straight possessions to start the game, limiting Holy Cross to only 22 total yards and only one first down from a facemask penalty.
However aside from the opening drive, when QB Hayden Johnson found WR Mason Humphrey for the opening touchdown of the game, Holy Cross stopped the Mountain Hawks on four consecutive drives, sacking Johnson on two of them, and Crusader LB Amarl Gardner nabbing an interception on a third.
When Holy Cross’ offense would put together a time consuming drive in the second quarter that ended in a 32 yard field goal by PK Luis Palenzuela, it felt like the Crusaders were maybe a big play away from taking the lead, and causing a big headache for the youth football players and fans in attendance.
But the offense would bear down.
On the ensuing drive, following a huge block by Reph, Yoder would pop through for a 41 yard touchdown run to make it 14-3 Lehigh.
It would be the first sign that Yoder, who had yet another massive day running the football with 142 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns, was starting to wear down Holy Cross.
“We always say if we just wear them down, short runs are going to start to pop,” Reph said in the post game press conference. “And we just stick with the plan and let to success. Every week, we pride ourselves on being the most physical unit. And we just come out and punch the guy in front of us in the mouth. We really play together, we really love each other. It’s really based on brotherhood.”
Even though there were signs, a second interception by Holy Cross in the end zone before halftime meant Lehigh’s 14-3 lead could have been much more significant.
“I just felt like we were out of character offensively,” Cahill said. “Even defensively, we were a little out of character and were playing the way Holy Cross wanted us to play and not how we wanted to play. We just had to pull it back together, and our kids responded coming out of the locker room in the second half.”
In the second half, the defense would continue to bear down and would shut down the Holy Cross offense the rest of the way, and Reph and the offense kept wearing away at the Crusader defense until the floodgates opened.
“They’re a physical team and they like to pound the ball on the run,” DB Jackson Dowd said, who led the team with 7 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss. “I just try and get where I’m supposed to be and fit the gaps that I’m supposed to fit. The pass rush is awesome. It makes our job as defense and in the back end a lot easier. You know that if the quarterback’s back there for three, four seconds, he’s not getting the throw off. So it makes our job easier covering those guys.”
Dowd was the lead tackler of a defense who only yielded 20 rushing yards to Holy Cross. It was the eighth time this season that the Mountain Hawks had yielded under 100 rushing yards to an opponent, and the fifth time in six home games that they achieved the feat.
Holy Cross was held to only 5 offensive drives in the second half. Three of them were 3-and-outs, and the Crusaders’ longest drive of the second half, a 12 play, 49 yard drive, was ended when LB Tyler Ochojski and DL Matt Spatny met at the quarterback and sacked him for a 8 yard loss.
Shortly thereafter, Yoder would rumble for his second touchdown of the afternoon and Reph and the offensive line would take over.
Johnson would find WR Geoffrey Jamiel twice for touchdown passes, one of 45 yards and one of 11 yards, and the offensive line wouldn’t give up another sack all afternoon, all while carving the way for six different Mountain Hawks to rush for 344 yards on the day.
It was the first time since 1979 that Lehigh had gone two consecutive games without giving up a touchdown.
“It’s great playing next to those guys,” Dowd said, “and we just try to take it one play at a time. And usually when we do that, with the scoreboard we’re happy with what we see.”
As good as the vibes were after achieving their goal of an undefeated regular season at home, everyone knew there was still work to do to achieve their ultimate goals for the season, starting with next week at Colgate.
“I mean, if we just focus on ourselves, stay true to our schemes, and tighten up the little details, and we’ll be good to go,” Yoder said simply.
“I’m sure it’ll be snowing and lake effect snow,” Cahill joked, before returning to the question of next week. “And we welcome that. We’re going to have to, if we want to do what we really want to do, we’re going to have to win games on the road, and that’s going to be a battle. I know Colgate is going to be very well coached. I know they’re going to be ready to go. And the last time we were there, it was absolutely embarrassing [for Lehigh].”
In 2023, in that 2-9 season, Cahill’s first as Lehigh head coach, Colgate scored the first 30 points en route to a humbling 37-21 win over the Mountain Hawks on their senior day.
 Holy Cross | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
 Lehigh | 7 | 7 | 17 | 7 | 38 |
HCR: PASS – Campanile,Dominic (195); RUSH – Clerveaux,Jayden (15); REC – Williams,Joseph (55)
LEH: PASS – Johnson, Hayden (174); RUSH – Yoder, Luke (142); REC – Jamiel, Geoffrey (66)
Scoring Summary
| 1st | LEH | 10:58 | LEH – Humphrey,Mason 29 yd pass from Johnson,Hayden (Poole,Connor kick) 6 plays, 63 yards, TOP 02:34 | 0 | 7 |
| 2nd | HCR | 05:14 | HCR – Palenzuela,Luis 32 yd field goal 8 plays, 66 yards, TOP 05:14 | 3 | 7 |
| 2nd | LEH | 02:33 | LEH – Yoder,Luke 42 yd run (Poole,Connor kick), 6 plays, 75 yards, TOP 02:41 | 3 | 14 |
| 3rd | LEH | 11:38 | LEH – Poole,Connor 32 yd field goal 6 plays, 61 yards, TOP 03:22 | 3 | 17 |
| 3rd | LEH | 10:06 | LEH – Jamiel,Geoffrey 45 yd pass from Johnson,Hayden (Poole,Connor kick) 1 plays, 40 yards, TOP 00:11 | 3 | 24 |
| 3rd | LEH | 01:35 | LEH – Yoder,Luke 1 yd run (Poole,Connor kick), 5 plays, 70 yards, TOP 02:26 | 3 | 31 |
| 4th | LEH | 14:07 | LEH – Jamiel,Geoffrey 11 yd pass from Johnson,Hayden (Poole,Connor kick) 2 plays, 25 yards, TOP 00:46 | 3 | 38 |
| 3 | 38 | |||||
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:
