The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 37

THE MORNING CALL COLLEGE FOOTBALL SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2008 C7 osss cit Princeton the last play GROLLER'S CORNER than us Villanova. I told the kids that all of these games are to be decided in the fourth quarter and they were going to have a chance to win them or lose them. Unfortunately, that was a self-fulfilling prophecy tonight." Lehigh 0700- 7, Princeton 0703- 10 Second Quarter L- Mike Fitzgerald 7 pass from J.B. Clark (Jason Leo kick) 7:18 (Drive: 2 plays, 8 yards. 0:51) P- Jordan Culbreath 1 run (Connor Loudon kick) 4:57 (Drive: 5 plays, 68 yards, 2:14) Fourth Quarter P- FG, Loudon 32 WO (Drive 5 plays, 52 yards, 055) I First Downs 14 21 Rush AttYards 30-69 38-148 Passing Yards 169 244 C-A-l 14-27-1 20-29-0 PuntsAvg 4-42 3-49 FumblesLost 0-0 0-0 Penalties 4-38 2-10 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING McGowan 22-83, Watson 3-9, Clark 4-(-21), Team H-2).

Culbreath 20-126, Zimmerman 3-11, Thanheiser 2-10, Anderson 13-L. PASSING Lehigh: Clark 14-27-1-169. Princeton: Anderson 20-29-0-244. RECEIVING Lehigh: Fitzgerald 5-70, Johnson 4-54, McGowan 3-26, Yansane 2-19. Princeton: Thanheiser 9-120, Magro 3-67, Zimmerman 3-19, Berry 2-23, Peacock 2-10, Ransom 1-5.

was a big play, but we just didn't make enough of them." Two plays later, after -Brickner's block, J.B. Clark found Mike Fitzgerald for a 7-yard TD and a 7-0 lead. But Lehigh didn't score the rest of the night. The final drive was its deepest penetration of the second half. Clark, the sophomore quarterback coming off a four-interception day at Villanova, was i4-for-27 forx 169 yards with one interception and a few other misfires.

"You hold a team to 10 points, you ought to win the football game," Coen said. "Offensively, we have to get our act in gear. "I knew this game would be a litmus test and show us where we're at. We've played one team Drake that we were clearly better than and one team that was better twice before and they were in the same defense," Coen said. "But we just didn't get a push this time." So, a golden opportunty to win in regulation was lost.

Then the chance to win at all quickly vanished as Princeton quarterback Brian Anderson found Will Thanheiser down the right sideline for a 46-yard completion to the Lehigh 21. Thanheiser was covered on the play, but came back to the ball ahead of Mountain Hawks defender Quadir Carter. A 6 -yard pass completion and a 2-yard carry centered the ball perfectly for Loudon, who had no trouble with the kick that evened Princeton's record at 1-1. "We have a chance to convert on fourth-and-one and then the ball's up in the air and their kid makes a good play," Coen said. "You Lehigh before a rain-reduced crowd of 8,836.

The defense -dominated game was over quick in a tidy 2 hours, 33 minutes. But the sting may last a long time for Lehigh (1-2), which was in position to beat its Ivy League rival for the ninth time in their last 10 meetings, but had two key plays take it from left to right under the win-loss column. "This one hurts bad; I'm ticked off," said Coen. The two plays that made it a miserable ride back to Bethlehem were a failed fourth-and-one at Princeton's 33 with 55 seconds left. Fullback Adam Watson was brought down by Tigers tackle Matt Koch inches shy of the stick.

"Maybe we should have given it to Matt McGowan who had 83 yards on 22 carries, but that short yardage play had worked The Tigers kick a field goal with no time left for 10-7 win. By Keith Groller Of The Morning Call PRINCETON, NJ. During his team's bye week, Lehigh football coach Andy Coen looked at the rest of his schedule and saw nine games that could be decided in the fourth quarter. What Coen may not have anticipated was a game with Princeton that wouldn't be determined until the final play of that fourth quarter. But that's what he and the Mountain Hawks got on Saturday night, along with a huge dose of heartache.

Connor Louden's 32-yard field goal as time expired gave the host Tigers a 10-7 nonleague win over jbb mum, fwtf LAFAYETTE FROM PAGE CI Curley has 3TD passes, in first half the white flag of surrender. Leopards by 24 points. But during the 20-rninute intermission, Quakers coach Al Bagnoli somehow managed to put a charge back into his club. Meanwhile, Lafayette relinquished its momentum by going into what often looked like prevent offense and gained only 27 yards" in the third quarter. And then, faced with a chance to put things out of reach, the Leopards failed to convert a fourth-and-inches play in the fourth.

