April 5, 2010
2010 Lafayette Football Schedule
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EASTON, Pa. - For the second straight season, the Lafayette football program will have no non-conference primer before jumping into Patriot League competition. The 2010 Lafayette slate kicks off during the second week of the college football season, opening with Georgetown on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m.
It is the first of 11 games for the Leopards, including five home games and the 146th meeting vs. Lehigh in College Football's Most-Played Rivalry.
The Georgetown matchup is the lone home night game on the 2010 slate following a 2009 season when Lafayette played three home night games. The Leopards have beaten their part-time Patriot League foe in five straight, including a 28-3 win in the season opener in 2009.
After the Georgetown tilt, Lafayette will play six straight games that will have no bearing on the Patriot League standings. The Leopards travel to historic Franklin Field to square off with Penn on Sept. 18. Lafayette is riding a three-game series win streak vs. the Quakers who won the Ivy league title in 2009 with an 7-0 mark in conference play and their only other loss coming to eventual national champion Villanova.
Following a one-year hiatus, Princeton returns to the schedule. The Leopards face the Tigers on Sept. 25 and Lafayette may receive an early indication of how Lafayette stacks up in the Lafayette-Lehigh matchup eight weeks later, as Princeton opens the season with Lehigh on Sept. 18. Princeton is led by first-year head coach Bob Surace, a 1990 graduate of Princeton, who most recently was an assistant coach for the Cincinnati Bengals.
The third of three-straight Ivy league opponents comes calling when Harvard visits Fisher Stadium on Family Weekend on Oct. 2. Kick-off is set for noon. Lafayette snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Crimson, who finished as the runner-up in the Ivy League in 2009, with a 35-18 win in 2009, part of a 5-0 campaign against Ivy foes. The Leopards have not beaten Harvard in Easton since 1992 in the on-again, off-again series.
An Oct.9 meeting with Columbia wraps up the four-game Ivy League stint. Lafayette eked out a 24-21 win over the Lions in 2009 to win their eighth straight in the series.
Stony Brook, a member of the State University of New York educational system located on the north shore of Long Island, represents the only first-time opponent for the Leopards in 2010. Stony Brook, a scholarship program which competes in the Big South Conference, posted a 6-5 mark in 2009.
The Oct. 23 game vs. Fordham will have decidedly different feel from recent seasons, as Fordham's move to a scholarship program beginning with 2010 has forced the Rams' program to associate member status in the Patriot League. Fordham will not be eligible for the Patriot League title or the League's automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Playoffs. The game will not count in the league standings or statistics.
The end of October will mark the beginning, again, of Patriot League action when Lafayette travels to Bucknell. The Bison are under the guidance of first-year head coach Joe Susan, who most recently worked as an assistant at Rutgers. Lafayette has managed to rack up eight in a row against Bucknell.
November opens with a matchup of the second-place teams from the 2009 Patriot League standings. Both Colgate and Lafayette finished with 4-2 records, but the Leopards got the better of a 56-49 shootout with then-No. 20 Colgate, the first time since 1995 that Lafayette had beaten the Raiders in Easton.
The Leopards are still waiting for a pass interference flag to fly from Lafayette's showdown with Holy Cross on Nov. 14, 2009 that decided the Patriot League title. They will get their crack one day earlier, welcoming the Crusaders on Nov. 13.
Nov. 20 marks the 146th meeting of College Football's Most-Played rivalry. The game will take its rightful place at state-of-the-art Fisher Stadium in Easton where Lafayette will look to snap an unthinkable two-game slide to the Brown and White of Lehigh. Lehigh finished with a 4-7 mark in 2009, but 4-2 in conference play.
Season ticket packages, which include all five home contests, will go on sale at the Maroon vs. White spring game. Prices are $70 for adults, $50 for seniors ages 65 and older and $35 for children 13 and younger. Mini-season ticket packages will go on sale June 15 and single-game tickets Sept. 1. Due to the limited supply of tickets available for the 2010 Lafayette-Lehigh game at state-of-the-art Fisher Stadium on Nov. 20, purchasing a full or mini-season ticket packages is the only way to reserve a ticket to the 146th meeting of College Football's Most-Played rivalry.
