South Mountaineer Volume 38, Issue 08

              DID YOU KNOW?
Junior tailback Rabih Abdullah's
266 yards rushing Saturday was
more than anyone has ever run
for against the Cornell Big Red.
This Week's Schedules/UMass Football Preview
Page 13
Student-Athlete's Perspective/Olympic Sports Wrapup Page 14
Olympic Sports Student-Athlete Features
Page 15
South Mountaineer
Volume 9, Issue 08
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
October 24,1995
Abdullah runs wild
Junior tailback leads LU to third win in a row
by Glenn Hofmann
Director of Sports Communications
Not even a torrential rain could
stop Rabih Abdullah on Saturday
afternoon at Goodman Stadium.
Lehigh's "Special Season" continued
against Cornell as the Brown and
White rallied from a 14-0 first
quarter deficit to win 34-23. The
victory, Lehigh's third straight,
improved its overall record to 5-2
and allowed Lehigh to finish an
undefeated 3-0 versus Ivy League
competition.
How good was Abdullah's
performance? Good enough that
ESPN included highlights of his
runs on its Sportscenter broadcasts
Saturday night and Sunday morning. Good enough that it set a
Lehigh, Goodman Stadium and    «
Patriot League record for rushing
touchdowns (five). Good enough
that it set a Patriot League and
Goodman Stadium record and was
the second best single game rushing
total in Lehigh history (266 yards).
And it was all done in the rain
on a waterlogged field.
"I just had to change my running style a little bit," che modest
Abdullah said after the game. "I had
to run more flat-footed. The line did
a real great job of blocking today.
Rich Slomko and Doug Yates in
particular really opened up the
holes and I just accelerated through
them."
Did he ever. Abdullah scored on
runs of 20, 52, 55, 15 and 75 yards.
"Obviously we got done in by a
really big-play player," Cornell head
coach Jim Hofher said. "The Lehigh
Brian Schaeffer
Junior tight end David Meurer tries to break away.
tailback had a really
good game. He's got
lots of special talent.
To be able to run
long plays like that
is a special talent."
Abdullah's
performance didn't
kick in right away
though. In fact, it
was Cornell which
started quickly. On
the first play from
scrimmage Cornell
shocked Lehigh
with a 71-yard
touchdown pass.
Later in the quarter
Cornell completed a
23-yard pass to set
up its second score.
Lehigh was down
14-0 with 5:45 left in
the first quarter.
But as we have now
come to expect,
Lehigh didn't panic.
"The nice thing
is our kids have so
much confidence in
each other," head
coach Kevin Higgins
commented. "Our
kids feel we can move the football
and score some points. Our offense
feels that way and I think our
defense feels that way about our
offense."
Within a 1:42 stretch to end the
quarter Abdullah would get Lehigh
right back into the game courtesy of
runs of 20 and 52 yards. The Lehigh
defense then began to stiffen. Early
in the second quarter Abdullah
scored on a 55-yard
run and Lehigh led
21-14; Cornell came
back and pulled to
within 21-20, but
the extra point was
no good.
The third
quarter saw both
defenses take over.
Cornell did manage
a 24 yard field goal
by John Rodin to
take a 23-21 lead
heading into the
fourth quarter, but
Lehigh would not
be denied.
Brian Schaeffer
Abdullah runs for daylight on his first TD scamper.
Midway through the final stanza
Abdullah struck again, this time
from 15 yards. The two point conversion was unsuccessful, but Lehigh
had the 27-23 lead. Again the Brown
and White were involved in a game
that would go right down to the
wire. Cornell would start its final
drive from its own 30 yard line with
5:37 left and would drive down to
the Lehigh 16-yard line. But once
there the Lehigh defense held firm,
forcing three consecutive
incompletions after a two yard rush.
Abdullah then put the exclamation point on the win and his tremendous day with a 75-yard TD
scamper.
Notes: Abdullah has rushed for
over 100 yards in all five of Lehigh's
wins and the Brown and White are
5-0 when he runs for over 100 yards.
... In his career Abdullah has rushed
for over 200 yards in a game three
times. ... Abdullah was named
league and ECAC Offensive Player
of the Week. ... Lehigh was ranked
10th in last week's Lambert Cup
Division I-AA poll. It's the first time
Lehigh has been ranked this season.
FOOTBALL STATS
Score By Quarters
1       2       3 4 F
Cornell-14     6       3 0 23
Lehigh14      7       0 13 34
Scoring;
C Ron Mateo 71 pass from
Steve Joyce (John Rodin kick)
C Terry Smith 7 run (Rodin kick)
L Rabih Abdullah 20 run
(Mike Swartz kick)
L Abdullah 52 run (Swartz kick)
L Abdullah 55 run (Swartz kick)
C Smith 3 run (kick failed)
C Rodin 24 field goal
L Abdullah 15 run (pass failed)
L Abdullah 75 run (Swartz kick)
LEHIGH CU
18 First Downs 20
269 Net Rushing 203
217 Net Passing 261
486 Total Yards 464
6-55 Penalties 4-26
1-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-1
1 Interceptions 2
29:39 Possession 30:21
1-6 Sacks By 1-6
Rushing
L: Abdullah 22-266, Tobias 1-5,
Aylsworth 3-1
C: Levitt 24-120, Smith 16-100
Passing
L: Aylsworth 27-41-217, 0 TD, 2
Int
C: Joyce 15-31-261, 1 TD, 1 Int
Receiving
L: Braswell 8-76, Klingerman 7-
69, Meurer 4-26, Streeter 3-21,
Kelly 2-14, Baker 1-6, Wilson 1-6
C: Mateo 6-137, Krawczyk 4-56,
Seifert 3-18, Busch 1-43, Bickett
1-7
Tackles
L: Mark Miller 15, Eckenrode 9,
McDonald 9, Johnson 6
C: Hanson 9, Vitullo 7, Ahouse 6,
Rickel 6
Punting
L: Talbott 5-38.2
C: Yerg 6-28.7, Rodin 1
-28
Schedule/Results
Sept. 9
at Army
L9-42
Sept. 16
at Colgate
W20-9
Sept. 23
YALE
W21-10
Sept. 30
UNH
L 14-35
Oct. 7
at Bucknell
W 30-23
Oct. 14
at Columbia
W 37-35
Oct. 21
CORNELL
W 34-23
Oct. 28
at UMass
1:00
Nov. 4
at Fordham
12:30
Nov. 11
HOLY CROSS      1:00
Nov. 18
LAFAYETTE
1:00