Mountain Hawks crush Holy Cross Crusaders 38-3

Flanked by three of his star players, Lehigh football coach Kevin Cahill shuffled into the postgame presser with a stern look on his face. 

He fiddled with a pen, clicking the point as his eyes darted across the stat sheet, meticulously scouring each figure.

Despite the majority of the numbers favoring Lehigh, Cahill still wasn’t satisfied. He believed his team was out of character for half of the game.

“Holy Cross is a very physical, tough football team and they showed us,” Cahill said. “They gave us a lot of headaches early on.”

It certainly wasn’t the first time Lehigh struggled in its heavyweight bout with the Crusaders.

Just over a year ago, Cahill’s upstart team traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts, to take on a heavily favored Crusaders team. Both programs entered the midseason contest from different trajectories.

The Crusaders had won six consecutive Patriot League titles and were a preseason favorite to make that number seven. Lehigh had come off seven consecutive losing seasons and emerged as a surprise contender for the Patriot League crown after being picked to finish second-to-last.

Despite only logging 55 yards through the air, the Mountain Hawks emerged victorious in that game, eking out an upset 10-7 victory — the decisive victory in Lehigh’s FCS playoff push, as the head-to-head tiebreaker gifted Lehigh the conference’s automatic bid.

Reflecting on that win, Cahill said his team’s performance then wasn’t good enough, and that they needed to keep getting better.

On Saturday afternoon, the team showed that they did.

Behind a dominant effort on all three phases of the ball, the Mountain Hawks routed the College of the Holy Cross 38-3, improving to 10-0 for the first time since 2001, when it finished 11-1.

Building off their momentum from their 41-0 shutout against the Georgetown Hoyas, the Mountain Hawks got off to a quick start.

On its opening possession, Lehigh orchestrated a six-play scoring drive to secure an early 7-0 lead. Sophomore quarterback Hayden Johnson delivered a deep strike to junior wide receiver Mason Humphrey, who dusted two Crusader defensive backs before striding untouched into the end zone.

Despite scoring in only two and a half minutes, the Mountain Hawk offense was plagued by self-inflicted wounds for the remainder of the half. 

On the ensuing drive, a Johnson scramble brought Lehigh inside the red zone. Looking to go up two scores, Johnson fired a pass over the middle in Humphrey’s direction. Holy Cross’ defensive back Amari Gardner undercut the route and intercepted the pass, mitigating any scoring opportunity.

The offense then followed up the red zone drive with three consecutive three-and-outs, gaining a net -10 yards across those possessions. Johnson was sacked twice off the edge by blitzes from juniors Eli Thompson and Carlo Crocetti in those drives.

Additionally, sophomore running back Jaden Green had a touchdown called back after an official review deemed his calf hit the ground.

Then, at the end of the second quarter, a two-minute drill had Lehigh at the Holy Cross 5-yard line. Johnson threw a goal-line fade for Humphrey, but had his pass intercepted in the end zone by Thompson, coming away empty-handed.

Aside from a 42-yard touchdown run from junior running back Luke Yoder, the offense failed to turn its 253 first-half yards into points.

“I just felt like we were out of character more offensively,” Cahill said.  “(I) thought we were out of character and playing the way Holy Cross wanted us to play instead of playing the way we wanted to play.”

However, aside from the offense’s shortcomings, Lehigh’s defense effectively defended the nest.

The Mountain Hawk defense pitched a shutout in the first quarter, forcing four three-and-outs on the first five Crusaders possessions of the game.

When Holy Cross finally crossed into the red zone midway through the second quarter, the defense drew a holding penalty and kept the Crusaders out of the end zone, forcing a field goal from senior kicker Luis Palenzuela.

Palenzuela’s field goal were the only points Holy Cross scored for the remainder of the game.

Despite outgaining the Crusaders by 141 yards, Lehigh clung to a 14-3 lead by halftime.

In the second half, the team played more up to speed.

The Mountain Hawks opened the frame with four consecutive scoring drives, dropping 24 points in the second half alone.

After a field goal from sophomore punter Connor Poole, in kicking duties due to an injury to senior kicker Nick Garrido, Lehigh’s offense went into top gear.

In one play, Johnson found senior wide receiver Geoffrey Jamiel down the right sideline for a deep completion. Jamiel stopped on a dime, reversed field and beat multiple defenders to the end zone for a 45-yard touchdown.

On the ensuing drive, the Mountain Hawk rushing attack gained 70 yards, punctuated by a Yoder score from a yard out. Yoder finished the game with a team-leading 142 yards and two touchdowns — his seventh consecutive game with a score.

Sophomore center Colby Reph said the offensive line’s brotherhood and pride have helped the unit become physical, helping lead to ground game success.

“We always say if we just wear (the defense) down, short runs are gonna start to pop,” Reph said. “You just stick with the plan, and (it) led to success.”

In the final quarter, Johnson later connected on his third touchdown pass of the day, after Jamiel split two defenders on a screen pass to ice the game. Johnson finished the game throwing for 174 yards and three touchdowns.

It was his first game with three passing touchdowns since Sept. 13, when Lehigh beat Duquesne University 35-21.

Jamiel would finish with a team-leading 66 receiving yards.

Lehigh’s rushing attack then bled the clock out with a 15-play, 10-minute drive that erased any hope for a comeback.

Despite turning the ball over on downs, the third-quarter hole was too great for the Crusaders to overcome.

Defensively, Lehigh’s dominance continued. The defense allowed zero points and only 103 yards in the second half.

Holy Cross failed to sustain long drives, going 3-17 on third down conversions, and punting 10 times in the game.

It was the first time Holy Cross failed to score a touchdown since April 24, 2021, when the South Dakota State Jackrabbits routed the Crusaders 31-3 in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.

Senior Jackson Dowd credited the pass rush and his teammates for speeding up the quarterback to help generate stops.

“It’s great playing next to those guys, and we just try and take it one play at a time,” Dowd said. “We got to clean some stuff up, but we’ll take it.”

For the team’s next game against the Colgate University Raiders, Cahill will get an opportunity to return home to the place he grew up.

But, a return to upstate New York will strictly be a business trip, not a homecoming.

Cahill said his team remains focused on taking the remaining schedule one game at a time.

“We’ve got to play our best football in November,” Cahill said. “We got to continue to improve — got some things to clean up, but we’ll take the win.”