As part of a new outreach to the community, members of the Lehigh football team signed postgame autographs Saturday at Goodman Stadium to go along with its Community Heroes and Youth Football Day.
You never know if any of the current Mountain Hawks will make it to the NFL, as several in the past have, but if nothing else the kids who collected the signatures may have gotten themselves some souvenirs from one of Lehigh’s best teams ever.
It’s premature to declare the 2025 Mountain Hawks the best this or the best that, but with a 38-3 rout of Holy Cross, the No. 4 ranked team in FCS football improved to 10-0 and maintained a tie for first place in the Patriot League with Lafayette.
The Leopards joined Lehigh at 5-0 in the league with a wild 59-42 win over Colgate at Fisher Stadium, where Kente Edwards ran for 260 yards and three touchdowns.
Lafayette, 7-3 overall, totaled 533 yards on offense. A 20-minute ride away, Lehigh tallied 518 yards.
So when the Lehigh Valley’s two Division I programs meet on Nov. 22 in Easton in the 161st edition of college football’s most-played rivalry, the scoreboard operator could be a very busy guy.
The difference, though, on Saturday was that the Mountain Hawks’ defense was just as impressive as the offense.
Lehigh came into the game with one of the top-10 rushing defenses in the nation and boosted its standing by allowing just 20 yards. The Mountain Hawks have also allowed just 29 points in their last five games.
Holy Cross was held to nine first downs and had to punt 10 times. The Crusaders (1-9, 1-4) were just 3-for-17 on third-down attempts.
“It was an exciting win,” Mountain Hawks coach Kevin Cahill said. “I was happy with the way we won the game. We had to fight for that one. We know that’s going to be the case week in and week out. When you’re trying to stay on top of the mountain every one is coming after you. We’re going to get everyone’s best shot and Holy Cross is a very tough, physical football team. They gave us a lot of headaches early on, but I was proud of how the kids just stuck with the plan and kept going and going and found a way to win.”
Lehigh is 10-0 to start a season for the first time since the 2001 team began 11-0.
That Mountain Hawks squad got to host an FCS playoff game. This one has hopes of doing the same thing.
For now, they finished the home portion of the regular season with a 6-0 mark and have now won a nation-best 15-game regular-season winning streak.
But it wasn’t easy at first. After Lehigh went 63 yards on six plays with its first possession and got a 29-yard touchdown pass from Hayden Johnson to Mason Humphrey, the Mountain Hawks had a deep drive end on an interception, followed by three punts.
Luke Yoder, who accounted for 142 of Lehigh’s season-best 344 yards rushing, broke loose for a 42-yard TD run to extend the lead to 14-3.
But the half ended with another interception, this one coming in the end zone.
Cahill said he never lost faith in Johnson, who was 8-for-18 in the air for 174 yards and three scores.
“I just felt like we were out of character offensively,” Cahill said. “Even defensively, we were a little out of character and were playing the way Holy Cross wanted us to play and not how we wanted to play. We just had to pull it back together, and our kids responded coming out of the locker room in the second half. We got a field goal and then a touchdown. That was a big response, and we got back to who we are. There was no reason to press. We just got back to who we are.”
Cahill said: “Hayden’s fine. He made some poor throws, but that was all right because we picked him up. He’s got to understand that we had his back. We can’t have that at the end of the half, an interception in the end zone. Bu we’ll learn and grow from that.”
Johnson threw just three passes after halftime. He did a lot of handing off to Yoder and got in his own 57-yard to set up a score.
Lehigh’s offensive line, featuring Charles Soska and Bethlehem Catholic graduate Sammy Ayache at the tackles, Aidan Palmer and Langston Jones at the guards, and Northampton graduate Colby Reph at center, took over the game.
The Mountain Hawks ran for 209 yards on 25 attempts in the second half.
“We always say that if we start wearing them down, the short runs are going to pop,” Reph, a 6-foot-1, 295-pound sophomore, said. “That’s the plan. The offensive line has really meshed as a brotherhood. We love each other, and every week we pride ourselves on being the most physical unit. We try to come out and punch the guy in front of us in the mouth, and we really try to play together. We trust the running backs and the running backs trust us to get the job done.”
As they seem to continue on a collision course that could end in a winner-take-all battle, both Lehigh and Lafayette are on the road next weekend. The Mountain Hawks travel to Colgate, and the Leopards visit Richmond.
L: Mason Humphrey 29 pass from Hayden Johnson (Connor Poole kick), 10:58
