Lehigh players earn Patriot League honors; former Mountain Hawk Cohen is now a Steelhawk

FROM KEITH GROLLER

The rewards are coming in for Lehigh's 44-14 rout of Colgate on Saturday.

Quarterback Chris Lum was named the Patriot League's Offensive Player of the Week and linebacker Tanner Rivas was named the PL's Defensive Player of the Week. Here are the details on that:

Chris Lum, QB, Lehigh Jr., 6-2, 205 (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) Lum had an excellent performance in Lehigh's 44-14 triumph over Colgate on Saturday, completing 17-of-22 passes for a career-high 310 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He also ran for a score. Lum threw touchdown passes that put Lehigh up 7-0 and 31-0 in the first half, and completed the Mountain Hawks' scoring with his rushing touchdown in the third quarter. He finished the game with a passing efficiency rating of 225.65 and completed 77.3 percent of his passes with a long of 42. Lum has nine touchdown passes and just one interception during Lehigh's four-game winning streak. He earns the Offensive Player of the Week award for the first time.

Tanner Rivas, LB, Lehigh Jr., 6-1, 230 (Lexington, N.C./Central Davidson) Rivas played a key role in an outstanding defensive performance in Lehigh's 44-14 win over Colgate on Saturday. He recorded 10 tackles in the contest, and made two big plays when the outcome was still very much in doubt. He blocked a short Colgate field goal attempt to keep Lehigh's lead at 7-0 in the first quarter, then stopped Raider running back Nate Eachus on a fourth-and-one play on the next Colgate possession to give Lehigh a short field to score a touchdown and add to its lead. Five of his tackles were solo stops. Rivas and the Mountain Hawks held Eachus to 124 rushing yards, more than 40 below his average coming into the day. He earns his first Defensive Player of the Week award, and becomes the fourth Mountain Hawk to earn the honor this season.

Plus former Lehigh and Central Catholic star Matt Cohen has been signed by the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks of the Indoor Football League.

The details on that from the Steelhawks release:

The Central Catholic star capped off a remarkable career for the Mountain Hawks by finishing with 177 total tackles, 18.5 sacks, 44 tackles-for-loss, four interceptions and was named the 2009 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year. For his efforts, Cohen was named to the Walter Camp, Sports Network, and College Sporting News First Team All-America lists in 2009, a season which the Linebacker led the Patriot League in sacks and tackles for a loss for the second consecutive season.

“When you get a kid like Matt Cohen, who is not only a local product, but a good citizen and talented athlete who have to consider yourself lucky as a head Coach,” said Steelhawks coach Richard Britt. “Matt has the abilities to be playing on Sundays, and we hope that the Steelhawks can be his platform for showing scouts what he can do on the professional level.”

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/