No. 5 Lehigh falls to No. 12 Villanova 14-7 in FCS second round matchup

For the first time since 2004, Goodman Stadium hosted an FCS playoff game, packing 8,848 fans into a sold-out flurry of brown and white. But after four quarters, No. 5 Lehigh football’s historic season came to a close with a 14-7 loss to No. 12 Villanova University on Saturday afternoon. Lehigh entered the showcase undefeated at 12-0 with a 17-game regular-season win streak, the best rushing defense in the FCS and a home crowd that hadn’t given up since September. But Villanova, riding a nine-game win streak of its own, outlasted the Mountain Hawks in a costly matchup from fumbles and two late Wildcat touchdowns.  Sophomore quarterback Hayden Johnson threw for 161 yards, and running backs Luke Yoder and Aaron Crossley combined for 124 yards on the ground. But Lehigh’s offense struggled to finish drives, and for the first time all season, turnovers decided the outcome. Villanova’s graduate student quarterback Pat McQuaide threw for 208 yards, while graduate student wide receiver Luke Colella tallied 71 yards. The Wildcats capitalized on both of Lehigh’s fumbles, the program’s first lost offensive fumbles of the entire year. The first quarter was a stalemate, as neither team reached the endzone, and Lehigh’s early fake-field-goal
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