must have been the hat

sports fans had their pick of thrillers this past saturday.  both major league championship series provided 1 -0 nailbiters;  coach mack brown’s longhorns broke a three game schneid in the red river rivalry and dropped 14 point favorite oklahoma; utah upset lordly stanford; penn state fought through four overtime periods to defeat 18th ranked and previously unbeaten michigan 43 – 40 in a homecoming spectacular.  me, i got to see finally my beloved, if winless, lions on their home range.  having been savaged in three straight contests by an average margin of 36 points, they returned home to the banks of the spuyten duyvil to face the 5 -1, and top 20 fcs ranked, lehigh mountain hawks.

whatever the sporting chances of the blue, meterological conditions could not have been finer at wien stadium for the sparsely attended match.  offshore winds blew across the field at a flag snapping 15 miles per and prevented any clouds from darkening the sun coated turf for more than a moment.  we happy few spectators enjoyed temperate manhattan at its october finest.  would so glorious a day witness another bloody slaughter of our heros?  though we cannot say we are happy in success we remain unwearied in misfortune.   we are pleased to report that the boys showed up and played hard, and the coaching staff concocted a game plan that kept them in it.  admittedly a half a loaf kind of game, but that made it a veritable feast for the hitherto starving columbia faithful.

the lions took the opening kickoff and marched 69 yards in 13 plays.   the drive was qb’d by trevor mcdonagh who had been hauled from the week’s previous game vs princeton after an utterly ineffective first half.  peter mangurian does not hold grudges apparently and reinserted trevor at the helm after some solid practices.  the sophomore’s life was made easier by an effective concentration on the running attack.  the offensive line, so porous protecting the passer in its first three outings took advantage of this emphasis as well and hammered at the middle of the mountain hawk defense.  seven of columbia’s  first ten plays were marcorus garrett runs, and six of those were inside left for 35 yards.  The primary road graders for those forays were left tackle kendall pace, right guard jim yukevich, moved over from his previous spot at right tackle and ryan thomas at center.   all those rushes were spiced up by two mcdonagh tosses to donzel hill for some 20 yards and another for 8 yards to leading receiver conor nelligan.  here, lehigh’s defensive resolve stiffened and the visitors stuffed a garrett effort at the line before mcdonagh misfired on two attempts.  with this cue,  luke eddy entered and drilled a twenty three yard field goal.  less than lion fans wanted but still it was 3 – 0 and columbia was in a game!

the mountain hawks would take the ensuing kick off and drive for a tying field goal.  the visitors added two second quarter tds as qb brandon bialkowski efficiently attacked the middle of the field behind his beefy offensive line.  the fellows up there, girthed like 55 gallon drums, averaged some 295 pounds and made sure that their leader had sufficient time to check off to find his receivers on the way to accumulating 320 passing yards.   with about ten and a half minutes left in the second period, the lions seemed to get a big break when a bialkowski throw was tipped and landed in the grateful mitts of defensive lineman jd hurt.  following that interception,  the blue drove the ball from their own 31 back down to the lehigh 29.  luke eddy was set up for his second field goal but badly shanked the 46 yard attempt.  lehigh quickly made hay and drove  71 yards in 9 plays for their first td on a six yard bialkowski toss to tyler cole.  when columbia fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the visitors took advantage of the short field and soon cashed another six points on a bialkowski pass to lee kurfis, his favorite target all afternoon.   this had been the disastrous formula in all three of columbia’s previous games.  competitive first periods followed by lousy second quarters.  the blue was only down two td’s at intermission but seemed ripe for utter calamity.

instead, the boys emerged from the locker room, defensive adjustments in hand, and managed to keep the pennsylvanians off the scoreboard during the third period.  additionally, the crew remained committed to messr garrett’s work on the ground and continued to open space on the right side of the mountain hawk’s line.  mcdonagh was pulled after a relatively late, though unflagged, hit and replaced by kelly hlinski, a rangy first year from californian, who contributed nicely to the offensive effort.  driving for a first down on a quarterback sneak and then, even more delightfully, tossing a 20 yard completion on a gutty fourth and short, young hlinski led the boys toward pay dirt.  his  fourth down toss was followed quickly by a 12 yard garrett dash through the middle for a td that brought columbia to within 17 -10 at the 2:41 mark of the period.  alas, the home crowd’s jubilation would not be long lived.   lehigh’s punter, tim divers,  soon pinned the lions down on their own one yard line.  the mountain hawks finally shut off garrett and the normally reliable paul delany came in to punt out of the blue’s endzone.  uncharacteristically he got off a stinker that set lehigh up in business at the columbia 29.  a minute and change later, bialkowski hit kurfis with his third touchdown of the day.  that completed the afternoon’s offense and the lions left the field losers for a fourth time.

despite that familiar outcome, it was clearly columbia’s best game to date in 2013.  the offensive line, so porous to date, gave up a single sack.  marcorus garrett ran for 150 yards in 27 attempts – a healthy 5 and a half per.  the defense which had yielded 47 plus points over the previous three contests held a fairly high octane offense to only 24.  that was a direct result of restricting the no huddle mountain hawks which had averaged 80.5 snaps over the previous month to only 63 plays while getting off 55 of their own.  these improvements did not translate to a win, the only team metric that finally matters, but at least they offer some hope moving forward.  let’s also remember that the lions’ opponents in these first four battles are a combined 18-6 on the season.  they have encountered the most challenging portion of their schedule right at the get go including the horrific season opener against a now, 7 – 0 fordham squad.

how explain the (slightly) better result?  i mean lehigh bettered both princeton and monmouth, two jersy squads that had hammered columbia.  the lions may have lost to the mountain hawks but the pennsylvanians knew they had been in a scrap. a tweak here and there – like the move of yukevich to the left guard slot – undoubtedly accounts for some of it.  but a lot of the change is mysterious to paulie b, at least.  i know that i wore my snappy panama to the fray.  that might’ve helped.  musta been the hat.

basketball season’s first jump ball is four saturdays hence.  heart be still!   be on the look out for the hoops preseason blog that will soon be in your inboxes.

peace out and d up,

paulie b