Lehigh Drops Home Opener to Richmond @LehighFootball @Spiders_FB

Tagged under: Gameday Hub, News, Pennsylvania Colleges

Alec Eskin | September 18, 2022

It was a bright, sunny afternoon for parents’ weekend at Lehigh University for the home opener versus the Richmond Spiders. The Mountain Hawks were coming off of a big win versus Georgetown and had just won their first game of the year. The Spiders were had also just won their first game of the year as well, that coming against St. Francis. The Spiders were the heavy favorites coming into today, and they certain proved that in every aspect of the game. They would get out to a 20-0 lead by halftime and win the game by a final score of 30-6. Let’s go into a deeper recap of each teams’ day . . .

The Richmond Spiders were talked about being a top 25 team potentially in college football, the talent on offense sure made a statement advocating for that. Reece Udinski had 351 yards passing today to go with two passing touchdowns. The Maryland transfer was virtually unstoppable today, making accurate passes, both deep and long. Their leading receiver today was Leroy Henley with 127 yards on nine receptions with a touchdown. Overall, some of the most efficient play from a college football teams as I have seen thus far.

On defense, it was about the same. Their defensive line was getting to Lehigh quarterback Dante Perri at will. They were able to hold him to 188 yards on 34 passing attempts. Then, they would not Lehigh drive down the field at all, the Mountain Hawks only got into the red zone once all day and that ended in a fumble recovery for Richmond. Lastly, they also stopped Lehigh’s ground game as well, which has been their strong suit all year. Again, just very good football play, not making mistakes and making big plays of their own.

For Lehigh, they have a lot to work on after this game. Offensively, they were not able to do much. The one big play they had was a 77 yard touchdown pass from Dante Perri to Zaythan Hill to get on the board in the second half. However, they did not have much going other than that. The offensive line had a lot of trouble today with Richmond’s strong defensive line, not giving Perri enough time to pass. Lastly, they were not able to control the ground game like they had done their first two games of the year. This was perhaps one of the best team Lehigh has seen all year. Lehigh’s offense has a lot to work on, but they have to ability to bounce back after a tough loss.

On defense, they were able to stick around for a while, but were getting worn out. They had to deal with Richmond’s sophisticated, high-speed offense, which caught them off guard right from the first drive of the game. Richmond was getting yards not by big plays, but by small chunks. However, the defense was able to force two turnovers in the game and keep the Hawks in it for at least the middle of the third quarter. The number of points they gave up was a result of being put up against one of the top teams in FCS and from being on the field for the vast majority of the game. They were solid, unfortunately just got tired in the end.

The next game for Lehigh will be at Princeton on Saturday at 3:00 PM after the dropped to 1-2 yesterday. Richmond will play at home versus Stony Brook at 2:00 PM after moving to 2-1. The next few weeks for Lehigh and will not feature much league, play but will setup a general idea of how they will fare the rest of this year.

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