South Mountaineer Volume 40, Issue 05

              Lehigh Athletics
Website: http://www.lehigh.edu
Hotline: (610) 758-LULU
Lehigh-Harvard WFMZ-TV, Chan. 69
SOCCER: Men defeat regionally ranked team
VOLLEYBALL: Lehigh wins tournament
STATISTICS: The complete weeks scores and statistics
South Mountaineer
Volume 11, Issue 5
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
September 23,1997
Football
Lehigh chalks up first victory of season
Engineers look for more consistent play after defeating Towson  16-14
by Glenn Hofmann
Sports Communications Director
Let's hear it for a pair of junior
"veterans" who helped to save the
day at Towson on Saturday.
Lehigh's 16-14come-from-behind
win over first-year Patriot League
member Towson evened the
Engineer's record at 1-1 in the
league and kept them right in the
thick of the league race. More
importantly it gave this group the
taste of a win for the first time this
season, something that will hopefully catapult them into success as
the season progresses.
Win number one wouldn't have
happened if it weren't for the play of
classmates Deron Braswell and
Brian Baker. It was Braswell who
caught a 14-yard touchdown pass
from Phil Stambaugh with 3:20 left
in the game. The catch was miraculous in that it passed through the
hands of two Towson defenders.
Only a phenomenal effort by
Braswell to reach over the back of
one of the defenders enabled him to
safely pull in the ball in the back of
theendzone.
"I didn't even see anybody there,"
Braswell said after the game. "I just
saw the ball there. I'm happy it
ended up in my hands."
The ensuing extra point was
unsuccessful.
Towson received the ensuing
kickoff but on the first play from
Braswell scored the game winner against Towson
scrimmage fumbled a pass reception at
midfield. Sophomore Ian Eason recovered the ball. Now all Lehigh had to do
was run out the clock. Enter Baker.
Baker started his career as a wide
receiver. He moved to running back last
year when Rabih Abdullah was hurt
and proceeded to gain over 1,000 yards.
This year with Abdullah back Baker
moved to receiver again. But at Towson
with Abdullah out with a sprained knee
and Ron Jean hurt midway through the
first half with a hip pointer, head coach
Kevin Higgins had no choice but to turn
to Baker.
And it turned out to be a very good
choice. Baker ran out the clock for
Lehigh and ended up as the team's
leading rusher with 44 yards on six
carries.
"It's the same offense as last year, I
had to reremember the plays," Baker
said. "They had me learning the
plays in case there was a time
today that they'd need me."
And Lehigh needed all of
Baker and anyone else on offense
who could make plays.
"Right now we don't have
enough guys who want the ball in
their hands in critical situations," a
relieved but very concerned
Higgins said after the game.
"Deron made a great adjustment
on that touchdown ball. The
quarterbacks for us made some
bad decisions today."
In truth Lehigh shouldn't have
won this game. Towson led
Lehigh in almost every statistical
category including a whopping
15-minute time of possession
advantage and the Tigers played
with more intensity. Lehigh's
offense was again very inconsistent and off schedule.
Senior Seka Edwards, who
started, was ineffective throwing
three interceptions. Stambaugh
wasn't much more effective
throwing one interception himself.
Each quarterback connected for
one touchdown pass. As for who
will be the starter versus Harvard
it's anyone's guess at this point.
Back to the positives. The
Lehigh defense looked much
improved from the previous week.
Eason led the "D" with 14 tackles
1997 Football Schedule
Patriot League Summary
Sept. 13
at Fordham ■gi'ssj'
L, 35-42
Last Week:
Bucknell                   23
Sept. 20
at Towson State
W, 16-14
Lafayette                  21
Sept. 27
HARVARD ■gwar
(satellite TBA)
1:00
Fordham                   27
Oct. 4
at Colgate
1:00
Colgate                    14
Oct. 11
PENNSYLVANIA ■*■"-«
(satellite TBA)
1:00
Holy Cross                25
Oct. 18
at Hofstra ■grss.r
(satellite TBA)
1:00
Georgetown             21
Oct. 25
at Dartmouth
1:00
This week
Nov.l
Nov. 8
at Bucknell ■^■"22:7
HOLY CROSS
(satellite TBA)
12:30
12:30
Harvard @ LEHIGH
Pennsylvania @ Bucknell
Colgate @ Cornell
Nov. 15
Nov. 22
DELAWARE
LAFAYETTE «grar
(satellite TBA)
12:30
12:30
Fordham @ Princeton
Dartmouth @ Holy Cross
Lafayette @ Brown
Towson @ Columbia
one interception and one fumble
recovery. Juniors Saundrell
Davison and Dave Merrifield
and senior Nate Kmieciak each
had 11 tackles while junior Nick
Martucci had two sacks and five
tackles.
So Lehigh is in the race to
stay. There is improvement on
defense. The offense has a long
way to go. But considering that
Lehigh has probably played its
worst two games of the season,
there's reason to be optimistic
that things will straighten
themselves out.
Notes: Martucci now has five
sacks on the season...Lehigh-
Harvard game will be telecast
on WFMZ-TV in the Lehigh
Valley and nationally on satellite. Call (610) 758-3174 for
coordinates...Rabih Abdullah is
expected to play against
Harvard...A crowd of 13,000 is
expected for Saturday's Harvard
game...Eason,who earned
league defensive player-of-the-
week honors has led the team
in tackles in each of the first two
games (23 total)...Lehigh has
registered 11 sacks this season
and given up 1.
Lehigh/Towson
Game Stats
Score By Quarters
1    2     3     4 F
LU        0   2     7    6 16
TU        7   0     7     0 14
LU TU
14       First Downs    30
107     Net Rushing    144
205     Net Passing     129
312      Total Yards     273
9-60    Penalties 4-30
3-2      Fumbles/Lost 5-4
1 Interception     4
22:56   Possession       37:04
4 Sacks by 0
Lehigh Leaders
Rushing: Baker 6-44
Passing: Edwards 169
Receiving: Braswell 5-63