Lehigh football defeated in UNH overtime upset - Lehighvalleylive.com (blog)

Thank you for using rssforward.com! This service has been made possible by all our customers. In order to provide a sustainable, best of the breed RSS to Email experience, we've chosen to keep this as a paid subscription service. If you are satisfied with your free trial, please sign-up today. Subscriptions without a plan would soon be removed. Thank you!

New Hampshire's Kevin Decker aired it out into the end zone on the first play of overtime and Orlando, who was returning from out of bounds, dove for the catch. The officials determined Orlando was pushed out by the Lehigh defense earlier in the play and had made it back in bounds by the time he caught the ball.

In their position of overtime, Lehigh was faced with a 4th and 8 from the 23 before Lum threw up a prayer to the goal line that was intercepted as New Hampshire's team ran onto the field to celebrate after the dramatic victory.

Lehigh relied heavily on Lum and the passing game, as he threw for all six of Lehigh's touchdowns and threw for 401 yards.

New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell was highly complementary of Lum's performance.

"We didn't play against Lum last year, he is tremendous at hitting his targets and is a great decision-maker," he said.

The biggest benefactor of Lum's arm was his roommate freshman year, Jake Drwal. He caught for 142 yards and two touchdowns, including an 11-yard score that gave Lehigh the lead. Junior Ryan Spadola caught the ensuing two-point conversion from Lum to give the Mountain Hawks a three-point lead with 4:35 left in the game.

Drwal said, "Me and Spadola know that they can't key on both of us, so we are always both ready to step up and have a big game."

New Hampshire struggled to gain traction in the first half against a solid Lehigh defense, but converted many crucial third downs to keep pace with the Mountain Hawks before New Hampshire's Mike MacArthur made a field goal at the end of the first half for a 24-20 lead going into the locker rooms.

New Hampshire forced a 3 and out from Lehigh to start the second half when junior Jared Smith sacked Lum on 3rd down. Joey Orlando then returned Lehigh's punt 56 yards for a touchdown, giving New Hampshire an early 31-20 lead in the half.

On the following Lehigh possession, Lum threw an uncharacteristic interception into double coverage and gave the ball back deep in New Hampshire's own zone. Kevin Decker looked off the defense and found an open R.J. Harris in the end zone for New Hampshire's second touchdown in 38 seconds, giving them a 38-20 lead.

Lum never lost confidence in his team or his offense.

"We have a very dangerous offense, so we all know the game was never out of reach," he said.

Cohen raved about how his team bounced back.

"38-20 it would have been easy to hang our heads and run out of here but these guys didn't," he said. "Our kids rallied and responded to that and we are talented enough to come back and should've won this game."

Lehigh junior Sam Loughery forced a fumble from Joey Orlando on a punt return, giving Lehigh a short field. Lum took advantage of this with his first touchdown pass to Drwal near the end of the third quarter.

Senior linebacker Tanner Rivas sacked Decker on 4th down to give Lehigh good field position. Lum threw his fifth touchdown of the day nine plays later to tight end Keith Sherman.

Lehigh's final scoring drive appeared to come to a halt on 4th and inches when fullback Sean Farrell was stuffed at the line of scrimmage in New Hampshire territory. Farrell slid off a couple tackles to pick up the first down before Drwal's second touchdown catch of the day.

"It's not really a play that's even designed for me but I looked up and the ball was in the air and I just looked for the goal line against a smaller defender," Drwal said.

New Hampshire, which is frequently ranked among the top teams in the FCS, also beat Lehigh last year 31-10 in a game that Lum missed due to an injury. The team that beat New Hampshire in its only other game, Toledo, nearly pulled off the upset of FBS-ranked #15 Ohio State on the same day before falling 27-22 to the national powerhouse. The Wildcats were ranked 10th in the FCS before falling to Toledo last weekend.