Lehigh football’s fifth-year linebacker Mike DeNucci was asked earlier in the week for some of the reasons the Mountain Hawks won three of their first four games after going 2-9 each of the past two seasons.
DeNucci talked about a few mental things such as confidence, but if there was one stat he pointed to it was turnover-ration. A plus-4 in turnover ratio provided positive results on the scoreboard.
But Lehigh lost the turnover battle to visiting Bucknell in its Patriot League opener Saturday at Goodman Stadium and not surprisingly it also lost a 38-35 double-overtime heartbreaker.
The Mountain Hawks couldn’t hold on to leads of 14-0, 21-14, 35-28 and ultimately couldn’t hold on to the ball on their second possession in overtime. The fumble recovery by Gavin Willis, his second of the game, ended the contest and Lehigh’s 3-game win streak.
It was a sudden and stinging defeat for the Mountain Hawks who created plenty of good vibes with their three wins. The players wanted to leave good lasting impression since they have a rare double-bye and are off the next two weeks. The team won’t return to Goodman Stadium until Oct. 26 against Fordham.
Lehigh got 137 yards on the ground and three rushing touchdowns by Luke Yoder and two TD receptions from Geoffrey Jamiel. The Mountain Hawks outgained the Bison (3-2) 500-270.
Jamiel hauled in nine passes for a career-high 136 yards and Mason Humphrey added nine catches for 109 yards, but in the end it was a 100-yard kickoff return for a Bucknell TD by TJ Cadden and a 79-yard interception return for a score by Aaron Davis that sent the game to overtime. Then after each team scored a touchdown in the first overtime, Lehigh held Bucknell to a field goal on its second possession.
The Mountain Hawks had a chance to win it with a touchdown, but it instead it ended with Yoder’s fumble that was caused by Brad Jamison and recovered by Willis that gave Bucknell and former Lehigh player and assistant coach Dave Cecchini his fourth win in six meetings with his alma mater and his third straight victory at Goodman Stadium.
“Bucknell’s a very good team and they found a way to win the game in double-overtime and they’re 1-0 in the league and we are not,” Lehigh coach Kevin Cahill said. “As I told the team we’ve got to do a good job of learning from this and move forward. So we’ve got to continue to work and we’ve got to get better.”
Lehigh displayed plenty of positives and kept battling back from adversity, but simply couldn’t put Bucknell away.
Freshman quarterback Hayden Johnson played more than starter Dante Perri and completed 17 of 23 passes for 200 yards. He bounced back after Davis jumped a sideline route and was never touched on his long interception return that gave Bucknell its first lead of the day at 28-21 with 6:13 left in regulation.
“You saw a first-year quarterback [Johnson] throw a pick-six and he was like ‘Ok, good I get to come back and drive the team down the field’ and he did that and we saw a lot in him,” Cahill said. “We also found a way to run the football after we were struggling in the first half. Defensively, we did a great job. We just gave up one big play in the first half and a big play here and there, but we made them drive the field and give Bucknell credit because they drove the field and scored.”
The team’s next game is Oct. 19 at Yale, where Cahill previously coached.
“It’s not a surprise that we have the next two weeks off since Army moved our game with them up to the first week of the season; we knew this is the way the schedule was going to be and we have planned for it,” Cahill said. “So we have a plan moving ahead. We’ve got to get healthy and back to full speed.”
Cahill said his team needs to be in game shape when the games return because Lehigh has a strong Ivy League opponent and five tough league foes in the second half of the regular season.
DeNucci, who had a team-high 12 tackles, said the message to his teammates over the next two weeks is to “take a step away from football and focus on school a little more. Get your mind of it. Watch some NFL games, watch some other college games. Just don’t try to think about this game too much. This game doesn’t define our season. We’ve got six games left. There’s a lot of football left.”
Lehigh leftovers
Cadden’s kickoff return touchdown was the longest in Goodman Stadium history … Jamiel and Humphrey were the first Lehigh duo to record 100 receiving yards in the same game since Eric Johnson (194) and Jalen Burbage (107) did so against Colgate in 2022 … The overtime game was Lehigh’s first since a 30-27 win at Fordham in 2019 and first at Goodman Stadium since a 51-44, double-overtime win over Central Connecticut State in the 2013 season opener… The Mountain Hawks are now 8-6 all-time in overtime games.
Around the Patriot League
Penn beat Colgate 27-17; Syracuse routed Holy Cross 42-14; Georgetown edged Columbia 20-17 and Monmouth poured it on Fordham 63-21 as Emmaus High graduate Sone Ntoh ran for 136 yards on 15 carries and scored 5 touchdowns for Monmouth. Lafayette had this weekend is back in action Saturday at Fordham,
Scoring summary
Bucknell – 0 – 14 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 3 — 38
Lehigh – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 0 — 35
FIRST QUARTER
L: Geoffrey Jamiel 23 pass from Dante Perri (Nick Garrido kick), 2:52
SECOND QUARTER
L: Jamiel 34 pass from Hayden Johnson (Garrido kick), 4:05
B: TJ Cadden 100 kickoff return (Matt Schearer kick), 3:51
B: Eric Weatherly 31 pass from Ralph Rucker (Schearer kick), 2:53
THIRD QUARTER
L: Luke Yoder 19 run (Garrido kick), 7:12
B: Ralph Rucker 7 run (Schearer kick), 2:11
FOURTH QUARTER
B: Aaron Davis 7 interception return (Schearer kick), 6:13
L: Yoder 1 run, (Garrido kick), 1:33
FIRST OVERTIME
L: Yoder 11 run (Garrido kick)
B: Weatherly 12 pass from Rucker (Schearer kick)
SECOND OVERTIME
B: Schearer 42 field goal
Individual stats
RUSHING
Bucknell (38 for 120): Tariq Thomas 18-77; Paul Neel 7-38; Nate Anderson 1-10; Michael Cadden 1-5; Ralph Rucker 9-(-10).
Lehigh (44 for 234): Luke Yoder 22-140; Matt Machalik 3-23; Geoffrey Jamiel 2-22; Jaden Green 6-11; Dante Perri 4-7; Hayden Johnson 7-2.
PASSING
Bucknell: Ralph Rucker 15-22-0, 150 yards, 2 TDs.
Lehigh: Hayden Johnson 17-23-1, TD, 200 yards, TD; Dante Perri 4-10-0, 98 yards, TD.
RECEIVING
Bucknell: Eric Weatherly 5-55, 2 TDs; Nate Anderson 5-49; TJ Cadden 1-21; Tariq Thomas 1-10; Marques Owens 1-8; Josh Gray 1-5; Sam Milligan 1-2.
Lehigh: Geoffrey Jamiel 9-136, 2 TDs; Mason Humphrey 9-109; Dylan McFadden 2-30; Nick Williams 1-0.