Perm scored 17 points before running out of time, allowing Lafayette (3-0) to escape with a 24-17 win. "You may say we didn't don't hear me complaining." Lafayette opened the game with a meticulous 10-play, 68-yard drive which ended with Conte's 10-yard touchdown catch. And when the Leopards put together an eight-play, 80 -yard drive that ended with the first of Adair's two scores, it looked like this was going to be a laugher. "They gave me lots of l-on-l coverage in the first half, and the play action helped to free me up. The safety was nowhere around, and Rob put the ball right in there," Adair said of both his TDs one covering 37 yards, the other 23 following a Marvin Clecidor pick.

Penn needed to stop the bleeding in the third quarter, and it did it with a four-play, 87 -yard drive capped when Bradford Blackmon turned a screen pass into a 42-yard TD jaunt. Down 24-17, Penn tried to mount one last drive. Completions of 10, 11 and 24 yards took the Quakers into Lafayette territory, but four consecutive incompletions frHTTTT rj Emily Robson Special to The Morning Call LAFAYETTE'S ALLAN WHlTESELL (50) brings down Perm's Robert Irvin (9) as the Leopards held on for a 24-17 victory Saturday. Mi For more on Lehigh's ight under the lights' Princeton. themorningcall.com have to play every play." Lehigh's bend-but-don't-break defense kept the game within range.

Princeton's first five possessions ended in Lehigh territory, but the Tigers managed just one TD. In fact, it was a blocked field goal attempt by Lehigh that led to its only score of the game. Heath Brickner blocked Loudon's 29-yard try and Al Pierce picked it up on one bounce and ran it to the Tigers 8. "The D-line opened it up for us," Brickner said. "B.J.

Benning and John Warren led me through and I got the block and Al picked it up. It play well in the second half," coach Frank Tavani said. "I beg to differ. We ran a lot of time off the clock when we had to, even if that (fumbled) snap on the quarterback sneak (on a fourth- and-inches) haunts me all night." It looked almost as though the two teams changed uniforms at half-time. Lafayette was sharp on both sides of the ball in the first 30 minutes, with Curley connecting with Shaun Adair on a pair of nifty post routes for touchdowns and hitting wide-open tight end Michael Conte for another score.

The defense had Penn on its heals, limiting the Quakers to 66 yards of offense. The Leopards blocked a field goal, and linebacker Neil Goldsmith got his third interception in three games. "I wasn't going to sleep at halftime," said Tavani, who was aware of what Penn had done a week earlier, taking Villanova into overtime before losing a heartbreaker. "It was a tale of two halves but you loJ I he Wnd LPir Allatiown mm gave Lafayette the win. Penn 00107- 17 Lafayette 717(0-24 First quarter Michael Conte 10 pass from Rob Curley (Davis Rodriguez kick) (Drive: 10 plays, 68 yards, 4:59) Second quarter Shaun Adair 37 pass from Curley (Rodriguez kick) (Drive: 8 plays, 80 yards, 3:52) FG Rodriguez 22 (Drive: 4 plays, -2 yards, :57) Adair 23 pass from Curley (Rodriguez kick) (Drive: 1 play, 23 yards, :07) Third quarter Brad Blackmon, 42 pass from Robert Irvin (Andrew Samson kick) (Drive: 4 plays, 87 yards, 2:27) -FG Samson 22 (Drive: 1 1 plays, 42 yards, 3:29) Fourth quarter Michael DiMaggio 6 run (Samson kick) (Drive: 8 play, 55 yards, 1:27) TEAM STATISTICS First downs Rushes-yards Passing yds Comp-Att-Int Punts Fumbles-lost 18 15 23-59 42-120 233 163 19-48-2 12-23-1 7- 42 6-37 0-0 3-2 8- 57 6-46 Penalties-yards INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING Blackmon 11-60, DiMaggio 7-19, Irvin 4- -23.

Maurice White 19-77, Tyrell Coon 6-32, Curley 8-15, Joe Russo 3-12, Adair 1-0. PASSING Irvin 19-47-1-233, TD; Kyle Olson 0-1-1. Curley 12-22-1-163 yds, 3 TDs; Marc Quilling 0-1-0. RECEIVING Tyler Fisher 6-74, Kyle Derham 4-53, Amoo-Achampong 2-29, Appenfelder 2-28, Blackmon 1-42, TD. Adair 3-67, 2 TDs, White 3-23, Michael Conte 2-36, TD; Tim Watson 2-23, Coon 2-14.

Paul Reinhard is a freelance writer. 4 -S-J il)t place fo i 1 11 4 I PM" ASK IMkD ONE A 1 I I L- -y v.rV 1 -A 1 i i I i I Ml I I 'If 5 I I .1 U-Jw i i I 1'f -Tir Li certainly in tlye delyigly Dalley and nrVxiord Realty Group tllCjj ftHMMMMIIMMMMMNHHHHi i': i emvm 4 -A- tt "rr luxury Apartmait6 iS tl)i place to call -hfcine..