#Rivalry160 Preview, Lafayette at Lehigh: It’s All Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating
For the first time since 2013, the game simply called “The Rivalry” – the most-played college football game in the world – will be a sellout.
Covering All College Sports Since 2012
For the first time since 2013, the game simply called “The Rivalry” – the most-played college football game in the world – will be a sellout.
In the first quarter, Fordham (0-8, 0-3 Patriot League) took a 3-0 lead over Lehigh (4-3, 1-1 Patriot) after a 41 yard yard field goal. After that, it was all Lehigh as the Mountain Hawks romped to the next 33 points at home en route to a 33-19 victory.
Lehigh was never meant to have a double bye week in the middle of October. But they did.
The win put Bucknell (3-2, 1-0 Patriot) in first place in the Patriot League, while Lehigh (3-2, 0-1 Patriot) will have an unusually long time to stew on the loss with two consecutive bye weeks before their next football game.
The rebuilding year of 2023 was not easy, to be sure. But to close observers, among the rough seas were some encouraging signs for the years to come, through changes in culture, changes in expectations, and growing pains that Lehigh Nation hopes point the way to future success.
Maybe something about those team building activities, that bus ride to Merrimack and then Harvard, really paid off this weekend for the Mountain Hawks.
After all the storms, delays and rescheduling, Lehigh (1-1, 0-0 PL) would gut together a 14-12 victory over Merrimack (0-2, 0-0 NEC) on a wet, steamy evening in Cambridge that, like that Yale victory last November, would feature a superlative defensive effort to preserve the victory.
QB Reece Udinski goes 17-for-17 on his first 17 passing attempts, scoring two passing touchdowns before his first incompletion midway through the second quarter.
In the 85th meeting between Bucknell and Lehigh on the football field, the Mountain Hawks rode a friendly home-like atmosphere on the road at Christy Matthewson Stadium to end a long consecutive game losing streak by a score of 38-6.