Lehigh Football Edges Dartmouth
Bethlehem, PA - September 19, 2026: Lehigh, playing without their junior standout quarterback, Hayden Johnson, who is out with a leg injury suffered last week against William & Mary, edged visiting Dartmouth 24-20 at Goodman Stadium Saturday afternoon on Family Weekend.
For the third week in a row, Lehigh running back Luke Yoder led the way for the Mountain Hawks. Yoder rushed for 150 yards on 27 carries and he had bookend touchdowns. Yoder scored the first touchdown of the game in the 1st quarter as well as the winning touchdown with 8:41 left in the 4th quarter. Yoder’s first TD was a 1-yard run while his second was a 2-yard run.
Trey Tremba backed up Yoder with 21 yards on 5 carries. Quarterback Derek Morgan scrambled for 35 yards on 7 carries. Aaron Crossley added 19 yards on 5 carries. Lehigh racked up a total of 218 yards on the ground while Morgan completed 10 of 13 passes for 73 yards and a touchdown. Morgan’s target for the touchdown was Nick Palumbo, a 13-yard pass in the 2nd quarter to put the Mountain Hawks up at the time 14-6.
Lehigh would have to endure a few penalties that gave Dartmouth extra opportunities on offense. Lehigh was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty in the second quarter after Dartmouth failed to get a first down on 3rd and 1. The penalty gave Dartmouth a 1st down and the drive led to three points for the Big Green.
Lehigh was called for two additional personal foul penalties, both on Lehigh’s Jadin Nelson, in the 4th quarter. The penalties came on Dartmouth’s attempted drive to take the lead late in the game. Fortunately for Lehigh, Dartmouth was later stopped on 4th and 9 in Lehigh’s territory and the penalties did not lead to any points.
Lehigh’s Connor Poole added a 27-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter which gave Lehigh a 17-13 advantage at the time. It was Poole’s second field goal made on the season. He is 2 for 4 in field goals.
Scoring for the Big Green in the 2nd quarter on a 33-yard pass reception was KyDric Fisher. Myles Craddock then scored on a 2-yard run in the 3rd quarter. Owen Zalc hit a 49-yard and a 50-yard field goal in the first half for the Big Green.
Dartmouth had 324 yards of total offense, 262 yards of which were passing, to Lehigh’s 291 yards of total offense.
Lehigh’s William Parton led the defensive charge with 10 total tackles, 3 solo and 7 assists. Dartmouth’s Steve Simpkins Jr. also had 10 total tackles, 6 solo and 4 assists.
No. 7 Lehigh improved to 4-0 with the victory and will now turn its attention to another Ivy League opponent when they travel to Philly to face UPenn on Saturday, September 26.
