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Bye, Lehigh Momentum? <\/p>\nBETHLEHEM, PA \u2013 After a productive bye week, folks representing the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (7-0. 2-0 Patriot League) are all saying the right things about their upcoming opponents, the Fordham Rams (1-6. 1-2 Patriot League). <\/p>\n
Some variation on \u201cThey\u2019re figuring it out,\u201d or \u201cThey don\u2019t play like a 1-6 team\u201d.<\/p>\n
There is truth to those statements. <\/p>\n
The Rams might be a dangerous team for the Mountain Hawks as they approach the toughest stretch of their schedule, because the conference stretch now means so much for Lehigh, and Fordham isn\u2019t an easy as their record might indicate, cliches aside.<\/p>\n
Bye, Lehigh Momentum? <\/p>\n
Perhaps the biggest possible hiccup for the Mountain Hawks might be getting back up to game speed after a bye week which Lehigh entered with a great deal of momentum.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Lehigh traveled to New York City and smothered Columbia defensively, limiting the Lions to 39 net yards rushing and 228 yards of total offense. Behind a stellar performance by QB Hayden Johnson and WR Geoff Jamiel, the Mountain Hawks rolled to a 31-0 lead before the second stringers came in to close out the game in the fourth quarter in a 31-7 romp<\/a>.<\/p>\n The week before that Lehigh delivered a stifling blow to Yale 31-13, a game where the defense held the Bulldogs to 6 points in the second half to go with RB Luke Yoder\u2018s 108 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cToday the defense did a great job of taking away the ball,\u201d Cahill said after the game, \u201cand giving it back to the offense, and the offense did a good job of hitting some big plays, but also putting the game away in the fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n Lehigh couldn\u2019t have entered the bye in a better spot, riding a 12 game consecutive regular season winning streak and is only one of a handful of 7-0 teams in the nation. <\/p>\n When the FCS Playoff Committee released their initial playoff rankings, the Mountain Hawks were listed at No. 7 \u2013 which could, emphasis on could, mean down the road a home playoff game, or more.<\/p>\n There\u2019s lots to love about Lehigh statistically as well as the wins \u2013 the dominating defense, with a load of different stars like LB Tyler Ochojski (28 tackles, 3 sackes, 1 fumble recovery), LB Brycen Edwards (52 tackles, 4 1\/2 tackles for loss) and DB Mekhai Smith (27 tackles, 4 interceptions). While they don\u2019t have one dominating stat line, as a team they are top ten in a multitude of categories nationally.<\/p>\n But Lehigh\u2019s recent history with bye weeks would caution anyone to jump too far ahead.<\/p>\n In last season\u2019s Patriot League championship-winning year, the Mountain Hawks were coming off a rare double bye week after traveling to Yale, <\/p>\n In that game, the Mountain Hawks started out like a team that wasn\u2019t sharp.<\/p>\n They didn\u2019t start with enough momentum, further lost more momentum through turnovers and penalties, and never really were in the game as they fell to the Bulldogs 35-23<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have some things to focus on as a program,\u201d head coach Kevin Cahill said after that game. \u201cThe first thing is to take care of the football. We\u2019re not talented enough to win a game with four turnovers right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mountain Hawks are 7-0, but a similarly slow \u201cbye start\u201d start could doom Lehigh to that first loss of the season and first conference loss.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s definitely more to the Rams than meets the eye.<\/p>\n As for Fordham, the beginning of their season didn\u2019t exactly have a lot of momentum to start.<\/p>\n With a fairly new team, and uncharacteristically picked to finish dead last in the Patriot League in the preseason, the Rams opened the season with a very rough first couple games, huge challenges against an FBS team (Boston College) and a Top 25 FCS team (Monmouth) in back-to-back weeks. <\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t a shock that a young team picked to struggle had a tough time with Boston College. What was a surprise that the Rams held their own against the Hawks. Against Monmouth, the Rams were within a touchdown going into the 4th quarter before succumbing 49-28<\/a>. <\/p>\n LB James Conway, who is poised to become the all-time FCS Tackles leader sometime this season, had 20 tackles in that game, including a sack of Payton Award candidate QB Derek Robinson. A big interception and 4th down stop made the game close. <\/p>\n Though the Rams have struggled on the road, have been a different team at home than they have been on the road.<\/p>\n Against Dartmouth last week, the Rams were tied 6-6 at half and only down 16-14 going into the 4th quarter before falling late 30-13<\/a>. <\/p>\n Early on, the Fordam defense really shined, stopping Dartmouth on 4th down on one possession and holding Dartmouth\u2019s veteran offense to a pair of field goals. Additionally, a special teams play on a punt forced a Big Green defender to touch the ball on a return, causing a turnover and setting up Fordham\u2019s game-tying FG at half.<\/p>\n And at home against Holy Cross, who was picked to contend in the Patriot League title race, the Rams shut out the Holy Cross offense and scored two field goals to secure their only win of the season, a 26-21 victory and the Ram-Crusader Cup.<\/p>\n QB Gunnar Smith scored a couple of touchdowns, one through the air and one on the ground, and the defenses\u2019 dominating performance came from \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 Conway, who had 19 tackles.<\/p>\n Conway, who already has 103 tackles on the year, is only 11 tackles short of the FCS record held by Illinois State LB Boomer Grisby, and he\u2019s likely to set the record against Lehigh, and you can bet the Rams will be fired up to deliver a win to their teammate as well as the record.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be critical for Lehigh to establish themselves early against a dangerous team that plays well at home during a stretch where every opponent\u2019s game against the Mountain Hawks will be their Super Bowl.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a place where Lehigh has gone 1-5 since 2013, their sole win a 30-27 game that required overtime, and a furious Lehigh comeback, to win.<\/p>\n It\u2019s coming at a time when Lehigh needs to get up to championship speed after a bye week sapped at least some momentum.<\/p>\n This is the beginning of the five game stretch that will determine the fate of Lehigh\u2019s football season.<\/p>\n LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (7-0, 2-0 Patriot) AT FORDHAM RAMS (1-6. 1-2 Patriot) Post Views: 101 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, PA \u2013 After a productive bye week, folks representing the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (7-0. 2-0 Patriot League)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2725,128,12606,12607,12608,12609,8720,12610,12611,12612,9,24,63,12613,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-18342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-2725","tag-bronx","tag-championship-subdivision","tag-division-i","tag-fcs-football","tag-fordham-rams-football","tag-game-preview","tag-kevin-cahill","tag-lehigh-mountain-hawks-football","tag-ncaa","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-patriot-league","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/images\/2025\/9\/6\/Mon_game_post.jpg?width=942&quality=80&format=jpg\")
Home Fordham Cooking <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/images\/2025\/9\/27\/HC_post_main.jpg?width=942&quality=80&format=jpg\")
Attempting To Conquer The Bronx After Manhattan <\/p>\n
WHERE: Moglia Stadium, Bronx, NY, Saturday, October 25th, 1:00 PM
TV: SNY (check local TV package) STREAMING: ESPN+<\/a>
TV CREW: PxP \u2013 Andrew Bogusch; Analyst \u2013 Andrew Posadas
RADIO: BROADCAST (Fox Sports Lehigh Valley 94.7 FM\/1230 AM; LVFoxSports.com):<\/a>
RADIO CREW: PxP \u2013 Matt Kerr; Analysts \u2013 Steve Lomangino, Connor Brown<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AuthorPic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n