South Mountaineer Volume 40, Issue 08

              Lehigh Athletics
Website: http://wwwjehigh.edu
Hotline: (610) 758-LULU
SOCCER: Men shut out Patriot League rival
10
FOOTBALL: Lehigh pays tribute to 1977 team 11
STATISTICS: The complete weeks scores 9
South Mountaineer
Volume 11, Issue 8
Lehigh University Athletics Weekly
October 14,1997
Football
Lehigh puts Quakers in the Penn
Revitalized defense puts up strong performance for win
by Glenn Hofmann
Director of Sports Communications
Senior Rabih Abdullah ran like an
All-American running back.
Sophomore Phil Stambaugh made all
the right decisions at quarterback.
Senior Caleb Moyer anchored an
offensive line that dominated the line
of scrimmage as the game
progressed. Junior Nick Martucci led
a defense that gave Pennsylvania
very little room to operate.
The result was a 24-7 Lehigh win
that had the more than 10,000 fans at
sun-drenched Goodman Stadium
leaving in a very good frame of mind.
This was how everyone envisioned
this season back in September. It
took the fifth game to have it happen,
but give the entire Lehigh football
program a lot of credit for turning in
the performance they did against
Pennsylvania.
It would have been very easy to
throw in the towel for this season
after the previous week's loss against
Colgate. In some sense there wasn't
and isn't anything left to play for. A
league championship and NCAA
postseason berth are very long shots
at best.
But this team and its coaches took
the high road, worked hard in
practice and decided that there is still
something very important to play for
and that is pride. Lehigh showed
plenty of it on Saturday.
"I thought our whole week of
practice was more relaxed,"
Stambaugh said. "Last week we were
working hard to win a championship.
This week we had nothing to lose. We
could just go out and play to win."
And that's what Lehigh did,
Stambaugh passed for three touchdowns
although things didn't start out the way
they had in mind. Penn took the opening
kickoff and marched 72 yards in 6 plays to
take a 7-0 lead. That would be the only
score the Quakers would get the entire
afternoon.
The Lehigh defense stiffened. Eleven
times Penn players were tackled for
losses in the game and the defensive line
of Martucci and junior Dave Merrifield in
particular was constantly in the face of
Penn quarterback Matt Rader.
The Quakers were limited to only 68
yards rushing and never really
threatened to score after the game's
initial drive.
On offense Lehigh was a well-balanced
machine rushing the ball 40 times and
passing 33 times. Stambaugh continued to
show improvement as he threw
completions to eight different receivers
with touchdowns to junior Joe Falzone (8-
yards), junior Brian Baker (25-yards) and
Abdullah (14-yards).
"I think Phil has a much clearer idea of
this offense and when there is pressure,
Picture taken by Joe Ryan
where the hot read is," said
Lehigh head coach Kevin Higgins.
And then there was the play of
Rabih Abdullah. He started the
season off in tremendous fashion
against Fordham before being hurt
late in the game. Since then it has
been a struggle, but on Saturday
the dashing Abdullah seemed back
at near 100 percent. He carried for
153 yards, but it was the way he
took on defenders, slashed by
those attempting to make tackles
that put a smile on the face of
every Lehigh fan.
"My aggressiveness was better
today," Abdullah said. "I was
watching Denver running back
Terrell Davis and he was getting
me extremely hyped. I haven't
been satisfied with a lot of things.
That hasn't been us the last two
weeks. We have to be real positive
and carry it through the rest of
the season.
1997 Football Schedule
Sept. 13
at Fordham
L, 35-42
Sept. 20
at Towson State
W, 16-14
Sept. 27
HARVARD
L, 28-35
Oct. 4
at Colgate
L, 28-61
Oct. 11
PENNSYLVANIA
W, 24-7
Oct. 18
at Hofstra       wfynsss
(Sportschannel NY)    1:00
Oct. 25
at Dartmouth
1:00
Nov. 1
at Bucknell  ■?■«««»
(satellite TBA)
12:30
Nov. 8
HOLY CROSS
12:30
Nov. 15
DELAWARE
12:30
Nov. 22
LAFAYETTE ■graa*
(satellite TBA)
12:30
Lehigh/Penn
Game Stats
Score By Quarters
12 3 4 F
PENN 7 0 0 0 7
LU 0   3     7     14    24
LEHIGH PENN
18 First Downs 19
135 NetRushing 68
245 Net Passing 224
380 Total Yards 292
7-75 Penalties 7-48
3/2 Fumbles/Lost 1/1
3 Interception 0
29:03 Possession 30:57
6 Sacks by 3
Game Leaders
Rushing:
L: Adullah 26-153, Baker 5-16
P: McGee 24-81, Alexander 4-22
Passing:
L: Stambaugh 24-33-245,3TD
P: Rader 18-33-184,1 TD
Receiving:
L: Falzone 6-63, Fedorcha 4-45,
Baker 3-40, Braswell 3-23
P: O'Neill 6-71, James 5-53
Tackles:
L: Eason 10, Poppleton 8
P: Bishop 20, Gage 13
Patriot League Summary
Last Week:
Lehigh 24 Penn 7
Colgate 44 Lafayette 6
Bucknell 25 Yale 24
Holy Cross 45 Columbia 16
Dartmouth 31 Fordham 10
Towson - Idle
This Week:
LEHIGH at Hofstra
Bucknell at Fordham
Robert Morris atTowsor
Princeton at Colgate
Holy Cross at Harvard
Lafayette at Cornell
Standings:     League
Colgate           3-0
Bucknell          1-0
Overall
4-1
5-0
Holy Cross      1-0
Fordham         2-1
3-2
2-4
LEHIGH           1-2
2-3
Towson            0-2
1-4
Lafayette         0-3
1-5