Lehigh defense bails out offense in 21-17 win over Fordham

FROM KEITH GROLLER

If you wanted pretty on this day at Lehigh's Goodman Stadium, you needed to look at the surrounding mountains and the changing leaves glistening in the bright sunshine.

The game between Lehigh and Fordham was hardly pretty, especially if you like offensive showcases, but it delivered what the Mountain Hawks needed the most --- a victory.

Quarterback Chris Lum threw a pair of touchdown passes and backup QB Michael Colvin ran for another in a 21-17 Patriot League win that did not count in the league standings.

Lum, making his first appearance since the first half of the Princeton game on Sept. 18, completed 14 of 23 passes for 146 yards.

He hit Ryan Spadola for a 12-yard touchdown in the first quarter and found Schuylkill Haven's Zach Barket for a 17-yard strike in the third period. Barket did a nice job of straddling the sideline and keeping his feet in bounds.

Colvin, who filled in for the injured Lum at New Hampshire two weeks ago, ran six yards for another score out of wildcat formation.

But while Lehigh's offense failed to score on its final five full possessions, the defense came up with enough key stops to prevent a 21-10 lead from getting away.

Lehigh (3-2) stopped Fordham (2-4) six times on fourth down, including one last stop at the Mountain Hawks 28 with 56 seconds left.

"Our defense got hurt by some big plays, but we kept them out of the end zone ," Lehigh coach Andy Coen said. "We played great defense in the fourth quarter, not giving up any yards until the last drive. And then we came up big and were able to shut them down at the end."

Fordham outgained Lehigh 415-270.

Jay Campbell (shown at left in a Morning Call/Kevin Mingora photo) was Lehigh's top performer with 92 yards rushing.

The home team, though, never exploded as expected.

After opening up the second half with a touchdown drive set up by John Veniero's fumble recovery, the Mountain Hawks began its next two possessions at the Rams 42 and 47, but did nothing with them. The second possession ended with Lehigh coming up empty on fourth-and-inches.

"We were inconsistent on offense and I was hoping to see a much more crisp operation," Coen said. "We had drops and missed some open receivers, but we just have to keep working. Our kids had a great attitude the whole time. They kept fighting the whole game and sometimes you can look back on games like this and feel really good about it."

Lehigh plays its final nonleague game of the season next Saturday at Harvard and then returns home to Goodman Stadium to play Bucknell on Oct. 23.

The crowd of 5,176 on a gorgeous day was disappointing, but understandable since Lehigh students were on break and not on campus.

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