Lafayette beats Columbia
Lehigh can’t catch Cornell
After two weeks on the road, Lafayette finally had its first home game of 2023 Saturday and the Leopards treated their fans at Fisher Stadium to a dominant performance.
Columbia scored the game’s first three points, but Lafayette scored the final 24 in a 24-3 win that put the Leopards at 2-1, the program’s best threegame start to a fall season since they went 3-0 in 2012. Lafayette went also 2-1 in the abbreviated spring schedule in 2021.
Meanwhile, a few miles away at Goodman Stadium, Lehigh dug itself a 17-0 firsthalf hole and had a rally fall short in a 23-20 loss to Cornell.
Leopards find the right spots: Sophomore Jamar Curtis ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns and sophomore quarterback Dean DeNobile added a rushing score while throwing for 149 yards as Lafayette opened a three-game home stand with a well-rounded effort.
Lafayette’s defense gave up just 11 first downs and 157 yards in total offense. The Leopards totaled 392 yards and had a 10-minute, 34-second advantage in time of possession.
Hugo Merry’s 42-yard field goal started the scoring with six minutes left in the first quarter.
The Leopards answered with a 17-play, 85-yard drive that lasted 8:06 and ended with Curtis’ 6-yard touchdown run.
Lafayette extended the lead to 14-3 by halftime with a 6-play, 55-yard drive capped by DeNobile’s keeper for a touchdown.
Curtis capped an 80-yard drive with a 29-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and freshman Jack Simonetta closed the scoring with a 34-yard field goal with 14:14 left.
Lafayette will welcome Monmouth to Fisher Stadium 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and then begins Patriot League play at home against Bucknell on Sept. 30 in another 3:30 start.
Slow start derails Lehigh: Cornell, playing its first game of the season, showcased mid-season form early against Lehigh. The Big Red scored on two first-quarter touchdown passes by Jameson Wang, part of his 293-yard day in the air.
Jackson Kennedy’s 32-yard field goal made it 17-0 in favor of the Ivy League program with 1:25 left, but the Mountain Hawks came back with a touchdown before halftime off a 7-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard run by freshman Luke Yoder.
Neither team scored in the third period. Cornell extended the lead to 20-7 on Kennedy’s 27-yard field goal with 12:02 left but Lehigh answered with a TD run by quarterback Brayten Silbor. After another Kennedy field goal made it 23-14 with 3:07 to play, Lehigh got one last score on a Silbor TD pass to Geoffrey Jamiel with 1:13 remaining.
However, Cornell recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
“We can’t give them a 14-point lead in the first quarter and not come out to play at the start,” said Kevin Cahill, Lehigh’s first-year coach in a postgame radio interview with Fox Sports of the Lehigh Valley. “We’re not good enough to overcome those kind of things. The effort and the energy wasn’t there in the first quarter and that’s a lot of different things, but ultimately that’s on the coaching staff. That’s on me. We have to fix that.”
Cahill said he was happy with the effort to finish the game, but Lehigh was outgained 401-239 and the Mountain Hawks’ rushing game was limited to a net-27 yards. Silbor was 21 of 42 passing for 192 yards, but was sacked three times and threw two interceptions. He spread the ball around to eight different receivers with Mason Humphrey leading the way with six catches for 66 yards.
Yoder, a first-year player from Palm Harbor, Florida, led Lehigh with 37 yards rushing on seven carries.
Brycen Edwards and Mike DeNucci led the Lehigh defense with eight tackles apiece. Liberty High grad Trevor Harris had four stops and Northampton product Andrew Sharga was involved on two tackles.
“We’ve got to be more aggressive on offense,” Cahill said. “We tried to run the ball early and we struggled up front. We’re trying to find our identity on offense and it’s coming. It’s clicking. There were some good things and some bad things. We’ve just got to do a better job.”
Lehigh (1-2) will spend the next three Saturdays on the road starting with a trip to Dartmouth. The Mountain Hawks won’t return to Goodman Stadium until Oct. 14 when they play Georgetown.
In other Patriot League games Saturday, Holy Cross beat Yale 49-24, Penn topped Colgate 20-6, and Stonehill edged Georgetown 23-20.