Lehigh beats Holy Cross 34-17, clinches share of Patriot League football title

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Lehigh football coach Andy Coen said it was a sloppy performance and wasn't happy with various aspects of his team's effort at Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon.

"We've got a lot of things to clean up," he said.

But despite some flaws, Lehigh is now in position to clean up with a Patriot League championship.

The Mountain Hawks earned at least a share of the title with a 34-17 win in Worcester, Mass., improving to 7-2 overall and 3-0 in the league. With Colgate's win over Lafayette on Saturday in upstate New York, every other Patriot League team has at least two losses with two weeks left in the season.

With a win at Georgetown next Saturday, Lehigh would secure an outright championship and the program's first playoff berth since 2004.

Junior quarterback Chris Lum passed for 212 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 64 more yards in being named the Dr. Edward N. Anderson Award winner as the top player in Holy Cross' Family Weekend Game.

It was a day for Lehigh to feel good about itself, but they'll hold off on feeling truly great.

"To put it in context, over a five-year period there's only one team that has won two championships and that's us," Coen said, noting Lehigh's co-championship with Lafayette in 2006. "We want to finish our business here and we've got to beat an improved Georgetown team next week, and they're coming off a bye. I feel good about things, but we just can't settle for this."

Indeed, Lehigh won handily even with a grade-A effort.

"A sign of a good team is to beat another good team when you're not at your best, but we've got a lot more work to do," Coen said.

Lehigh won its fifth straight game and secured its first seven-win season since going 8-3 in 2005. It's the most games the program has won under Coen, who is now 27-26 in five seasons.

Lehigh has now outscored its three Patriot League foes -- at least the games that count in the standings -- by a combined total of 110-41.

Lum continues to improve at quarterback and fought through a rough start that included a 5-for-12 effort in the first quarter that included an interception in the red zone.

"I give a lot of credit to the entire offense; it's not just me," Lum said. "The OL didn't allow a sack today and the receivers keep making plays and get yards after the catch.

"We were upset about not scoring as much as we could have today. We could have put up more points. We're happy with the win, but we're a hungry team and we know we can be even better and we'll go right to work on Georgetown."

The key drive came over the final six minutes and one second of the first half.

It covered 13 plays and 70 yards and not one play was for more than eight yards.

It ended up with a 5-yard TD pass to tight end Alex Wojdowski, who caught the pass in the left flat and made a nifty move to elude the defender and scored on the final play of the first half to make it 14-3 at halftime.

Lehigh opened up a 21-3 lead on Lum's 30-yard pass early in the third quarter.

The Mountain Hawks offense stagnated a bit and Holy Cross (4-5, 1-2) closed to within 21-10 before Lehigh put the game away on Zach Barket's 17-yard TD with 10 minutes left in the game.

Tom Randazza kicked a pair of field goals to extend the lead to 34-10 before Holy Cross got a touchdown with six seconds left that changed the score, but not the outcome.

As for his career-high 64 yards rushing, Lum said "you've got to take what's there."

"I guess that's another weapon we can have in our offense," he said. "It's about reacting and instincts. It was nice to get the MVP award from this game. I don't think a Lehigh player has won it in awhile."

The way things are going, more accolades are going to come for both Lum and Lehigh in the weeks ahead.



Scoring re-cap: FIRST QUARTER L-Craig Zurn 21 pass from Chris Lum (Tom Randazza kick) 2:10 (Drive: 3 plays, 49 yds, 1:03) SECOND QUARTER HC-Rob Dornfried 29 FG 6:09 (Drive: 8 plays, 43 yds, 3:01) L-Alex Wojdowski 5 pass from Lum (Randazza kick) 0:00 (Drive: 13 plays, 70 yds, 6:01) THIRD QUARTER L-Jake Drwal 30 pass from Lum (Randazza kick) 11:35 (Drive: 3 plays, 56 yds, 1:01) HC-Gerald Mistretta 2 run (Dornfried kick) 0:12 (Drive: 10 plays, 67 yds, 3:14) FOURTH QUARTER L-Zach Barket 17 run (Randazza kick) 10:06 (Drive: 11 plays, 74 yds, 5:10) L-Randazza 22 FG 7:00 (Drive: 6 plays, 32 yds, 2:54) L-Randazza 33 FG 1:55 (Drive: 7 plays, 12 yds, 3:59) HC-Bill Edger 9 pass from Ryan Taggart (Dornfried kick) 0:06 (Drive: 12 plays, 73 yds. 1:43) L

TEAM STATISTICS

Holy Cross Lehigh

First Downs: 18 23

Rushes - yards: 23-60 43-209

Passing: 236 212

Comp - Att - Int: 23-43-0 21-35-1

Punts: 7-37 5-35

Fumbles - Lost: 2-2 2-1

Penalties: 4-30 7-70

Rushing:

Lehigh:Lum 8-64, Barket 10-53, Campbell 10-42, Colvin 13-39, Spadola 2-11.

Holy Cross:Auffant 10-46, Taggart 8-16, Fess 2-7, Mistretta 1-2, Tolzien 2-(-11).

Passing:

Lehigh:Lum 21-33-1-212, Colvin 0-2-0-0.

Holy Cross:Taggart 17-31-0-179, Tolzien 6-12-0-57.

Receiving:

Lehigh:Spadola 8-87, Drwal 4-54, Zurn 3-29, Barket 2-18, Wojdowski 2-11, Campbell 1-8, Fitz 1-5.

Holy Cross:Edger 6-73, Santana 5-45, Mistretta 3-34, Auffant 3-9, Chmielinski 2-21, Schneider 2-15, Mercurio 1-22, Fess 1-17.

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