Princeton Drops Opener At Lehigh 35-20

Saturday, September 21

Bethlehem, Pa.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

Lehigh

Photo by: Sideline Photos, LLC

September 21, 2024 | Football

Box Score

Highlights? Princeton had a season's worth in its opening game against Lehigh.

Over the course of 60 minutes, though, what Princeton mostly had was glimpses of what it hopes to be coupled with areas where improvement will have to be made quickly. In many ways, it's what might have been expected for a team in Week 1 against a team in Week 4.

In the end, it added up to a 35-20 Lehigh win over the Tigers on a sundrenched day at Goodman Stadium. Princeton will have its home opener this coming Saturday, when Howard will at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.

Lehigh is now 3-1 on the young season.

The highlights were dramatic. There was Luke Colella's diving, tip-the-ball-to-himself touchdown catch in the third quarter and his how-did-he-catch-it-and-stay-inbounds sideline grab in the fourth. And those two plays, as amazing as they were, didn't match Tyler Picinic's touchdown reception on a fourth-down play, after the ball deflected off of Tamatoa Falatea and changed directions before Picinic clutched it and stayed inbounds.

There was a great goalline stand by the defense. AJ Barber had two punt returns and averaged 35 per on them.

As with any first game, though, there were miscommunications and errors. It's what Lehigh went through in its opening loss to Army before now running off three straight wins, something Princeton hopes to emulate.

The first half was a rough one and ended with the Tigers down 21-7, after Lehigh jumped out 7-0, the Tigers tied it on a three-yard TD run by John Volker and then Lehigh added two more TDs in the second quarter. It would have been worse, had Princeton not held the Mountain Hawks on downs near the goal line just before intermission.

Princeton looked like a different team in the second half with an 11-play, 79-yard march that was kept alive on a 4^th-and-2 conversion from the Tiger 29. It ended with Colella sprawled out in the end zone for his diving 36-yard touchdown catch from Blaine Hippa. The Tigers came close to tying it on their next drive before stalling on downs, and then Lehigh built the lead back to two touchdowns at 28-14 less than a minute into the fourth.

HIM.@LukeColella2 pulls it in for the touchdown! Tigers within seven, 21-14.

??- https://t.co/8CG9bN0J04 #JUICE ???? pic.twitter.com/1Qhq27202P
— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) September 21, 2024

The Tigers answered with the Picinic touchdown snag off the deflection, a play set up by Hippa's perfectly thrown ball and Colella's great concentration on the 19-yard reception to make it 1^st-and-goal.

Princeton would get no closer than 28-20, though, and Lehigh would seal it on a 34-yard scoring run from Jaden Green.

Hippa completed 16 of 36 passes for 219 yards and the two TD passes in his first career start. Colella led Princeton with five catches for 86 yards.

Defensively, there were nine players who had between five and seven tackles, led by Nasir Hill with seven. Torian Roberts had an interception.