Mountain Hawks soar over Monmouth Hawks, 49-24:

Lum leads Lehigh through the air with 346 yards and four TDs

West Long Branch, NJ - The Lehigh Mountain Hawks (1-0) overwhelmed the Monmouth University Hawks (0-1) after spotting them a 7-0 lead after the home team's first possession tallying 529 yards in total offense led by Senior QB Chris Lum's 346 passing yards and four TD passes.  It was a bright, hot sunny day down at the Jersey shore one week after Hurricane Irene had shut the area down leaving downed trees, flooding in some areas and power outages.  Work crews seen on the way were still moving some of the debris left by Irene's wrath.  A few of us down from the Sussex County (NJ) area came down to watch still without power at our homes, but happy to say we returned home to finally find the lights on and all systems go after the electrifying performance of the Mountain Hawk offense!

    Monmouth converted three times on third down on their first drive to set  up a two-yard TD rum by RB Pete Nagy. Eric Spillane booted the PAT to take a quick 7-0 lead.  Most of the Hawks' yardage throughout the game came on through the air on the arm of QB Kyle Frazier who winged 39 passes for 22 completions,  225 yards, one TD, and one INT.  The visiting Mountain Hawks held the Monmouth offense to 28 rushing yards.  MLB Mike Groome led the Lehigh D with ten stops.  Lehigh's offense mixed the pass and run well to retaliate on their first possession with RB Zach Barket scoring on a five-yard run. PK Jake Peery evened the score, 7-7.  I'm not sure what the Monmouth coaching staff was smiling about after the score as all 3,265 fans basically sit on the same side behind the Monmouth bench at Henni and John Kessler Stadium on the MU campus, but they would not be seen smiling as the Mountain Hawks continued to move the ball effectively on the defense led by three-time All NEC DB Jose Gumbs. 

    In the  second period, Lum connected with WR Ryan Spadola who caught the ball down the right sidelined and races 63 yards for a 14-7 Lehigh lead.  After  a Monmouth punt, Lehigh started its drive from their own 15.  At the MU 32, four Monmouth linemen came through only to have bee set up beautifully for a screen pass to Barket who got a few downfield blocks to score to extend the LU lead, 21-7.  A late drive before the half set up MU's Spillane for a 49-yard FG, but the kick hooked left and Lehigh went into intermission with the 21-7 lead.

   I got to tailgate with Mike Groome's family and friends before the game. His parents Jim and Jean, the Moschella family, Ed and Patty Sullivan,  Lenape Valley's legendary sign man Walt Woorman along with others will closely be following Mike's senior season as will collegefootballfan.com with a Lehigh mini-package and plans for three or four more games. Jim and Jean wish the Mountain Hawks had this year's schedule last season as they were balancing Mike's schedule with their other son Jamie who was playing his senior year at Lenape Valley HS. many of Jamie's games were on Friday nights and the family would leave the following morning for long drives to New Hampshire, Georgetown in D.C., and to Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.  The season started with a flight to see LU play Drake out in Iowa. With away games at Monmouth and at Princeton this year along with the aforementioned road trips at home this year, the farthest trek will be for a big game at Colgate about four hours away in upstate New York.  Jamie's no longer in high school and moved on to Bloomsburg U where he's not playing football this year. The Groome's hope to be doing some more traveling in the post season this year to see Lehigh go further than the second round as the Mountain Hawks did last year beating Northern Iowa in Des Moines before falling to nearby Delaware.

     With pressure, Lum threw a pass intercepted by Elijah Phillips who put the hometown Hawks in business at the LU 35.  Spillane connected on a 29-yard FG this time to cut Lehigh's lead to 21-10.  Lehigh's next drive went 71 yards with Lum connecting with Spadola once again on the right side of the end zone to go up 28-10.  The next LU possession garnered 25 yards with Barket finishing up the drive with a 29-yard TD run for the 35-10 lead.  Barket will be a welcome addition to this year's offense to give LU and effective running game.  He finished the day with 80 yards on 13 carries and three TDs.  DB Billy O'Brien picked off a Frazier pass to take over on the Lehigh nine to start no the long drive before the third period ended.

    Eight seconds into the final period, Jake Drawl made his second one-handed diving catch of the game.  This one was good for a 31-yard TD catch and a dominating 42-10 Mountain Hawk lead.  Lehigh HC Andy Coen started to give his younger players some experience on defense.  The legendary Walt Woorman held up his "Groominator" banner, and Mike acknowledged him by raising his helmet from across the field.  Bilail Sloan El scored on a two-yard run for Monmouth and Julian Hayes on a five yard to close the gap with 3:20 left in the game 42-24. Lehigh's second team offense didn't let down and RB Marcus Dormevil blazed around left end for a 47-yard jaunt down the left sideline to close out the scoring for the game at 49-24.  Dormevil had 65 yards on five carries and 147 returns yards on kickoffs.

Lehigh enjoyed the weekend trip the Jersey shore.

    Next week, the #13 Mountain Hawks will host #10 New Hampshire from the rugged Colonial Athletic Conference.  Last season, all three Lehigh losses came at the hands of CAA team including UNH.  It will be an early season test for the Mountain Hawks.  Last season they lost to these Wildcats 31-10.