No more disrespect for 'Pards after this one

Andy Labudev (90) takes on Crusader running back Diquan Walker. Photo courtesy of Lafayette College.

I didn’t think about it until I was re-reading my Lafayette-Holy Cross story this morning, but it’s very likely that not a single kid on that team has any clue what I was getting at in the league – unless he’s a sports history nut and has watched the YouTube clip.

That USA ice hockey victory over the USSR in the 1980 Olympic Games is one of the true classics, and Al Michaels’ TV call – “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!!!” – really did say it all in Worcester. The Lafayette kids were not even born, but their parents may recall it.

Based on other 2017 performances by both teams, this one didn’t figure to be competitive. Sure, Gary Laubach questioned HC Coach Tom Gilmore about a possible “hangover effect” from the tram’s previous two games. And, sure, we wondered it Leopards’ defensive coordinator Luke Thompson would find preparation for the Crusaders a lot more comfortable than for Villanova, Princeton, Sacred Heart or Monmouth.

But there were too many hurdles to clear for the winless Leopards to slay the Crusaders – in a Patriot League game, against an opponent that should have been hungry to get back on track after a heartbreaking loss the previous week, on historic Fitton Field, with its beautiful, like-new natural-grass surface, no less. “This was a hard game to play,” Coach John Garrett told me after it was over.

Well, I’ll tell you, only one game really came to play on Saturday afternoon. It was NOT the home team.

The reason? The Crusaders, at least in my thinking, totally disrespected the opponent.

Holy Cross played like it didn’t believe there was any way the Leopards could stop an offense that put up 51 points against New Hampshire and averaged 418 yards per game. Certainly not with a defense that allowed an average of 41.5 points and 470 yards of total offense per game in four straight losses.

And the Crusaders also seemed convinced that the Lafayette offense, which averaged only 244 yards and 13.2 points per game, would be any threat.

Peter Perfect – uh, Pujals, Holy Cross’ fifth-year quarterback who came in averaging 281 yards passing per game with either touchdowns, was made to look mediocre, meaning just 191 yards and no touchdowns passing. He did fool the Lafayette defense to score the only HC touchdown of the game, but that was it.

“We played hesitant at times as an offense,” Pujals told Jennifer Toland of the Telegram & Gazette newspaper after the game. “We waited for a play to pop and it never popped. I have to do a better job of making plays and getting the guys ready to go so we can have a better showing. We had our chances; we were unable to execute.”

Notice he didn’t say “failed” to execute, he said “unable.”  A lot of that “unability” was due to the defensive scheme devised by Lafayette coordinator Luke Thompson, who knows every Crusader tendency because of his previous job at Georgetown and who, according to Garrett, put together a plan that wouldn’t let (Pujals) throw to his first receiver and forced him to move around more than usual. One time, on the run, he badly overthrew a receiver who didn’t have a Lafayette defender within 10 yards of him.

I got an early hunch about what kind of day it might be for Pujals on the Crusaders’ first series. With a first and 10 at the Lafayette 24, he threw three straight incompletion passes. On the next series, on fourth-and-7 at the Lafayette 30, HC went for the first down and Pujals hit Tate Beachley, who was stopped short of the first down by Michael Root and Yasir Thomas. Those two series got the Leopards off to a very positive start defensively.

The Lafayette defense allowed 229.5 yards per game before Saturday, but Holy Cross managed only 128 on 31 rushes. No gain was more than 15 yards.

Prior to the game, during the coin toss at midfield, Lafayette linebacker Brandon Bryant and Holy Cross standout Nick McBeath hugged when they met – both are captains. Bryant went on to his best game of the year, with 15 tackles (nine solo) and a sack. McBeath, the league’s preseason defensive player of the year, had eight tackles but no sacks. He did have an interception. Overall, it was advantage Bryant, easily.

“Coach Thompson put us in every place we needed to be,” Bryant told me. “All we had to do was execute. He made it easy for us.”

As Thompson passed by me after the game, we shook hands and I said, “It’s a little different preparing for a team you know something about, isn’t it?” He smiled broadly and said, “Don’t tell anybody.”  Believe me, everybody in the league knows it already.

