Lehigh’s FBS Yardstick Game Is a 42-7 Defeat to Army
WEST POINT, NEW YORK – Yardstick games against FBS teams haven’t been the norm for Lehigh football over the last couple of decades, so one might have forgiven a very young Lehigh team if they were a bit star-struck by the full Army gameday experience – their first against an FBS team of any kind.
This Friday evening in front of 23,760 fans, they were tested indeed – and didn’t play like a bunch of dazzled freshmen with lights in their eyes.
RB Luke Yoder capped off a 9 play, 85 yard drive to tie the game at 7 late in the first quarter, but ultimately a deep, physical Army (1-0, 0-0) team led by budding stars QB Bryson Daily and bruising RB Kanye Udoh were too much for the Mountain Hawks (0-1, 0-0) in a 42-7 victory.
The Black Knights would block and grind their way to the next 35 points of the game, looking like a team that might do some damage in their first season in the American Athletic Conference this year.
While there’s no sugarcoating the outcome – and the score – as a season opener, which was a loss, there was certainly some big positives to take from the game with a long season to go, which saw action from three different quarterbacks, including two that just began classes at Lehigh for the first time this week – first year QBs Matt Machalik and Hayden Johnson, alongside fifth year QB Dante Perri.
“[That was our plan] going into it,” head coach Kevin Cahill said after the game. “We think Matt’s a really good athlete. Matt can do a lot of different things. Hayden’s a really, really sharp kid, and Dante is a heck of a leader. Dante did a great job tonight, played well. We’re going to be a little bit of different team thus year. We’ve got to find ways to be explosive.”
The trio all brought different skills to the table – Perri composed leadership of the offense, Machalik a physical, effective running style, and Johnson’s evadability with a big arm.
Critical to the offensive gameplan against Army was clearly to establish a strong rushing game in general to try to make sure the time of possession didn’t get out of hand, and on that score Lehigh had some success, rushing 33 times for 172 yards and 1 touchdown, earning 5.2 yards per rush with seven different Mountain Hawks rushing the ball, holding onto the ball for 27 minutes.
There were other little hints of good things to come for the Lehigh 2024 season, too. The Mountain Hawks didn’t kill themselves with penalties, only getting flagged four times during the game. For the most part, Lehigh didn’t allow many big plays on defense against Army’s option offense, either, only allowing two plays over 20 yards.
But that wasn’t the story of the game.
“There’s a lot to be excited about, but it’s also the same old story where you scored seven points,” Cahill said. “When we get into that hot zone and red zone area, we’ve got to finish. We can fall on a lot of mistakes, a lot of excuses and mistakes we made, but we have to coach that and be better down there. With experience, it’ll come. But I thought our kids stepped up in a big way.”
Army didn’t look like a team playing their first game in 2024, executing methodically and physically.
Six of Army’s seven drives ended in touchdowns – one of which was two plays, started in the waning seconds in the first half to run out the clock. The one time Army lined up to punt, LB Andon Thomas took the direct snap and ran the ball 35 yards into Lehigh territory, setting up Daily’s first TD run.
Army QB Bryson Daily led the Army offense like the veteran quarterback he is, rushing for 78 yards and passing for 35 more, but more significantly guiding Army to an eye-popping 7 for 9 on 3rd down and 1 for 1 on fourth down (not counting the fake punt conversion). For those scoring at home, that is as close to perfect as a team might get running Army’s offense.
“I do think Army was extremely balanced today offensively,” Cahill said. “We were nervous about that going in. It wasn’t just the triple option. It was the shotgun. It was the quick passes. They were very balanced. They did a really nice job. And it’s hard for us to execute that. It’s hard for us to replicate that in practice.”
WR Mason Humphrey led the team in receptions with 5 catches for 61 yards, including a spectacular 22 yard grab to set up Lehigh’s score.
“All three quarterbacks, we practice with them,” Mason said after the game. “I like all of them. Every quarterback that we have in the room, we work after practice, we work together, we were meshing very well. We just got to mesh better. But that’s going to come. That’s going to come throughout the season. The three quarterbacks that came in, I love it, they did their part. Little mistakes, few mistakes here and there, but we’ll fix it up. We’ll clean up, go to the drawing board Monday morning.”
On defense DB Nick Peltekian had a career high in tackles with 15, but he wasn’t exactly beaming about that fact after the game.
“I missed a lot of tackles, too,” he admitted. “So I’m definitely not happy about that. But I should have my career high on tackles. The amount of time I’ve been on the field, those drives were long, tiring, but they were a physical team. Athlete-wise, I thought we were matched up well with them, but just the physicality was different than what we normally see each week.”
For the team, fans and coaches, unfamiliar with games versus FBS opponents, it was definitely a more mixed feeling than, say, traveling to Dartmouth and losing there. Every one one the Lehigh side was rooting for an upset, or a scare against Army. But the hospitality and unique atmosphere at Army was a great experience for all, too.
“Coming in here, playing them, it was a different atmosphere,” Mason said. “Definitely, it was a big crowd. 23,000, I think. We experienced something like that, but we weren’t experiencing something like this. Planes flying over. It was crazy.”
“Coming into the game, I was excited,” Peltekian said. “But when you’re in the game, the only thing you notice is the cadets in the end zone. That’s really the only thing, them jumping up and down. That is hard to miss. I remember a couple of times throughout the game, I just looked at one of my teammates and I was like, Dude, just look at this. Look up there. It’s definitely a cool moment. But you have to put it aside when you’re playing.”
Coach Cahill, too, was proud of his players.
“I’m proud of the way we fought, coming in here, playing this type of team,” he said. “I gained a lot of respect for our program today. We fought all the way through. We made some mistakes, though. In reality, midway through the third quarter, it should have been a 28-21 ball game with them driving. We didn’t finish at the end of the half, and we came out in the beginning of the third quarter, and we didn’t score then either – we put a 16-play drive together and didn’t score. You have to do those things. You have to finish those drives. I’m okay with mistakes. We can adjust those mistakes. I’m not upset with our effort, though. We’ve got to build going off of this one.”
Box Score
| Lehigh | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Army West Point | 7 | 14 | 7 | 14 | 42 |
LEH: Passing: Dante Perri (64), Rushing: Luke Yoder (51), Receiving: Mason Humphrey (61)
AWP: Passing: Bryson Daily (35), Rushing: Noah Short (83), Receiving: Cam Schurr (22)
Attendance: 23,760 Kickoff Time: 06:05 PM End of Game: 08:55 PM Duration: 02:49 Weather: Clear
| Qtr | Time | Scoring Play | LEH | AWP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 05:57 | AWP – Daily,Bryson 1 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 9 plays, 80 yards, TOP 04:55 | 0 | 7 |
| 1st | 00:43 | LEH – Yoder,Luke 18 yd run (Garrido,Nick kick), 9 plays, 75 yards, TOP 05:14 | 7 | 7 |
| 2nd | 10:21 | AWP – Daily,Bryson 1 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 13 plays, 76 yards, TOP 05:17 | 7 | 14 |
| 2nd | 02:59 | AWP – Udoh,Kanye 13 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 10 plays, 79 yards, TOP 06:15 | 7 | 21 |
| 3rd | 08:32 | AWP – Short,Noah 3 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 10 plays, 77 yards, TOP 06:20 | 7 | 28 |
| 4th | 08:28 | AWP – Udoh,Kanye 1 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 12 plays, 80 yards, TOP 06:51 | 7 | 35 |
| 4th | 00:19 | AWP – Rendina,Jake 3 yd run (Gronotte,Trey kick), 8 plays, 56 yards, TOP 02:50 | 7 | 42 |
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.
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