Mountain Hawks Earn Heavenly Eleventh Win, 27-7 Over Longtime Rival Colgate
HAMILTON, NY – The years 1977, 1998, 2000 and 2001 are etched in the minds of longtime Mountain Hawk football fans.
The reason is before today, they were only Lehigh teams in their 141 year history that enjoyed 11 wins or more in a season.
This Saturday, Lehigh (11-0, 6-0 Patriot) beat longtime rival Colgate (4-7, 2-4 Patriot) to put the 2025 Mountain Hawks in the same rarefied air as those legendary teams with a 27-7 win.
“First of all, credit to Lehigh,” Colgate head coach Curt Fitzpatrick said. “They’re having a great season and have a great team and make you earn everything you get. As always, I’m proud of our fight and determination. This group will do everything in their power to finish strong.”
It was a game that was shortened and called with four minutes to play due to lightning in the area. Most of the lightning during the game, however, came from the Mountain Hawks, limiting Colgate to a grand total of 9 plays and 12 yards on their first three possessions and surging to the game’s first 20 points.
“Coming up here to Hamilton, New York and playing Colgate, and getting a win is huge, head coach Kevin Cahill said afterwards. “I don’t care who we are, what the record is, it’s a great rivalry. We found a way to win, we won anyway. We have things to clean up, but it was a good win.”
Lehigh opened the scoring after stifling Colgate on their first possession and then embarking on an 11 play, 53 yard drive ending with a 1 yard plunge by RB Aaron Crossley to open the scoring.
Two field goals by P/K Connor Poole of 32 and 30 yards respectively extended Lehigh’s lead, and after a missed 45 yard field goal attempt by Colgate, QB Hayden Johnson found WR Geoffrey Jamiel, who slid behind the offense, to connect on a spectacular 63 yard touchdown strike to make it 20-0 midway through the second quarter.
Jamiel notched 9 catches for 138 yards, while Johnson would complete 17 of 25 passes for 259 yards and adding 23 yards on the ground.
WIth a minute left in the half, after only earning six first downs and 73 total yards up to that point, Colgate drove the length of the field, ending with a 28 yard touchdown pass from QB Jake Stearney to WR Matt Fogler to keep the Raiders within striking distance.
But a critical third quarter drive was stymied by the Mountain Hawks when Stearney delivered a pass to Fogler but CB Aidan Singleton got his hand in, knocking the ball out, and DB Jackson Dowd alertly came down with the ball, stopping their scoring drive at the 1 yard line. It was Lehigh’s 10th interception of the season.
Lehigh’s defense would hold firm, and the offense would add a second half 28 yard touchdown run by RB Jaden Green to seal the victory.
LB Brycen Edwards would lead the Mountain Hawk defense with 7 tackles, and LB Tyler Ochojski and DL Matt Spatny would add a sack apiece. Spatny’s sack gave him 24 1/2 for his career, breaking the program record of 24 previously held by DL Nick Martucci, who played on the 1998 Lehigh squad that went 11-0 during the regular season and would end up 12-1.
Lehigh will meet Lafayette in Easton, PA next weekend in the 161st meeting of The Rivalry, college football’s most-played football rivalry. The game will be for the Patriot League Championship and the Patriot League’s autobid to the FCS Playoffs. Kickoff time is scheduled to be 12:30 PM at Fisher Stadium.
 Colgate | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
 Lehigh | 10 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 27 |
COL: PASS – Stearney,Jake (151); RUSH – Osborne,Zach (25); REC – Fogler,Matt (83)
LEH: PASS – Johnson, Hayden (259); RUSH – Green, Jaden (54); REC – Jamiel, Geoffrey (138)
Scoring Summary
| 1st | LEH | 08:05 | LEH – Crossley,Aaron 2 yd run (Zipf,John kick), 11 plays, 53 yards, TOP 06:05 | 0 | 7 |
| 1st | LEH | 03:33 | LEH – Poole,Connor 32 yd field goal 7 plays, 58 yards, TOP 03:04 | 0 | 10 |
| 2nd | LEH | 10:23 | LEH – Poole,Connor 30 yd field goal 11 plays, 51 yards, TOP 06:38 | 0 | 13 |
| 2nd | LEH | 04:20 | LEH – Jamiel,Geoffrey 64 yd pass from Johnson,Hayden (Zipf,John kick) 2 plays, 73 yards, TOP 00:51 | 0 | 20 |
| 2nd | COL | 00:06 | COL – Fogler,Matt 28 yd pass from Stearney,Jake (Vogeler,Luke kick) 6 plays, 55 yards, TOP 00:42 | 7 | 20 |
| 4th | LEH | 10:04 | LEH – Green,Jaden 28 yd run (Zipf,John kick), 6 plays, 52 yards, TOP 03:21 | 7 | 27 |
| 7 | 27 | |||||
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:
