While Lehigh football coach Kevin Cahill and his staff were busy preparing for Villanova and the Mountain Hawks’ NCAA FCS round-of-16 playoff game Saturday at Goodman Stadium, they were also scurrying around trying to finalize a recruiting class for the early-signing period.

“It is what it is,” Cahill said. “It’s a good problem to have. There are 16 schools with this problem right now in FCS football, and we’re fortunate to be one of them. You appreciate it. There’s a lot of work that goes into this in the summertime and through the fall, and we’ll sign some kids today, and some kids will sign in the next couple of days. Some kids will trickle in over the next few weeks, and then we have another of these in February. So, we’re not done yet.

“Then we have the dreaded transfer portal coming up, too, Jan. 2-16. That’s the reality we live in, and it’s hard to get everything done. You have to be organized, which I feel we are. We’re not cramming anything in. Everybody who we thought was signing, is signing.”

Both Liberty High’s Jake Pukszyn and Bethlehem Catholic’s Cayden Vassa are expected to be part of this recruiting class, but Pukszyn is not official yet, but is expected to be soon.

Vassa is officially aboard, and Cahill is thrilled to have him stay in Bethlehem.

“Cayden is a tremendous athlete,” Cahill said. “He’s a tremendous kid. We’ve known him for a while. He has been to camps here, and the coaches they have had over there, Tyler Ward and now Joe Bernard, speak volumes about him. I’ve seen him play in person a few times. We went to see Sammy Ayache [a current Lehigh sophomore and Becahi graduate], and you see Cayden, and you ask, ‘Who’s that kid?’ He’s a kid who sticks out.

“We just want really, really good football players in your program and what I liked about him is that he was really unselfish this past year. He was the starting quarterback, and he went to running back because that’s what the team needed. Whatever the team needed, that’s what he was willing to do and it’s going to be the same way here. He’s coming in as an athlete, and we’re excited to get him.”

Vassa ran for a team-high 1,053 yards on 107 carries, averaging 9.8 yards per carry, and scored 15 touchdowns, while in the air he completed 51 of 96 passes for 934 yards and seven TDs.

He will be one of 18 in the recruiting class.

“In reality, this is probably finally where we needed to be as a roster,” Cahill said. “Entering this season, I was worried about our depth in a lot of areas. Now this will get us more depth on the roster. We need more guys involved in different areas, and this will get us up to where we want to be in roster size. We weren’t quite there this year, so we had to be smart about what we were doing. This is the fourth class we’ve recruited, and now we’re where we wanted to get in terms of allotted scholarships in the right positions.”

Pukszyn will be a nice addition to the receiving corps. As a senior for the Hurricanes this fall, he was third in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference in receptions with 55 for 906 yards and 15 touchdowns. He is currently starting, and approaching 1,000 career points, as a member of the Liberty basketball team.

Among the other Lehigh signees were Sebastion Cugini, an offensive lineman from Kirkland, Wash; Bryce Werner, a wide receiver from the Pennington School in Philadelphia; Tyler Bewington, a defensive lineman from Boston; Tim O’Malley, a defensive lineman from Madison, Conn.; Lebon Walker, an offensive lineman from Ruther Glen, Va.; Dominic Volomino, a defensive lineman from Thomas Jefferson in western Pennsylvania; Tristan Yepod, a defensive back from Dracut, Mass.; Benjamin Conelius from Shelton, Conn.; Max Dubin, a kicker/punter from Highland Park, Ill.; Harry Miller, a linebacker from Scituate, Mass; Mick McKe, a defensive back from Germantown Academy; Aidan Mayfield, a running back from Bensalem; Anton Haven, a defensive lineman from Atlanta; Andy Tatsch, a defensive back from Latrobe, and Patrick Coan, a quarterback from Sayville, Kentucky.

Lafayette signs eight

The Leopards, who finished 8-4, 6-1 in the Patriot League this fall, added eight to their program.

The eight included quarterback Eddie Jordan from Florida; offensive lineman Quinn Purnell from Maryland; offensive lineman Zen Liggons from Toledo; Bryce Tencza from Illinois; offensive lineman Nate Shields from Kentucky; wide receiver Kameron Vance from South Carolina; and cornerback Javian Burrell from Salesianum in Delaware.

“We’re going to have 11 guys coming in total because we have a lot of guys coming back,” Leopards coach John Troxell said. “We only graduated 13 kids, so this is going to be a smaller class. Last year we had 35 when most years we’re at 18 or 19.

“We filled a huge hole in our offensive line. We’re losing two guys there in Brian Baucia and Reed Collins. We’re bringing in four, and we think we have some great ones to develop. We also got a quarterback from outside Jacksonville in Eddie Jordan and Eddie had some Power-4 offers. He’s a real talented kid, and we’re excited about him.

“We picked up some speed at wide receiver and cornerback. The group comes together nicely. We’ve still got some work to do with about six scholarships left and some preferred walk-on spots. We have a local kid, too, but we can’t announce him yet.”

That player is believed to be Justin Hussett, a wide receiver and defensive back from Whitehall who had previously been mentioned on social media.

Troxell said his program is one that doesn’t want to be a portal program.

“We want to be a program that develops kids,” he said. “Now, if you lose a kid or two, it’s OK to bring in younger kids, but we lost 10 in the portal last year, and then you have to bring in some older players. Recruiting is still the lifeline of your program. You want to win, you have to have good players. Our staff did a really good job of bringing in talented players.

“We’ll know in four years if we’re happy, but I know we’ve got some great kids from great families. They’re committed to what they’re doing and they’re choosing this place for the right reasons. Our degrees at Lafayette still hold a lot of weight so you hopefully are getting kids who will stay. I think we’re bringing in those kinds of kids.”