Nov. 9, 2004

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) -

Head coach Frank Tavani

Certainly, the game against Colgate was a tough loss but it came down to missed opportunities. Most obvious was the play down there at the end, where we had a perfect call, a perfect throw and an imperfect catch. But there were others, with the blocked field goal. That's not the fault of kicker, when we looked at the tape, I'm not going to get into it here but the straightest line between two points is right up the middle and that's how they got to it. I've also heard some questions saying that we should have went for it on fourth-and-one, but we're looking at what is basically an extra point to tie the game.

That was a big game and we came up short, but our kids played hard and gave everything they had. Now, like I told our team last week, we're getting ready for the second of three championship games, and we're finally home for the first time in 41 days. In fact, our secretaries were looking for the travel list for this weekend and we had to remind them that we're playing at home. It's great to get back to Fisher Field. I've been looking out the window and the field looks great, it doesn't look like anybody's been on the grass all year. It will be good to play in front of the home fans and the guys will get to sleep in their own beds.

Now we're on to goal number 10 against a Holy Cross team that is a dangerous opponent coming off a good victory in which they scored a lot of points. They're playing well and getting better every week. They've played some close games and lost some heartbreakers, but I'm sure Coach Gilmore will have his team ready to come down here and beat us, and they're looking to close their season with three straight wins. Their quarterback, John O'Neil, is as good as we've seen and we've seen some dandies. He can beat you with his arm or his legs so we'll have to work on him. We've seen at least 40 different looks from their defense, and we know he's familiar with us having been at Lehigh, so I'm sure he'll have another package ready for us this weekend.

We don't want a repeat performance of the Georgetown game a year ago, we've had that bad taste in our mouths and had to swallow a tough loss. I've heard a lot of talk concerning a tie-breaker, what-if scenarios and the playoffs, but we're not listening to that. Bring that up around me if you want to see how angry I can get. We're focusing on Holy Cross, playing solid football and taking care of business. We're a desperate team in a must-win game, and a very important one for our program.

I've always said that you have to run the ball and stop the run to put yourself in a position to win games, and maybe we followed that to a fault against Colgate but their receivers made some circus catches and were pretty incredible. Offensively, we have to continue to run the ball and it's our strength, but we have to be balanced or they'll put nine or 10 guys in the box to stop us. We really want to get Jonathan Hurt involved again, he brings speed that you don't want to leave on the bench. Joe McCourt has been tough and we want to keep him fresh, and of course we have to make plays in the pass game as well.