Leopards replay: The start of something good?

Selwyn Simpson celebrates his winning touchdown. Photo courtesy of Lafayette Sports.

I got a bunch of grief when I came out with my Lafayette-Leopards-run-the-table prediction for the Patriot League portion of the schedule.

They had a bit of a stumble in the opener against Georgetown, a game they might have won.

But the tables turned for them big time on Saturday against Bucknell – in a game they just as easily might have lost.

My point is this: the 2019 Patriot League has no such thing as a lock to win or lose.

Proof? Look at league leader Lehigh. A win Colgate on a last-minute TD … a win over Fordham in overtime … a win over Georgetown on the final play.

Can what took place on Saturday be contagious for Lafayette?

Can Lafayette use that rare touchdown-off-turnover victory over a Bison team that has to be stunned today be the “breakthrough” we haven’t heard Coach John Garrett talk about for several weeks?

Until that fourth-quarter rally against the Bison, the lead to my Morning Call game story was probably going to be about the Bucknell punter.

My story was trimmed in several places, including my last paragraph. Here’s a piece of what wound up on the cutting-room floor.

I wrote, “In a real oddity, Bucknell punter Alex Pechin, who coming into the game had punted 278 times in 42 games for an average of 44.7 yards per kick, went through the entire first half without punting once – the first time in his career that has happened. He was the leading punter in the FCS going into Saturday’s games.”

I thought it was quite something that Pechin missed two field goals, both very makeable with his leg, and also that he, a former quarterback, actually completed a pass on a fake field goal during the opening half. That successful fake, plus a pass interference penalty in the end zone against Lafayette later in the same drive, got Bucknell to the Leopards’ 10, where big defensive plays by Marco Olivas, then Keith Earle and Ryan Barnett forced the Bison to try the 26-yard FG that Pechin pushed wide right.

That muffed first-half scoring chance by a team that was struggling just as hard as the Leopards were to find a winning formula, was my first hunch that my Bucknell, 23-20 pick in the capsule in Saturday’s newspaper was in jeopardy. This was not the kind of thing that happened in Lafayette’s favor in past games.

By the way, it didn’t take long for Pechin to get his first punt of the second half. Bucknell came out of the locker room and Bitikofer threw three straight incomplete passes. Took a grand total of 19 seconds off the clock. And, his first punt was an unimpressive 38-yarder.

Prior to the game, I talked with several Lafayette parents who were tailgating behind the press box area. When they asked me how I had picked the game, I had to admit I had picked against their kids. My rationale was: your kids have lost seven times in a row; they have to prove me wrong.

Well, they did. 

With Selwyn Simpson leading the way, they finally got found a way to win. Simpson's 22-yard touchdown run that produced the 21-17 win over Bucknell pumped new life into the kids from the Bourger Varsity Football House.

I was wrong for this game, but the victory fit well into my league prediction made prior to the Georgetown opener. So, I was wrong, but I was right. Or, I was right but I was wrong. Take your pick.

The Pechin story was not the only thing cut from my Sunday-paper piece.

Keegan Shoemaker contributed 47 yards rushing on 12 carries. What was cut out was the fact that five of those yards were for a touchdown on the opening drive of the game. That drive was a thing of beauty. Eleven plays, 70 yards, almost six minutes of clock and a 7-0 lead to show for it.

But even before the Leopards were done feeling good about themselves, Bucknell struck back. A 40-yard run, an 18-yard pass and finally a 16-yard TD pass and it was 7-7. The Patriot League, 2019.

Another sentence cut from my game story said, “Bucknell quarterback Logan Bitikofer threw for 159 yards and two scores, but he was unable to connect on a large number home run-type throws that all wound up being too long for receivers who had managed to get behind Lafayette defenders.”

Believe me, a couple of those throws were scary. He just wound up and heaved what seemed to be bomb after bomb, many on first downs, but he was well out of the reach of the streaking receivers. Lafayette dodged some trouble there.

My story mentioned the 95-yard drive on which Shoemaker finally snapped out of his touchdown-pass funk with a perfect strike to Nick Pearson. In that drive, Jaden Sutton, a freshman who had an 86-yard TD against Georgetown, fumbled on the end of a run early in the drive. On other weeks, Lafayette probably loses the ball there; but on Saturday, center Joe Grundhoffer manages to retrieve it for an 11-yard pickup and a first down.

Sutton got a chance to redeem himself for that fumble by catching two passes, one a 20-yarder, to advance the ball to the Bison 43, where Shoemaker and Pearson took care of the rest.

And finally, Bucknell squandered opportunities on a couple of turnovers.

Sean Naiman recovered a Shoemaker fumble at the Bucknell 42, but the Bison eventually missed a 39-yard field goal.

Later, Rick Mottram intercepted a Shoemaker pass and returned it to the Lafayette 35. An 11-yard sack by Marco Olivas was huge, and Bucknell finally pooched a punt on fourth down at the Lafayette 33.

This was just never meant to be the Bisons’ day.

Next up: the Fordham Rams. The Rams gave up 57 points in losing to Ball State, 45 in losing to Stony Brook and 48 in losing to Yale. They are 3-5 overall, and in their two Patriot League games they have beaten Georgetown 30-27 on a touchdown with 16 seconds remaining and lost to Lehigh 30-27 in overtime.

Ah, the Patriot League. On any given Saturday …