Thompson is hands down the biggest asset Garrett has on his staff because of Luke’s experience with the league. And right up there with him is defensive secondary coach Doug McFadden, who is in his ninth season at Lafayette and knows all the Leopards as well as the other PL teams. Phillip Parham is having a terrific year – he nearly had a fourth interception Saturday and added two breakups and a QB hurry.

THE WINNING KICK – “I’m just so thankful to have the opportunity and I’m so thankful to the 10 other players on the field; without them I wouldn’t have made the kick,” a thrilled Jeffrey Kordenbrock said after booting a precise 43-yard field goal to win the game.” Asked about what made the difference between this week and last week, when he hit bad FG misses from 43 and 33 yards. “I kept my head down, kept a positive attitude, didn’t let anything get to me. All my players were behind me the whole time and it was awesome.”  And when he talked about how Coach Garrett had told him he was going to have a chance to kick a game-winner, I said, “he was right,” Kordenbrock, who is at Lafayette on a four-year ROTC scholarship and whose door of opportunity opened when Jacob Bissell was injured in the season opener, said. “Yeah, he was right; Coach Garrett knows best.”

DISSA AND DATA

·         Who would have ever thought Rocco Palumbo would finish a game as Lafayette’s leading rusher? His nine-yard end around on the first play of the game-winning drive was the only positive yardage in that drive and his only carry of the game. In fact, it was only the second rushing play of his four-year career. Both have been this season

·          Senior long snapper Michael Shiffert, a Nazareth High grad who last week missed the first game of his career because of an injury, was back on Saturday and played a huge role in the victory.

·         The running game against was pretty much of a no-show. The final of minus-6 yards marked the third time in five games the Leopards have wound up with negative yardage rushing. They have only 12 first downs rushing as compared to 61 passing.

·         Freshman QB Sean O’Malley continues to have mixed results. He was sacked four times, putting his season total at 13, and he was intercepted three times, raising his total to 10. But he did have his eighth touchdown pass. 
·         O’Malley was also involved in what may have been a turnaround play in the game. The Leopards were pinned at their own 1-yard line twice by HC punts. The second time, they went for a long throw on first down. A roughing-the-passer penalty against Holy Cross got them out of the hole immediately. What a presser-reliever that was!

·         O’Malley wasted no time getting Matt Mrazek involved in the game Saturday – hit him on the first offensive play. He had four for the game. Palumbo had seven catches for 78 yards and a TD, giving him 20 catches for the year. 
·         The game featured something you’re not going to see very often. Lafayette was able to DECLINE two penalties against the Crusaders on one possession. The ball was deep in Crusader territory and by this time, the Leopard defense had pretty much let HC know it was there to get the job done. The Crusaders had to punt on fourth down of that series. 

·         What a difference a year makes. Last year, without Pujals, Holy Cross got 413 yards in a 38-28-win. Lafayette had 323 yards and lost. This year, Holy Cross 319 yards and lost; Lafayette 220 and a victory.

·         Other PL scores: Colgate 21, Cornell 7 … Harvard 41, Georgetown 2 … Monmouth 35, Bucknell 13 … Yale 41, Fordham 10 … Wagner 37, Lehigh 20. The league put out its post-Saturday release on Sunday and failed to list Lafayette (1-0) as the league leader.  Holy Cross is 1-1, Bucknell 0-1. The other teams have not yet started league play. Fordham's ChasE Edmonds, who missed two games with an injury, played against Yale and had 83 yards on 16 carries. Does that mean he'll be full go this week? Rams are a different team with him at full strength.



THE LAST WORDS

Holy Cross head coach Tim Gilmore, to Jennifer Toland: “This one really hurts, for so many reasons. I decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 and you come up short and I feel very responsible. I made the call to go for it and we weren’t able to get it done.”

Leopards’ Garrett to LSN’s John Leone minutes after the win: “These guys deserve so much. They just battled and battled and battled and overcame adversity. And the defense played great. The offense hung in there and executed when they had to … and how about that kick by that kid! It was unbelievable … a great, great memory. It was a great win … and we gotta go back to work on Tuesday (to face Fordham at 3:30 p.m. Saturday) in Fisher Stadium.