The Lehigh football team made its second visit to New York City in three weeks on Saturday, and the Mountain Hawks secured their second straight win in the so-called city that never sleeps.
Junior Luke Yoder and sophomores Jaden Green and Hayden Johnson each rushed for touchdowns to lead Lehigh, ranked seventh in the country in FCS football, to a 27-6 win over Fordham. The victory improved the Mountain Hawks to 8-0 for the first time since 2012 and extended their FCS-best regular-season winning streak to 13 games, going back to the 2024 season.
Johnson completed 17 of 26 passes for 267 yards and ran six times for 28 yards, while Yoder gained 79 yards on 16 carries and Green chipped in 47 yards on 12 carries.
Senior receiver Geoffrey Jamiel caught six passes for 85 yards, and junior receiver Mason Humphrey added four catches for 84 yards.
Senior linebacker Brycen Edwards led the Mountain Hawks with 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks, and senior linebacker Tyler Ochojski added eight stops and 1.5 sacks to help limit the Rams to 74 rushing yards.
Lehigh improved to 3-0 in the Patriot League with four games left, starting with a home game at noon Saturday against Georgetown.
“Winning in this league is tough to do and winning on the road is hard to do as well,” Mountain Hawks coach Kevin Cahill said to Lehigh Sports Information after the game. “I am just happy the way we came out and got the result we wanted. There are some things in the process that we have to clean up.”
Lehigh led 24-0 before Fordham got on the board. The Mountain Hawks’ defense entered the game ranked in the top 10 in the country in rushing defense, total defense, sacks, scoring defense, and interceptions.
Fordham managed just 74 yards on offense and 277 yards overall. The Lehigh defense didn’t have any takeaways, but was credited with eight pass breakups and five quarterback hurries.
Senior Matt Spatny had a half sack, giving him 22 in his career — two behind 1999 graduate Nick Martucci, who had 24. The Mountain Hawks have 17 sacks in their last three road games and 26 this season.
“We played energetically today on defense,” Cahill said. “We did some things today that we haven’t done all year, which is a good thing, but we also did some things that we did that have to be cleaned up. From here on out, we have to go 1-0 each week. We haven’t done anything yet. We have won three Patriot League games, and we have to find a way to win the next one. We’re happy to get back to Goodman Stadium. If you’re playing meaningful games in November, you’re doing something right. We have a bunch of games in November that we hope to continue to make meaningful.”
Jamiel became the fifth player in school history to have 200 career receptions. He now has 203. Nick Garrido, a Notre Dame-Green Pond graduate, kicked a pair of field goals.
There was also a milestone for Fordham as graduate student linebacker James Conway passed Illinois State’s Boomer Grigsby to become the NCAA Division I FCS leader in career tackles. Conway entered the day 11 behind Grigsby and finished with 16 to break the FCS record.
Scoring summary
Lehigh 3 – 7 – 14 3 — 27
Fordham 0 – 0 – 6 – 0 — 6
FIRST QUARTER
L: Nick Garrido 36 field goal, 10:57
SECOND QUARTER
L: Hayden Johnson 1 run (Garrido kick), 4:21
THIRD QUARTER
L: Luke Yoder 7 run (Garrido kick), 8:21
L: Jaden Green 1 run (Garrido kick) 4:44
F: Gunnar Smith 1 run (pass failed) 0:15
FOURTH QUARTER
L: Garrido 22 field goal, 1:50
