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Hamilton, NY — Junior quarterback Chris Brown rushed for two touchdowns to lead undefeated ºÚÁÏÍø (10-0, PL 5-0) to a 17-10 win over Lehigh at Andy Kerr Stadium.
With the victory over the Mountain Hawks, ºÚÁÏÍø takes over sole possession of first place in the Patriot League standings with two games remaining. The Raiders extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 straight games ‘ tying a school record for consecutive victories dating back to 1931-33.
ºÚÁÏÍø’s Jamaal Branch, who is the leading rusher in the nation, carried 32 times for 119 yards. His biggest run came when he rushed for nine yards on third-and-nine with under one minute remaining allowing the Raiders to run out the clock.
Branch has rushed for over 100 yards in nine straight games breaking the school record for most consecutive games over 100 yards rushing previous held by Rich Erenberg.
This was a hard-fought battle for the Raiders, who found themselves behind 10-0 in the first quarter. It was only the third time this season that ºÚÁÏÍø had trailed in a game.
On the second play of the game, Brown was intercepted by Neal Boozer-Gallman on a deflected pass off the hands of wide receiver DeWayne Long. Boozer-Gallman returned the ball to the ºÚÁÏÍø 16-yard line.
The Mountain Hawks lost yardage on the first play, but quarterback Kyle Keating came right back with a 17-yard TD strike to Winfred Porter. Matt Douglas gave Lehigh a 7-0 lead with the PAT.
Brown was intercepted again on the next ºÚÁÏÍø possession giving Lehigh the ball at its own 25-yard line. The Mountain Hawks pushed the ball to the ºÚÁÏÍø 34-yard line, before Douglas kicked a school-record 51-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead with 8:05 left in the first quarter.
ºÚÁÏÍø’s first points of the contest came with 10:04 left in the first half, when Lane Schwarzberg booted a 25-yard field goal. It was his sixth straight field goal.
The Raiders took advantage of a Lehigh turnover to set up the tying score with 3:01 left in the second quarter. The Mountain Hawks were forced to punt from their own end zone, and Keating booted the ball of the back of one of his own players, with ºÚÁÏÍø’s Geoff Bean recovering at the two-yard line. Two plays later, Brown ran to the corner of the end zone to tie the contest.
In the third quarter, ºÚÁÏÍø’s Chris Williams stripped the ball from Keating on the Lehigh 31-yard line, and Adam Leeman recovered for the Raiders. The game-winning drive featured two nice catches by wide receiver J.B. Gerald, and the running of Brown, who scored on a four-yard run with 3:00 left in the quarter.
GAME NOTES: This is the first time ºÚÁÏÍø has defeated Lehigh in back-to-back games since the 1996 and 1997 seasons ‘ junior wide receiver Luke Graham had three catches for 33 yards. He became the fourth player in school history to grab over 2,000 receiving yards in a career with 2,022 ‘ Gerald, who finished with four catches for 50 yards, went over the 1,000-yard mark in his career with 1,033 ‘ Branch moved into ninth place in career rushing with 2,207 yards.
ºÚÁÏÍø had another fine defensive effort. The Raiders limited Lehigh to 168 yards of total offense ‘ 39 rushing and 129 passing ‘ In the last eight seasons, ºÚÁÏÍø has held the opposition to under 100 rushing 40 times and are 38-2 when doing so ‘ Tem Lukabu was the leading tackler with eight and one fumble recovery, while Leeman had strong effort with six tackles including one TFL and one fumble recovery ‘ Rob Hannah had a pair of sacks, while Ryan Miller, Josh Sabo and Chris Williams had one apiece ‘ Sabo also had three pass deflections.